6 Tips To Stop Micromanaging & Start Delegating To Your Remote Team

As we’ve discussed at great length, in business, delegation – effective delegation specifically – is a mission-critical skill. And as more organizations move toward a remote workforce, leaders must be adept at delegating.

But delegating isn’t easy – at least it doesn’t start that way. It takes practice and commitment and can be the difference between accelerated growth and stalling out.

So here are six remote delegation tips to keep your growing business in the fast lane that have worked – and continue to work – for us. We’ve even formatted it as a checklist for easy reference so you can quickly and easily hold yourself accountable.

1. Know Your Process.

We suggest …

• Being willing to teach – and learn, too.
• Equipping people with the necessary tools, skills and information
• Being prepared to invest time for proper onboarding and training
• Making sure both you and those involved understand your expectations
• Providing the necessary training to set everyone up for success

2. Discuss & Assign Projects.

We suggest …

• Hosting weekly one-on-one calls to proactively discuss delegated projects, questions, or concerns
• Considering bi-weekly or monthly all-calls with everyone on your virtual team to update each initiative’s status
• Addressing any questions to get – and keep – everyone on the same page.

3. Use Collaborative Communication Tools.

We suggest …

• Calls, texts, or voicemails for casual conversations
• Emphasizing a deadline or celebrate an accomplishment with virtual collaboration tools like Basecamp and Slack

4. Details Matter.

We suggest …

• Documenting everything – maybe in a collaborative project management platform like Trello or Basecamp – to create a chain of communication that everyone can reference
• Uploading emails, documents, images and other files so everyone can access them as needed

5. Be Inclusive.

We suggest …

• Including all involved parties on emails when there are important decisions to make or tasks to complete for a particular project or initiative
• Making sure everyone knows what has been completed and by whom
• Communicating the status of each project as it’s handed off

6. Divide-and-Conquer.

We suggest …

• Remembering that each person on your team plays an invaluable role in the completion of projects, tasks and initiatives.
• Breaking each project, task and initiatives into smaller deliverables so people can get in where they fit in
• Being sure to choose the right tool – or employee – for the job.

Now Let Go

If you’ve successfully navigated the first six steps – congratulations! That was the easy part. This last step is essential, but also the most challenging. From this point on, it’s imperative to have faith in your delegation process and people.

This is when you fill the space you’ve given with trust, turning tasks over to your employees once they exhibit consistently sound decision-making and reliability.

Ultimately, effective delegation is about trust and letting go. And when it comes to trust, we believe one thing to be true: Trust begets trust.

And when you make the switch from leading an office to leading remotely, one of the things that you’ll find as a leader is that because you can't see people, you’ll have to fill that space you’ve given your team with trust.

So take that leap of faith – faith in your ability to hire world-class employees and faith in those rockstar employees to do exactly what you entrusted to them in the first place. Your business, your sanity, and your bottom line will thank you.

For more on how to effectively lead your remote team, check out this webinar, ‘Top 6 Ways to Effectively Delegate to Your Remote Team,’ featuring our CEO CEO Tricia Sciortino and COO Lisa Zeeveld.

Ready to jump into remote leadership?