Get More Done With “Reverse Delegation”

When you’re working as a Virtual Assistant, you spend your days doing work that your clients have delegated to you. The problem is that not everyone is good at this – the result can be miscommunications, missed deadlines and disappointment.

If you have a client who hasn’t delegated work before, they might feel uncomfortable getting specific about what they need and when they need it. When that happens, you need to be in charge of helping your clients be better at communicating these details.

Here are some tips:

1. Make sure you have what you need before you start. If you require passwords, documents or any other information to do the work, ask your client for them all at once instead of one at a time as you’re working on the project.
2. After your client explains the work, especially if it’s over the phone, repeat their expectations back to them and write them down in as much detail as you can. (I use Evernote for this purpose.)
3. If they are asking you to do more than one task, find out their priorities so that you can do the work in that order.
4. Ask them when they need you to be finished; leaving deadlines up in the air is a bad idea. And by the way, whenever you can complete a task before the deadline you will delight your client.

Some people become better delegators over time, others don’t. Either way, by following these steps, you can improve your work flow and take better care of your clients.

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A business workflow and productivity expert with 25 years of experience, RocketGirl Solutions Founder Belinda Wasser is hired by small businesses on a contract basis to act as their part-time, “business manager.”

In addition, she is the Founder of the VA Connection, a professional online community with the goal of educating and connecting independent virtual assistants around the world. Join her free online classroom here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevaconnection/