3 Key Things About Sales Incentives to Keep in Mind

3 Key Things About Sales Incentives to Keep in Mind

We are all about sales incentives here at Motivation Excellence. Sales incentive programs are powerful tools designed to motivate and reward sales teams for reaching goals that help your bottom line. While the premise of an incentive program might seem simple, designing a successful one involves more than a goal and a reward. 

We are here to help your organization motivate your sales team, and even distributor partners. Don’t hesitate to contact us to learn more about our customized sales incentives. In the meantime, here are three key things to keep in mind:

1. The Details Matter

Incentives are very flexible. We build them to fit your audience and goals. We start from scratch with each client and guide you through several steps to find the best way to minimize your risk and maximize your results. We start with your objectives, look at your obstacles and then recommend the best way to motivate your sales team while bringing you the most robust ROI. Here are some other details you don’t want to overlook:

• Audience – Determining who you want to motivate and what you want them to do to earn the reward is an important step in creating a successful sales incentive program. You can have more than one set of participants too.
• Rules  – We shine at doing a deep dive into your available data, along with industry trends, to cultivate a set of rules that protects you financially AND allows for realistic growth among your participants.
• Measurement – Being able to measure progress through analytics is a great way to keep your sales team motivated. It also helps you make adjustments in real time to capture the best results.
• Rewards – If they’re not motivating, you’ve lost before you started. Branded swag, lifestyle upgrade packages, individual experiences and group travel with other top performers are a few popular rewards you can use in a sales incentive program. They also work well with channel teams. 

2. Proper Implementation Is Critical to Success

How you launch a sales incentive can lead to an excited boost or a disappointed fizzle. Subsequently how you continue to communicate with your sales team can help ramp up or stall the success of the program. Here are a few things we like to implement in our incentive programs:

• Make sure your management is on board and ready to hype the program.
• Create a consistent engagement plan that keeps your sales team members’ attention.
• Display an easy-to-read progress-to-goal gauge for everyone in the incentive and update it at a regular cadence.
• Keep the significant other in the loop with targeted communications so they can be a cheerleader outside work. 

3. Sales Incentive Programs Can Improve Overall Company Outlook

Rounding out the list of key things to know about sales incentives is why they are worthwhile. Incentives targeted at the people who do the most to increase your profitability, positively affect your bottom line, which can boost morale, even for those not directly part of the incentive. A successful sales incentive can also:

• Provide friendly competition among your sales team, which can naturally increase sales.
• Help you retain talent as part of your total compensation package. 
• Keep your sales team engaged with their own goals, but also the overall goals of the company.
• Build stronger relationships between company leaders and individual sales team members. 

Incentivizing your sales team can make an enormous difference in revenue and growth. We encourage you to learn more about all of our incentive and loyalty offerings by visiting our Motivation Excellence website.

We are industry leaders who specialize in customized solutions for your B2B channel and internal sales team incentives. When your team is engaged, motivated and eager, great things happen. Our programs are designed specifically for that purpose. Let’s get started today!

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Channel Incentive Programs

Effectively growing sales revenues and market share is an ongoing challenge in today’s highly competitive marketplace. Moreover, encouraging channel partners and dealer reps to do their best by you takes strategy. Channel incentive programs are designed to help your business stand out among your competitors and can actually pay for themselves through incremental sales growth. Another great benefit of a well-run channel incentive program is the increased loyalty they foster, which can continue to reap rewards long into the future. 

How do we measure the effectiveness of a channel focused incentive? There are a variety of metrics from hard sales numbers to program website log ins. It’s important to decide how you’ll know if a channel incentive is a success and keep track of those metrics regularly throughout the life of the program. Here are a few suggested metrics to consider:

1. Sales Performance 

Although sales performance is not the only factor to consider, it is a good starting place. You can break down sales data rather minutely if that helps you make decisions on who and what to focus on. You can look at:

• Revenue by distributor, geography, and products/categories
• Overall and partner-specific sales growth
• Market share changes over a specified amount of time

Looking at sales performance metrics provides a broad overview of how your organization and its partners are doing on the revenue front. By looking at partner-specific sales growth, you can zero-in on the performance of individual channel partners. Between the two, you’ll glean important information about where you are now and where you want to be in short- and long-term periods.

