If you plan on hiring a virtual assistant (VA). it’s important to leverage their skills and expertise to make the most of them. Delegating tasks to an assistant frees up your schedule and gives you more time to focus on business strategy. Moreover, VAs work remotely and are based in different parts of the world, namely Latin and Central America, the Phillippines, and South Asia. They are usually much cheaper to hire than a full-time employee — you can find a VA for as little as $5/hour on professional marketplaces.
Delegating, however, is sometimes easier said than done. If you’ve built a business from the ground up and have a thorough knowledge of how the company functions, you feel like you can do it all. But you shouldn’t have to complete your to-do list on your own. An assistant can make your life significantly easier and reduce stress, but you should know how to make the most of them! You can waste the benefits of hiring a VA if you are unclear on what, when, and how to delegate tasks.
In this blog, we will review some top tips and tricks to remember when working with a VA. This will help you delegate better and make you and your company more efficient!
When delegating, select daily, repetitive administrative tasks that do not require your expertise, leaving you free to focus on high-level strategy, creative projects, or other activities that require your personal attention. Tasks to delegate can include email and calendar management, preparing meeting agendas, providing general customer support, social media posting, managing newsletters, and other appropriate administrative work. Additionally, remember to delegate tasks that save you time in the long run: If you have to choose between delegating a one-time, three-hour task versus a repetitive 20-minute task, you might be tempted to choose the former. However, while I it might seem counterproductive to spend 30 minutes (say) training an assistant to do a 20-minute task, this time adds up, saving you approximately seven hours in a month!
You could ask your VA to complete odd jobs for you, like booking flight tickets, making reservations, copyediting a document, and replying to emails. However, once these are done, you will spend more time thinking about what else to delegate. This is time-consuming and inefficient. Instead, select tasks part of your routine responsibilities that can be done by someone else.
No one knows your business better than you do. While some activities need your unique insights and experience — think marketing strategy, meeting new investors, strategic decision-making, etc — many others can be delegated. To optimize your workflow, we recommend making a list that distinguishes tasks only you can do and those someone else can. Ask yourself, “Can no one else do these tasks?” For example, tasks like managing your inbox, writing social media posts, creating graphics, responding to customer inquiries, researching market competitors, and sending newsletters can be delegated to an assistant.
Effective communication is key to your assistant doing a task well and maintaining a good working relationship with them. VAs are flexible and highly adaptable — it pays if they understand your way of doing things. When delegating tasks, clearly mention what you need to be done and the task’s parameters. For example, for inbox management, don’t just tell them to reply to emails. Instead, tell them to respond to customer inquiries, flag time-sensitive emails, send introductory emails to potential clients, and archive emails from pre-determined senders. Additionally, giving them step-by-step instructions so they understand your preferences can be useful for making hotel and restaurant reservations and booking flight tickets with airline preferences.
Make sure you inform your assistant what you want from a task. This can help define quality standards and deadlines. If they are writing a blog, inform them that it must be well-researched with citations available for readers to cross-check information. Similarly, be clear about deadlines; give them a date and ask if they can complete the task by then.
Once you assigned tasks, walked your VA through how you’d like it done, and given deadlines, avoid hovering and micromanaging. You hired the VA after reviewing their work and interviewing them, so you need to trust they are good workers. Give them the space to complete the task how they see fit. You can even use this opportunity to give them space and freedom to make executive decisions: For example, if an assistant manages your calendar, trust that they will schedule meetings without any overlap with other activities. If needed, you can check in occasionally for progress updates or in case they need any help. Once the task is completed, you can review what went right/wrong.
While your assistants need autonomy to execute tasks efficiently, regular check-ins and updates on a project’s progress can ensure deadlines are met. For example, you could schedule a weekly 30-minute meeting every Monday to discuss status updates, delegate weekly tasks, and provide feedback based on submitted work. You can also ask for regular progress update briefs for larger projects like marketing campaigns, influencer outreach, report writing, and market analysis.
You can streamline assigning tasks, setting deadlines, flagging urgent items, and receiving updates through tailor-made software designed for these purposes. Tools like Asana, Trello, and Monday.com can help assign and track tasks. Additionally, communication platforms like Slack make it easy to contact assistants when needed. Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace also provide team management solutions.
Giving your VA feedback on a completed task will help them adjust their working style to suit your expectations better. For example, if they submit a market research report, avoid just saying it was “good”; instead, say that for the next report, they could also include information on consumer preferences, market trends, and so on. You can also ask your assistant for feedback on ways to improve the delegation process. They have likely worked with other executives and know what system works best for them. You must be open to suggestions and be willing to learn from them.
Small words of appreciation can go a long way in making an assistant feel valued and welcome in your company. Let them know when they do a task well. For example, if their social media outreach leads to more users, blog post leads to an increase in audience engagement, or if they put together a presentation that clients appreciate. You could even incentivize excellent work by providing bonuses and paid time off.
Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Leverage Assistants is a white-glove service that helps you find 1% assistants and then teaches you how to build leverage with them. If you're interested in a strategy session to learn how to use an assistant, click here.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.
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