How to handle clients that don’t know how to delegate
As entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand the difficulty that comes with handing over tasks to someone else and completely letting go. Too often we fall into thinking “it will be faster if I just do it myself” and we end up doing ourselves a disservice.
However, as virtual assistants, we find ourselves on the flip side of this coin and have first-hand experience of what it’s like being on the receiving (or should we say not receiving) end of it all.
Landing a client that didn’t provide us with any work was the least of our worries - I mean who does that, right? Hires a virtual assistant and then doesn’t send them anything to do?!
Well, we’ve been there, got the t-shirt (a few of them) until we slowly started to understand the struggle some entrepreneurs have with letting things go!
As a virtual assistant this can be very frustrating because you think someone has hired you because they need you, they reached out to you for help and yet here you are waiting for them to send you something to do.
Take this as your first task!
There are a few simple things you can do to help make this transition easier for all parties.
Allow your client to draw up a list of their current workload
This can include day-to-day tasks and weekly or monthly tasks. Things that they enjoy doing, and things that they don’t enjoy doing. Things that they can’t do and things that they would really like to start doing.
Help them identify what you can take from their current workload
Once your client has drawn up a list of their current workload, help them identify where you’re able to support them based on your skills and knowledge.
Ensure you have a task management tool in place
It might sound like another thing for your client to do but in the long run, this will help them (and you) to streamline their delegating process. This is a great place to create tasks, assign task deadlines, and add context to the tasks with any links or resources that may be required to complete the task.
Encourage your client to take some time to delegate these tasks
At the end of the day, your client will need to spend some time delegating these tasks to you whilst saving many hours completing the task themselves. It all comes down to their routine and way of doing things.
It’s important to remember that our clients come in many different shapes and sizes. It’s our responsibility to help them on their way and make an impact in their business and/or lives. It needs to be noted that delegating effectively might require a mindset shift and this can be the biggest challenge for your client who may be used to “doing”.
Keep communicating, keep encouraging and don’t give up!