2. Partner Engagement

Successful channel incentive programs engage partners. So, it is a smart idea to come up with some partner engagement metrics you can track. At the top of the list is participation rate. What percentage of your invited distribution partners enroll? Of those, who is consistently engaging with your company through increased purchases, and who could be coaxed to perform better with some TLC?

Other partner engagement metrics include:

• Interaction with sales team or customer service reps 
• Incentive website log in frequency
• Email open rates with special focus on clickthrough percentages
• Amount of new sales tied to the focus of your incentive

If a channel incentive program is both attractive and meaningful to partners, they will reflect their interest with the amount of time and frequency they interact with the program. 

3. New Opportunities and ROI

Effective channel incentive programs can open the door to more opportunities via stronger relationships and trust with your company. A well-designed channel incentive can more than pay for itself via incremental sales in the present, but the opportunity to be a long-term partner is where the continued ROI shines through. A metric here could be longevity of a client in addition to quantity of sales. We’ve seen long-running incentive programs foster participants who outperform industry trends even in flat and down markets. 

Channel incentive programs can be invaluable in the drive to increase sales and grow an organization. But like all other business tools, program effectiveness must be continually measured so you can make adjustments in real time to capitalize on unexpected results, good or bad. Program design and rule structures are proven ways to get the best return and least risk for your program. We’re here to help you get started today!

Get to Know ME with Alison Gavitt

It’s time for our Get to Know ME segment, featuring our Strategic Account Director, Alison Gavitt. Alison is a people person through and through! Read below to learn about her penchant for furniture moving, as well as how she prepares for a good brainstorming session. And be sure to watch her short video too. Do you hear a regional accent? Thanks Alison, for letting us get to know you better!

What’s your current title and how long have you been in the incentive industry?

I am a Strategic Account Director and I’ve been in the incentive industry since 2009, and in hotel sales before that. 

What do you like about your job?

Building relationships with clients and creating strategic solutions. I consider myself an extension of my clients’ team which gives me a great feeling of satisfaction.

What’s something you want to share about the people you work with at Motivation Excellence?

Everyone has a fun spirit – always smiles, kindness and patience going around!

What’s a specific moment in your history that always stands out as a defining moment, and why?

Moving home (Huntsville, AL) six years ago after living in Jackson Hole, WY for the better part of 30 years. I can replay every mile of the 3-day drive.

What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?

An odd thing we do in our family is rearranging the furniture! We all do it – all the time. Upon a simple suggestion, we tend to drop everything and just start moving furniture. From time to time, we change up bedrooms and switch up living rooms.  

What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?

My children. I have two girls, one at Wake Forest University and the other is at the University of Alabama.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I enjoy being outside as much as possible. Although I am born and raised in Huntsville, AL where I live now, I lived the majority of my adult life in Jackson Hole, WY – so skiing, hiking, biking, camping – are all on the top of my list. I also love going to the lake, SEC football, and traveling. 

One thing that always makes you laugh is?

This ridiculous social media reel where two young men take their grandfather to Starbucks and have him make a fake order. I can’t ever get that out of my head, and I’m determined to replicate this with my kids and my mother.

What’s a bucket list item you can’t wait to cross off?

Visiting Japan is at the very top of the list. Iceland and a transatlantic voyage are close seconds.

This month, our theme for social media is “Brainstorming.” Do you have a favorite technique or environment to loosen up your thoughts for maximum idea generation? 

I’m a dedicated user of Bose noise-cancelling headphones. I put on my headphones, turn off all devices, and I create and institute a vision in absolute peace.

