3 Hacks On How To Delegate Authority (2024)

Welcome to episode 32 of Baktari MD! In this episode, we talk about the 3 hacks you need in order to delegate authority within your organization. Whether it's keeping track of outgoing emails or having your senior leadership send in end of day reports, all of this advice will make your life as the CEO easier as you teach your staff to grow! Check out the full episode below for all of the tips and trick you need are right here! Find out all of this and more in the full episode! 

    Jonathan Baktari MD is the CEO of eNational Testing, e7 Health, & US Drug Test Centers. Jonathan Baktari MD brings over 20 years of clinical, administrative, and entrepreneurial experience. He has been a triple board-certified physician specializing in internal medicine, pulmonary, and critical care medicine.
    Jonathan Baktari MD is a preeminent, national business thought leader interviewed in The Washington Post, USA Today, Forbes, Barron’s, and many other national publications. He is also an opinion writer for The Hill and the Toronto Star.
    He is the host of a highly-rated podcast Baktari MD as well as a guest on over 50 podcasts. Jonathan Baktari MD was formerly the Medical Director of The Valley Health Systems, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and Culinary Health Fund. He also served as clinical faculty for several medical schools, including the University of Nevada and Touro University.
   Jonathan Baktari MD is also the author of the highly-rated course High Converting Call Class where he shares his secrets of increasing revenue through incoming phone calls.

This content was produced in association with our affiliated partners: 
High Converting Call Class: https://www.highconvertingcallclass.com/
eNational Testing: https://www.enationaltesting.com/ 
USDTC : https://www.usdrugtestcenters.com/ 
e7 Health: https://www.e7health.com/ 

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Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;02;22
Unknown
So the goal of everything I told you here is,

00;00;02;22 - 00;00;05;22
Unknown
you know, don't try to feel like if you don't do it, it won't get done.

00;00;05;22 - 00;00;10;18
Unknown
Right, Because that may be true. But these steps will help prevent some of that from happening.

00;00;29;06 - 00;00;45;05
Unknown
Hi. Welcome to another episode of Baktari MD. This season, we're doing Crash CEO School, where we go over skills and strategies to help you become a better leader, better manager, and be more effective in your organization.

00;00;45;05 - 00;01;17;21
Unknown
We've done a lot of topics this season on leadership and how to grow an organization. And we've covered broad topics up until now. But often the questions I get when when people watch some of these podcasts are very specific, like, okay, give me an example of that or give me an example of this. And also, I've been fortunate enough to be a guest on many, many other of Other People's podcast, and I find that

00;01;17;21 - 00;01;21;04
Unknown
I get questioned a lot about specific strategies,

00;01;21;04 - 00;01;23;14
Unknown
and how to accomplish some of the things we talk about.

00;01;23;14 - 00;01;36;16
Unknown
So what I thought I would do today is talk about ways to delegate authority, but be very granular and specific and not speak at a high level.

00;01;36;16 - 00;01;53;20
Unknown
So what I want to call this topic or this podcast is 3 hacks on how to effectively delegate your authority to senior staff and others. So how to delegate effectively

00;01;53;20 - 00;01;57;08
Unknown
and in very, very specific manners.

00;01;57;09 - 00;02;28;20
Unknown
So, I mean, it's just, yeah, to say broadly try to delegate so you can work on bigger topics. We get that. But how how or what are some ways that we can actually do that to delegate authority and still have control but not be in the weeds of every department and every decision? So I'm going to tell you the three hacks that have worked for me the most in my career that I have found to be effective

00;02;28;20 - 00;02;35;04
Unknown
in a bi directional sort of way because it's effective, I think, when you're delegating authority

00;02;35;04 - 00;02;44;18
Unknown
and I think it's effective to the person you are delegating work or authority to because it's done in a manner that gives

00;02;44;18 - 00;03;01;10
Unknown
them a lot of confidence and shows them respect and shows them that there is a partnership and that while you may be dumping work on them, so to speak, that's not the real goal. The goal is for you to

00;03;01;10 - 00;03;03;24
Unknown
let go some work so you can hopefully

00;03;03;24 - 00;03;31;23
Unknown
take on additional work, maybe on a different level. So it is this sort of binary relationship where there's some trust and respect and the things that I'm going to talk about, the three hacks that I have found to be the most effective in delegating work or authority to others is one that does both, meaning it actually does allow you to dump work on other people in a way

00;03;31;23 - 00;03;41;11
Unknown
that allows you to pick up other work. But it also does it in a way where they feel like you're not just dumping work on them, but that you are actually,

00;03;41;11 - 00;03;44;14
Unknown
you're creating a zone defense, as it were, right

00;03;44;14 - 00;03;52;07
Unknown
where they cover one area, you cover another. And so it's much more of a partnership rather than just dumping work.

