The Art of Delegation: Business Trip Edition 

Delegation is a tricky subject. Not all managers are good at delegating and struggle to command control of their subordinates, which may cause them to do extra work to pick up the slack. This can lead to long hours and eventual burnout. If you spend a lot of the working day out of the office on the road, it's essential to deploy effective delegation. Below is a short list of tasks that can be managed while you're out of the office.

1. Manage Client Correspondence

Consider using thank you notes. A thank you note given to customers and clients will keep you in the forefront of their minds. This can help when negotiating new contracts or encouraging new clients. Your staff back at the office can manage the task of sending out cards or emails to your clients, no matter where you are in the country. You can get your staff to compile a list of major contacts before you leave, or delegate them with the task of getting in touch with clients you have not had recent contact with.

2. Project Management

If your staff’s workload is managed in a central system, delegating while away from the office is easy. All you need to is to assign a member of staff as Project Manager. Get your Project Manager to keep on top of how tasks are completed and ensure they follow up and report regularly back to you.

3. Data Entry

Executives away from the office under most circumstances should hardly ever have the need to spare time updating and entering data. This task should be delegated to an employee while you’re away. Basic training may be needed to be given to employees to manage software and databases.

4. Research

A good executive will spend time on competitive development, analysis and strategy. However, this doesn’t mean the executive is the only one compiling information about the competition. Employees can be delegated to researching competitors and presenting the results in an easy to understand document for the executive on his return to the office.

5. Editing

If you’re an executive on the road, you don’t want to spend too much valuable time developing documents and reports. Employees can act as proofreaders. Your staff will be an additional set of eyes to iron out errors and ensure you deliver an improved service in the end.

6. Create PowerPoint documents and Spreadsheets

Provide an employee with an outline for your upcoming speech and get the additional benefit of their creative insight to help transform the document into a master piece.

7. Collect Testimonials

No matter how good and concise your website may be, at the end of the
day your potential customers need to be reassured you are the best in the business. Good testimonials are the answer. It will take time to track down suitable satisfied clients and this task can be delegated to a competent employee to compile before the start of your business trip.

Delegation is an art and, with practice, you'll find there are many things you can have your office staff do while you're away. This not only boosts performance and results, it makes your business travel more profitable and empowers your team to chase success.

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