4 Reasons to Take a Good Look at Our Group Travel Incentives

The Motivation Excellence team takes great pride in the fact that we are a full-service incentives, group travel, meetings, and events agency. We know how important travel is as a desirable reward. We take every detail of a group travel incentive seriously. Because of that, your participants will seriously enjoy each element. 

Incentive travel is always about the experience. We elevate the experience so everything from arriving at the airport to taking in local fare to interacting with company leadership is an opportunity for smiles and feeling truly special. 

If you have been looking for a partner who will take the stress out of your next group travel experience, here are four good reasons to take a look at the group travel incentives we offer:

1. We Take Care of the Details, Including Contract Negotiations 

Our team is skilled at contract negotiations with hotels and suppliers. We know how to manage risk, bolster budgets and alleviate headaches with every contract. As an extension of your team, we are happy to dig into the details so you can focus on other important elements like personal engagement with your stakeholders. 

Your dedicated Motivation Excellence travel team handles everything from selecting table linens to hiring the keynote speaker and world-renowned band. F&B, hotel attrition rates, green room requests, transportation options all have their own language. We are fluent!

2. We Handle Registration, Engagement and Follow Up

You and your team have enough on your plates. We have the solution (or two!). Our proprietary travel technology, Inspire, makes organizing, engaging and following-up with your attendees simple and actually, kind of fun! Send us your participant list and let us handle registration, air booking, activity selection and special requests. Each of your attendees will have access to the mobile version so their personalized travel experience is always in the palm of their hand. Your team will have access to drilled down reports all in one place. 

Inspire can easily be used to engage your group before the experience with information on the destination, special events and FAQs. During the event you can send out alerts via Inspire. Participants can upload photos to the gallery to share with the group. And there’s no need for printed itineraries since each participant’s schedule is easy to access on the mobile site. 

3. We Manage the Entire Experience

Incentive travel programs have a lot of moving parts. Our team of experts has decades of experience with creating and executing award-winning travel experiences. We’re here to assist your team and can take it all on, or pick up the details your team assigns to us. We’re adept at handling the entire experience including:

• Travel logistics
• Group functions
• On-site activities
• Off-site events
• Gifting experiences
• Marketing support

We go above and beyond basic group travel incentives to make sure your participants will be talking about your most recent event for a long time to come. And that’s a natural motivator to make sure they earn the experience every year after!

4. We’re a Full-service Incentive Agency

A successful incentive group travel program starts with creating the rule structure for your participants. This is a sweet spot of ours. We love to dig into industry history, company sales data and potential sales growth within your participant pool. This helps you mitigate risk and maximize opportunities. 

We also geek out a bit about building custom performance tracking websites that become the one-stop-shop for everything program related. Easy to read performance to goal gauges are great for participants and our ability to create detailed dashboards for you provides valuable business intelligence that sometimes you didn’t even know you were missing!

Do you need to include some business during your incentive travel reward? We’re adept at planning and executing thoughtful, interactive and motivating meetings on-site. Add in marketing support to create robust engagement around your program and the rewards, and we’ve got you covered on every front. You don’t have to use us for everything, but you have the option to on any program we run. 

At Motivation Excellence we’re committed to making your travel incentive program shine from beginning to end, and top to bottom. Our goal is to help you maximize the incentive value by creating an experience unmatched by anything else you have ever done.

Avoiding Workplace Harassment Is Everyone’s Responsibility

Everyone in the workplace contributes to the culture of the environment. This is especially true when it comes to harassment and bullying. While unpleasant behavior from a coworker might not rise to the level of being illegal, it can definitely strongly affect the mood at work, which can lead to lower productivity, depressed morale and even losing talented people. When it comes to nipping harassing behavior before it grows, we all have a role to play.

Is It Me?

Most of us would likely shake our heads fervently if someone asked us if we were the problem. But, obviously, in a harassment or bullying situation, someone IS the instigator, even if they feel like they’re just “having fun” or the other person is just “being sensitive.” It’s important to note that intent doesn’t always matter. You might think you’re making a funny joke or that hugging shows you care or provides comfort to another person. If your behavior, however good-intentioned it may be, causes discomfort to a colleague, you’ll want to change course. 

Here are things to avoid:

• Making untoward comments or jokes about someone’s appearance, religion, nationality, gender or disability
  • These are protected characteristics that are legally safeguarded in many work environments
• Touching someone, even if it feels like a minor gesture, without knowing if the other person is OK with it
• Using aggressive language, making threats or trying to control someone’s actions
• Repeatedly asking someone out for a date after they’ve said no

Be sure to respect others’ requests to stop certain behaviors. Also, focus on how your actions make another person feel, rather than putting all the weight on your own intentions. 

No, It’s You

LRN specializes in building ethical business cultures. In a blog post about harassment in the workplace, they wrote that more than a quarter of office workers in the US and the UK have reported experiencing bullying or harassment at some point in their careers. Zippia, a job placement company, found between 54% and 81% of women report experiencing sexual harassment at work, but many don’t escalate it to a manager. 

How do you know if you’re being harassed? Consider these questions:

• Does going to work make you feel uncomfortable, especially knowing you’ll be working with a particular person or group?
• Have you said things like, “I don’t like it when you hug me,” or “Please stop making those jokes around me,” yet the behavior is downplayed or continues?
• Have you reported specific behavior to management, but nothing happens?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces harassment laws. Isolated incidents, simple teasing and offhand comments do not rise to the level of legal action unless they are very serious or occur frequently. However, the EEOC recommends telling a manager even after one occurrence if it made you feel uncomfortable. 

Inspired eLearning suggests the following steps to take if you’re experiencing harassment:

1. Talk to the perpetrator and try to resolve it through clear communication
2. If the harassment continues, report it to a supervisor or HR representative
3. If it still isn’t resolved, you can reach out to the EEOC to report it

What Did I Just See?

Harassing or bullying behavior can include and affect people outside the victim and the offender. If you witness worrying behavior, you can absolutely take steps to help correct it. The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights encourages bystanders to take responsible actions.

• Document it, including the date, the people involved and specifics about what you heard or saw
• If you feel comfortable talking to the victim, tell them you witnessed it and are willing to describe what you saw
• Talk to a manager about your concerns

Bystanders can also talk to the perpetrator, giving them an outside perspective on what they witnessed. Sometimes this is enough to stop future poor behavior. Third parties can also diffuse a situation as it’s happening by stepping in actively to say, “This is not cool,” or subtly by pulling either party away with a request for immediate help on something. A bystander’s presence alone can sometimes mitigate the situation without needing to say a word. 

A Team Effort

Harassing behavior is always unwarranted, unwanted, and can be unlawful. It affects not only the victim, but the company culture. Managers need to be mindful of encouraging an open-door policy and following up on reported incidents. Colleagues should feel like they can take a positive role in resolving bad behavior. Victims need to have a clear course of action to report harassment, either through a manager or HR department. Finally, we all must self-reflect to make sure we aren’t causing undue stress on our colleagues through our words or actions. 

Get to Know ME with Sheri Racine

It’s time to get to know one of our newer colleagues! Sheri Racine started in June of 2024, getting several months of training from our long-time Merchandise Buyer, before retiring. We’re happy to have Sheri take on the role and bring a new perspective to the team. Please read on, and watch her short video, to learn about her passion outside of work and what she loves doing with her family. Thanks Sheri for participating in our Get to Know ME segment this month!

What’s your current title and how long have you been in the incentive industry?

I am the Merchandise Buyer and I started four months ago, in June 2024. I am new to the incentive industry and excited to be here!

What do you like about your job?

The people I work with, both internally as well as our suppliers. Everyone is so willing to step in and assist.

What’s something you want to share about the people you work with at Motivation Excellence?

They are all amazing. Truly like a family.

What’s a defining moment in your life?