00;03;52;07 - 00;04;22;24
Unknown
So, you know, you can leave early or whatever else. So so we're going to go over this and some of these hacks apply more to companies in the small to medium size, because as the number rose, some of these may not be possible or may not be possible on a broad level. But even then, if you maintain these hacks with the three, four or five, six senior people that are right beneath you, it may work.

00;04;22;24 - 00;04;31;21
Unknown
So I'm going to argue that while it may be more tailor made for a smaller to medium size company, even at a larger company, if you have

00;04;31;21 - 00;04;37;24
Unknown
little pockets of leadership, that these strategies may be effective. Okay.

00;04;37;24 - 00;04;45;15
Unknown
So hack number one is learn to do every job yourself first. And let me tell you what I mean by that.

00;04;45;15 - 00;05;08;19
Unknown
It is possible, especially in a small to medium sized company, for you to learn different departments and different jobs, whether it's doing inventory, answering the phones, especially early on, because this allows you to first understand what these departments and jobs entail.

00;05;08;21 - 00;05;13;07
Unknown
And it may not be the best use of your time initially, but long term,

00;05;13;07 - 00;05;15;17
Unknown
I'm going to argue that's going to pay dividends.

00;05;15;17 - 00;05;30;22
Unknown
So I'll give you an example. Very early on in one of our companies, when there was only five or ten of us, you know, we had a couple of people dedicated to answering the phone, but what I tried to do is I actually tried to answer the phone first, right.

00;05;30;22 - 00;05;59;25
Unknown
And pretend I was the receptionist because one, I want to understand what the question is that were coming in and how people were responding to our business. But also it set a good example for others to say, well, you know, he, he, he or she is not above doing this or doing that. So the benefits were were multifactorial because you can learn so much about a department or a division

00;05;59;25 - 00;06;06;10
Unknown
you can also come up with strategies to improve and fix things and understand the pain points.

00;06;06;12 - 00;06;16;16
Unknown
So whether it's answering the phones, whether it's doing inventory, whether it's placing the order, whether it's managing vendors or what have you,

00;06;16;16 - 00;06;27;06
Unknown
if you take some extra time the first year or two in an organization and literally go into all those departments, maybe for a week even and literally do it like do the job, right,

00;06;27;06 - 00;06;30;03
Unknown
that will give you a lot of insight.

00;06;30;05 - 00;06;33;26
Unknown
One also, when that department struggles or

00;06;33;26 - 00;06;50;16
Unknown
has issues, you will not just be an outsider looking in. You will have somewhat of an insider track on it and going then to delegating. I think it becomes a lot easier to speak to people about

00;06;50;16 - 00;06;57;27
Unknown
you, asking them to take on certain tasks or certain duties if you yourself have had a taste of it, right?

00;06;58;00 - 00;07;35;07
Unknown
So when you tell someone, you know what, when, when you answer the phone, make sure you always do X, Y, and Z, or make sure you do this, or when you do inventory, make sure your department does that is trying to give people work when they have a sense that you have no idea. You know what you're asking them to do often doesn't play as well as if they have a sense that, so yes, what you're asking may be a lot, but, you know, you you know, you have a sense for what it is, so you're just not randomly creating work.

00;07;35;07 - 00;08;06;01
Unknown
So I know this is a generic strategy, but often understanding what different departments are going through, different people, different senior leaders, even if it means, you know, sitting on meetings with them a few times I actually went to conferences that were very, pertain to small subdivisions of the company, but it allowed me to see the the issues that that department was dealing with.

00;08;06;03 - 00;08;06;19
Unknown
So

00;08;06;19 - 00;08;34;05
Unknown
trying to do every job is a metaphor for trying to, at least early on in the company's growth, to be involved and understand and literally do some of the work. if of course if you can do it, but later on you're going to hopefully not have to do it, but you'll be able to manage people and delegate it and, and ask them to do things from a position of having at least done it somewhat.

00;08;34;05 - 00;08;44;05
Unknown
It maybe a lot. So kind of doing every job is really, really important. Now, one of the byproducts of doing that is also sends a signal

00;08;44;05 - 00;08;59;22
Unknown
that, you know, you are not above this or that, that we're all in in it and we're all a team. And also, if you're going to ask other people to sometimes step out of their lane and take out take on other duties, that's not necessarily in their job description.

