What’s the number one reason lawyers don’t delegate?

OK, I don’t know the number one reason, but I’m pretty sure that “I don’t have time to keep track of what other people are doing,” or "it'll be faster just to do it myself” are high up on the list.

Our May tips were all about delegating work to free up your time, so you can focus on what matters most to you. We talked about delegating administrative tasks, outsourcing legal tasks to a trusted professional, and even how you can use AI technology for some of your delegation needs. More recently, we’ve been sharing tips to make your processes more visible.

This Week’s Tip: delegation and visibility go hand-in-hand. When you make work visible, it’s easier to delegate and then, once you’ve delegated it, it’ll be easier to supervise.

Combining a list of tasks that you’re going to delegate with a set of visible processes, you can create a true system for delegation that works within your firm.

Your Action Item: Take a documented process (see episode 186 for a refresher) and for each step of that process, ask yourself who (other than you) could take on that task…and delegate it! 

Don’t let old mindsets of ‘It’ll be faster if I do it myself!’ or ‘No one can do this but me!’ stop you!

Because you’re starting with a visible, documented process, the people you delegate to will know exactly what they need to do, so you can worry less about mistakes and interruptions. And if you set your documented process up as a checklist or a board in a task management system, you’ll be able to see when people check off each task as done, making your supervision much easier.

In the next 2 tips, we’re going to look at 2 different legal technology platforms that can help you keep track of all that work you’ve delegated. Sign up so you never miss a tip.

P.S. Are you interested in a shortcut to an improved, visible process (including instructions for what to delegate)? We advise all our clients to start with their intake process. Improving it will give you a huge bang for your buck, because intake touches every matter in your firm. Grab the Ultimate Intake Package, it has everything you need to get started right now.