I created a successful product for a previous employer, and ten years later I was on a plane with my family, and it was in the Skymall catalog! It was fun to be able to show it to my children. 

What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?

Home Renovations. I love seeing something in a room that can transform it into something completely different and wonderful.

What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?

My children do. I always strive to be someone they look up to. Showing them that you can have a family and work is important.

One thing that always makes you laugh is?

Quick witted people. 

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I love attending concerts with my family. We love exposing our children to a wide array of genres.

What’s a bucket list item you can’t wait to cross off?

A trip to Italy – hoping to go soon.

This month, our theme for social media is “Workplace Harassment Awareness/Prevention.” Is this important to you? Why or why not?

Yes, I think it’s very important. Everyone should feel comfortable in the workplace. 

Know Your Learning Style for Best Results in Life

We really never stop learning. There’s always a trendy gadget to understand or a change in work policy to incorporate or new slang in use…so truly, whether you consider yourself a lifelong learner or not, we are all forced to learn big and little things throughout life. Knowing how you learn best is critical to digesting new information and putting it to good use. Knowing how your colleagues, employees and clients prefer to learn will give you a nice roadmap to follow when you’re the one teaching the lesson.

Know How You Prefer to Learn

There are four widely recognized styles of learning:

• Auditory
• Visual
• Verbal
• Kinesthetic

Each one lends itself to preferred methods of taking in new information. 

Learning Style	Preferred Method of Intake
Auditory	Traditional lecture type presentation
Visual	Needs to see it in graphs, diagrams, photos, etc.
Verbal (reading/writing)	Likes taking notes and reading on own
Kinesthetic	Wants to be hands-on, immersed in subject

It’s important to know where on this spectrum you thrive. You can have a combination of preferred learning styles too. It’s OK to mix and match to find the right fit. For instance, when learning a language, you might prefer to hear others speak while reading along. For car maintenance, you might need to literally get your hands dirty while watching a DIY YouTube video. 

To see where you fall, take a VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, Kinesthetic) assessment. 

Know How Others Prefer to Learn

It’s just as important to know how others like to learn, if you’re the teacher. Insperity offers a way to figure out someone else’s learning style from listening to their questions. 

Learning Style	Questions Others Will Ask
Auditory	Can you tell me…?
Visual	Can you demonstrate that for me?
Verbal (reading/writing)	Is there a manual on this?
Kinesthetic	Can I try it myself?

Once you’ve pinpointed your teammates’ learning styles, providing an environment where each can succeed as they absorb new information is important. Cornerstone on Demand defines workplace learning styles slightly differently than VARK and suggests the environment best suited to each type.

Learning Style	Best Environment
Student (visual and verbal)	Learns best seeing presentations and writing notes
The Independent	Prefers learning alone than in a group setting
The Conversationalist	Likes background noise and talking through things
Hands-on Learner	Wants a calm environment and be allowed trial and error time

Cornerstone adds that when looking at diversity in the workplace, learning style is absolutely part of the equation. 

Using a Variety of Methods

At the end of the day, we all prefer to learn in ways unique to our personality and level of self-awareness. Be conscious of that when you’re presenting to a client or selling to a customer. Interactions on your company website will benefit from accommodating a variety of information intake methods: page text, videos, webinars, blogs, summary graphics, full-blown case studies and podcasts. 

And if you are someone who prides themselves on tackling new topics, languages, sports or hobbies, know how best to set yourself up for success right from the beginning. Just because you’re out of school, doesn’t mean you don’t have a lot more to learn!

Get to Know ME with Iris Huisman

If you want to have a talk with a calming personality, look no further than Iris Huisman (pronounced Ear-ess House-man). No wonder she excels in the sometimes hectic incentive, meetings and events industry; she’s cool under pressure and makes you feel like “everything is going to be alright.” Thank you Iris for participating in our Get to Know ME segment. Read on, and watch her video, to get to know her better. 

What’s your current title and how long have you been in the incentive industry?