00;08;59;24 - 00;09;22;17
Unknown
The fact that you are prepared to take out the trash, you know, fix the fax machine, the scanner, whatever, or do whatever it takes, I think sends that message that we're all in the same team. And I think that is also part of the building, the culture of trust and mutual respect. So doing every job. Okay,

00;09;22;17 - 00;09;45;25
Unknown
Today we have a bullet proof system that helps us close up to 80% of those inbound calls. Our High Converting Call Class will teach you how to demonstrate your authority quickly without being pushy. We believe that many businesses out there can benefit from this, and we promise to help you achieve your revenue goals by converting more of your incoming calls into actual sales.

00;09;45;28 - 00;09;56;02
Unknown
For more information, please visit our website at HighConvertingCallClass.com. Stop waiting for the sales to come to you. Put your revenue into your hands.

00;09;56;02 - 00;10;04;22
Unknown
the second hack is very, very specific and that is especially from your senior people to get an end of day report.

00;10;04;22 - 00;10;08;09
Unknown
now we created this a very courageous long time ago and

00;10;08;09 - 00;10;09;16
Unknown
it's a very

00;10;09;16 - 00;10;35;02
Unknown
unique process where you have your senior leaders, at the end of the day send your report. And that report is supposed to be very brief and it's supposed to be not in a prose style, maybe in a bullet point style of things that happened or that they were able to address or issues they had in a way that would allow you to understand what their day was all about.

00;10;35;04 - 00;10;54;15
Unknown
Now, this has tremendous benefits because often what I found before I used to do it and they report is I have to remember, I got to ask Suzy how that meeting went or I have to ask Bill if he was ever able to get a hold of Fred, you know, one of our vendors or one of our client.

00;10;54;17 - 00;11;21;16
Unknown
Again, if, if an end of day report is done correctly, it will actually save you and the person time from having to discuss that issue. Now, what's tricky about the end the day report is you don't want every little minutia there. You want things that are material material and that often takes a while to navigate and get both parties to understand what things you want.

00;11;21;16 - 00;11;58;25
Unknown
They're right. So you don't want to know, you know, the computer shut down, so I had to reboot it. I mean, who cares? You do want to know if a client that you've been waiting for got back to you and they're going to move ahead with the contract, or you want to find out if you know a certain person, you know, paid their bill that you've been waiting for things that and the way I would filter it is you know what would the person you're sending the end of they report want to know that piece of information now there's so many benefits of that end of they report the end that they report allows

00;11;58;25 - 00;12;17;20
Unknown
you to then take that information that they're giving you and maybe, you know, use it somewhere else now, now that you have it. Otherwise, the only other way to do it is, you know, by the end of the day or the next day, like literally by happenstance, just, Hey, by the way, Bill, what happened this what happened, though, or what's going on with this?

00;12;17;20 - 00;12;29;00
Unknown
What's going on with that? And I think that's what really happens in most companies that they have to have this sort of, you know, talk at the water cooler metaphorically

00;12;29;00 - 00;12;41;05
Unknown
just to get caught up on so that every client get back to you. They ever signed their contract. Did they ever give us that refund or how long did you find out how long that contract is good for?

00;12;41;07 - 00;13;11;09
Unknown
So rather than having 100 mini conversations in the next 24 hours, if you can get all of that data back, you may now have never have to talk about it again. So I have found that the end of day report is a great way to delegate authority to someone, but get the information back so often because people often want to do the task themselves because they want to know the results, they want to get the final outcome, they want to have a say in it.

00;13;11;12 - 00;13;19;27
Unknown
But if you can develop a relationship with your senior staff where they send you an end to day report in a meaningful way,

00;13;19;27 - 00;13;40;27
Unknown
meaning, you know, you don't want to have them write you a novel and it can't be, you know, an hour's worth of work every day. But if there was a way they could concisely tell you the big deal points of that day that they think you would want to know that is going to make your relationship with that person a lot stronger.

00;13;40;27 - 00;13;45;03
Unknown
When you first ask someone to send you an end of the day report, it actually sounds kind of

00;13;45;03 - 00;13;51;25
Unknown
like it's below someone to send you an end of day report because what, you're just checking on them. You don't trust them.

00;13;51;25 - 00;13;59;23
Unknown
But if you can get past that and say no has nothing to do with trust, it has nothing to do with holding you accountable.

00;14;00;02 - 00;14;19;19
Unknown
It has more to do with me getting the information back so I can use information and also I can not bother you and say something as, Hey, did they ever get back to you? Do they ever sign the contract? Did they ever do this to your actually saving them So done correctly? It saves both parties a lot of time.

00;14;19;19 - 00;14;33;23
Unknown
So the third hack and this is really a hack is get, if possible, a copy of every ingoing and outgoing email of the senior people in your group.