I am a Program Manager as part of the Travel Department at Motivation Excellence. I started my career in the M&IT industry as a graduate trainee in England way back in 1997. I have had many roles in the industry since then, both on the client side as well as for a DMC and of course many years on the agency side. Wearing many different hats has given me a unique perspective when helping clients find the best solutions for their meetings and incentive programs. 

What do you like about your job?

I love the variety this work provides and seeing the end result when lots of planning and creative thinking comes to fruition. Of course, the opportunity to travel is nice too; I am fortunate to have experienced many great destinations all over the world. 

What’s something you want to share about the people you work with at Motivation Excellence?

The people I work with on my team at Motivation Excellence care a lot about doing what is right for our clients and providing the best service. But more than that, the team really cares about each other, and that is something that I think makes this a great place to work. 

What’s a specific moment in your history that always stands out as a defining moment, and why?

Wow, that is a tough question. There have been quite a few pivotal moments in my life: moving to England when I was 18 with the plan to stay for only a year, and staying for almost 13, moving to the United States in 2006, dealing with the loss of my dad, stepdad and mum all in quick succession; all of these moments have had a profound impact on shaping me into the person I am today. 

What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?

I wish I could say that I inherited my dad’s musical talent. He was a musician all his life, but no amount of piano and flute lessons could ever get me to come even close. 

What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?

Maybe cheesy, but my kids are my biggest motivator – showing up for them and everything they want to achieve in life has been driving me forward toward bigger and better things. I want them to know that their mum has done, is doing, and will do her best to support them. 

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I love hiking and taking in the beauty that is all around us here in North Georgia (when it is not 100 degrees 😊). I love to run and play tennis. And if I had my way, I would live somewhere where I could go skiing regularly. I also like to read – Ken Follett has been a favorite of mine recently. 

One thing that always makes you laugh is?

Good comedy! I love Bill Burr and Ricky Gervais; their sense of humor speaks to me. 

What’s a bucket list item you can’t wait to cross off?

I am really hoping to have the opportunity to take my kids on safari in Africa. I was fortunate to plan and operate a few programs on the African continent and it has left a lasting impression on me; I want them to have that experience too. 

This month, our theme for social media is “Learning Styles.” Do you prefer to learn in a certain way? How do you make sure you’re digesting work information in the best way for you?

I think my learning style is a mixture of things; I am more of a kinesthetic than an auditory learner, but for some things, logical/analytical learning works better. To digest certain information, I am still a little old school and like to print certain documents out, so I can take notes while learning the material. 

Using the Power of Spurt Programs to Motivate Sales

Effective engagement with sales teams or customers is a long-term enterprise. Yet there are plenty of short-term goals to reach along the way. Consider sales cycles. Engaging with and motivating a sales team during a cycle can mean good things for sales reps and great things for your bottom line. Enter the spurt program.

By their nature, spurt or spiff programs are short term events designed to accelerate brand awareness or product sales. A spurt program can run for an entire quarter. It could run for just 2-4 weeks.

Program Purpose and Structure

Turning to spurt programs for sales team/customer engagement is based on the principle of injecting a quick burst of urgency and excitement into a sales cycle. They are great at motivating sales members to reach short term goals by offering a meaningful reward. A spurt program can:

• Increase sales team efforts
• Drive focus to one product area
• Motivate competition
• Inject some fresh incentives into an ongoing rewards program

A good spurt program has a deadline that incentivizes sales team members to go all out until the program ends. In addition, spurt programs should have clear and measurable objectives.

The Right Rewards Make a Difference

One of the keys to successful spurt programs is choosing the right rewards. Within a sales cycle, you are looking to reward participants with things that actually interest them. The rewards themselves should be motivators above and beyond reaching sales goals. If you can personalize rewards, all the better.

Individual travel experiences tend to be motivational for sales team members. The opportunity to get away on a personalized adventure with a loved one adds excitement and purpose. Another option is a points program. At Motivation Excellence, top performers can take advantage of using their points nearly any way they want through our Concierge Shopping Service. 

Check Out MaxRewardsYourWay

We believe so much in spurt programs that we’ve designed our MaxRewardsYourWay platform to enhance them. We invite you to learn more about it by checking out the dedicated page we’ve put together on our website.

MaxRewardsYourWay allows companies to create customized reward packages based on goals, budget and item preferences. Rewards can include everything from travel to lifestyle upgrades (think Napa getaways, new fitness accessories or game room tech). Marketing these reward packages is easy. And, it’s a perfect reward option for companies who want low overhead and excellent return on investment. 

Lastly, we offer the flexibility to change elements in the package. If one of your participants earns the Kitchen Gadget Upgrade Package but already has the coffee maker included in it, that person can contact our Concierge Shopping Service to swap it for something else.

Different Ways to Run Spurt Programs

Spurt programs are highly flexible and don’t need a lot of prep time to get them launched. There are multiple ways to set up and run a program. Depending on your goals, a short-term incentive program can reward for total volume of sales, quantity of product shipped or the best increase over the last sales cycle. You can reward only a few people or spread out the opportunities so more people are motivated to participate. Rewards can increase as sales levels do. Sell 10 x-ray machines and earn package A. Sell 15 and earn package B, and so on. They can also be a sweepstakes format. It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve. 

Regardless of how spurt programs are structured, they represent a fun and exciting way to inject motivation into a sales team and boost your bottom line!

Effective Delegation Brings Liberation to Your Workday

Are you ready to cross some items off your to-do list? Jot this at the top: “Learn how to delegate.” Then keep reading, and by the end you’ll be ready to draw a line straight through it!

The Many Benefits of Delegation

Delegation does not mean pushing your work onto someone else. It doesn’t mean you’re lazy or uninvested in a project. It does mean you’re ready to empower your team, build trust with them and be better at your own time management. There are likely tasks you must do; but just as likely, there are many jobs you can entrust to others in your organization. 

Delegation offers benefits to both parties.

In addition, delegation can boost overall morale, improve efficiency and enable innovation. Everyone can benefit from proper allocation of tasks. 

How to Delegate

Figuring out when to assign projects, big or small, is the first step to delegation success. The University of Sussex outlines nine things to think about, including:

• Defining the parameters of the job
• Clearly stating the desired results
• Agreeing on timeline and metrics of progress
• Providing feedback and open communication

What to Delegate

According to the Leadership Team article on LinkedIn, the Eisenhower Matrix is an excellent way to determine which jobs to move from your plate to another’s. Very simply, it’s suggested you group and delegate tasks that are either urgent but not important, or important but not urgent. 

Urgent tasks require immediate attention. Surely you can tackle it, but if there’s someone else on your team with the skill set and flexibility, it could make more sense to ask them to take it on. Too many urgent tasks can lead to elevated stress and burn-out, so spreading them around keeps everyone fresh.

Important tasks help achieve long-term goals. These projects might require thoughtful planning and end up taking a good deal of time over a long period. As a leader, you may feel this belongs squarely in your jurisdiction, or you may know a team member who excels at this type of project management. With regularly scheduled updates, you can keep up on the progress without getting mired in the details. 

The aforementioned Eisenhower Matrix link is filled with tips and strategies to keep your to-do list short and sweet. 

To Whom to Delegate 

This can be the very crux of eventual success. Once you’ve determined that you can move a to-do off your list, figuring out who can take it on is important. Vital Learning encourages leaders to look at a few factors when deciding to whom to give a job. 

• Capabilities
• Enthusiasm
• Level of attention to details

Workload should always be a consideration too. When in doubt, given a standard level of skills, you can always ask for a volunteer. Overall, it’s important to make sure no one is being underutilized or overburdened in order to get all the benefits of delegation to fall into place. 

So, now… are you ready to cross “Learn to delegate” off your list? We hope so, and good luck!