00;14;33;25 - 00;14;34;21
Unknown
Now,

00;14;34;21 - 00;15;06;25
Unknown
let me preface that first. Obviously, you want to ask permission. You want to make sure these are all work related. You don't want to access anyone's personal emails. And so if you have the kind of organization where their email box is confined to just their professional emails and you of course convey that. And the goal of course, is of getting a copy of every email that goes in and every email that goes out is often in real time.

00;15;07;02 - 00;15;09;22
Unknown
You can see an email that came in

00;15;09;22 - 00;15;27;25
Unknown
to one of the people you're mentoring or one of your senior leaders, and before they respond, you may be able to interject, say, Hey, Susie, I know you just got an email from one of our biggest client and he seems to be complaining about X, Y, and Z. You know, I think this is the way we should handle it, because I've been there before, right?

00;15;27;29 - 00;15;52;06
Unknown
So it goes to some of this mentoring that we've talked about and advice and having the more satellite picture, but also when incoming mail comes in. Right. That that you you may know that someone relatively new on the job is not going to be able to handle, you know, what's being asked of them in that email. And then you can offer to help because if you don't see it, what happens is

00;15;52;06 - 00;15;56;09
Unknown
the person responds to the email incorrectly and then they respond.

00;15;56;09 - 00;16;13;24
Unknown
And by the time it comes to you, it's a big mess. So if there is an opportunity for you, jump in and and fix it before it blows up, before the wrong response is given. Right? So I've seen emails where, you know, a client says, Hey, by the way, we need this kind of service. Do you guys do that?

00;16;13;26 - 00;16;44;09
Unknown
And again, some maybe a junior person that's new on the job may respond, No, we don't do that when in fact we do do that. But it's not something that they were privy to or what have you. So you can think of all sorts of different circumstances where someone responding to an email, not having, you know, not being in every department, not understanding the goals of every department or some of the things that they're just not privy to yet, they're forced to respond.

00;16;44;11 - 00;16;58;13
Unknown
And sometimes, you know, you get a disgruntled whatever. And even that, if you can mentor someone in how to best handle or manage those kind of emails. So this idea of getting a copy of every ingoing and outgoing email

00;16;58;13 - 00;17;14;17
Unknown
is something that you need to be upfront and discuss the pros and cons of it, and you have to make sure there's no personal emails, you know, going through through that because obviously you certainly don't have a right or want to see any of that.

00;17;14;19 - 00;17;52;12
Unknown
But in most organizations that there's a clear separation between work and non-work emails, that's been very, very helpful. Now the flip side of it is your time, right? So obviously, if you have 8000 employees and you want to see all their emails flying back and forth, that's just not going to work. So you will have to pick and choose the group of senior people that you think you can have an impact by giving your input in how they should respond to emails, how they should formulate different different things that come up in the email exchanges.

00;17;52;15 - 00;18;03;27
Unknown
And also sometimes you you may alert them to, hey, you know, there's this email that you wrote that you can't solve this problem when in fact, you know, I have a solution that might be I will help you. So

00;18;03;27 - 00;18;09;21
Unknown
you don't want to give yourself tremendous amount of work. But if done right, it's almost like the end of day report.

00;18;09;23 - 00;18;34;20
Unknown
If done right, you're going to be reading a lot of emails and you're going to be reading a lot of end of day reports. But if done correctly, that will actually save you a multiple of hours for every hour you spend on it. This is something that you really have to logically think through based on your organization and see if it makes sense in your organization to do that again.

00;18;34;20 - 00;18;57;03
Unknown
So just pick and choose the senior people that you want to have input to, how they respond and the information they get. And I have been shocked by the amount of good things that have happened by us being able to see what's going on in real time and pivoting quickly and adjusting. So

00;18;57;03 - 00;19;09;06
Unknown
so those are the three hacks do every job, the end of day report, and a copy of senior people's emails as they're going back and forth with all the proviso that we talked about.

00;19;09;08 - 00;19;31;00
Unknown
Okay, I hope that's helpful. I hope that gives you three good hacks that allows you to delegate work and delegate responsibility. But I'm going to argue, but still, having your hand in the pie where you can have an impact if it's not going exactly like you would have done it right.

00;19;31;00 - 00;19;33;22
Unknown
So the goal of everything I told you here is,

00;19;33;22 - 00;19;36;22
Unknown
you know, don't try to feel like if you don't do it, it won't get done.

00;19;36;22 - 00;19;41;18
Unknown
Right, Because that may be true. But these steps will help prevent some of that from happening.

00;19;41;18 - 00;19;50;15
Unknown
Okay. So thank you so much for watching. If you like this kind of content, please don't forget to like, come and subscribe and we'll we'll see you on the next episode. Thank you.