How to Delegate when Planning an Event

The very first large event that I was in charge of planning had disaster written all over it. I'm a pretty effective multi-tasker, am organized and thoroughly enjoy a big challenge so you can imagine that I jumped right in with the desire of planning the most perfect event. As the date of the event was nearing, it was my boss who pointed out that I was putting every tiny responsibility on myself and doing so unnecessarily. While I appreciated her advice of delegating certain duties to my colleagues to alleviate some of the stress I was feeling, I had to admit that I really wasn't keen on the idea of not being 100% in control of the event. I asked her if she had gotten to be where she was by assigning others some of her responsibilities along the way. She stressed the importance of trusting others enough to allow them to assist you. The key isn't that you, personally, perform each minuscule step, rather that you have established lines of communication with those assisting and that you have your hand in all aspects of the event planning. After deciding that I would utilize this nugget of information, I had to consider who I wanted to enlist and how much slack of the reigns I wanted to allow.

1. Determine Which Duties Will Be Delegated

• Draft an outline of all that needs to be done in a timeline format. You could also do a map of the project this is my favorite format because my thoughts are a-plenty! However you do it, get your ideas and tasks comprehensively compiled.

• Indicate which duties you feel need to be completed by you (note: your list might need to be re-addressed and downsized, as our first instinct is to assign ourselves just about every duty).

• Indicate which duties you are comfortable with assigning to others. Remember to make note of when each duty needs to be completed.

2. Choose Responsible Colleagues

• Only enlist those individuals who you are confident can perform professionally.

• Consider which of your colleagues is timely, organized and on-time regularly.

• Also, consider how your colleagues work with people. You will want to avoid those individuals who do not work well with others or handle instruction well, even if that happens to be the most organized person in your office.

3. Stress the Level of Responsibility Required of Those Assisting

• When enlisting those who are going to assist you in planning the event, specify the importance of the event and be certain they share the desire for a successful event.

• Point out the amount of time you are expecting each person to allot and allow them to decide if they will be able to continue to get their work done in conjunction with assisting you.

• Stress the significance of their assistance, while making it apparent that those who are not interested or are lackluster in their approach to helping simply do not volunteer themselves.

4. Follow-Up on All Tasks Assigned

• After generating a list of tasks to be completed by those assisting, you will need to generate a time schedule for yourself.

• The time schedule will need to have the list of tasks assigned and when you need to check-in with the individuals.

• Avoid only following-up when the task is due to be complete.

• Check-in regularly with anyone assisting you, as you will want to be almost over-informed as to what is being done on your behalf.

• Regularly checking-in enables you to interject, if needed, before a potential major crisis.

5. Limit the Number of Individuals Involved

• Depending on the size of the event, the number of individuals helping should be considerably small - try to keep it between 2 and 5, depending.

• If you feel you are still taking on too much, a good alternative to adding more people to delegate to would be to ask an individual if he minds taking on a couple of extra tasks.

• Keep in mind that the more people you enlist, the more following-up needs to be done with each individual. Additionally, each on of them is representing you and the more people you add, the higher the risk of miscommunication down the line.

After all was said and done with my particular event, my outlook toward delegating changed for the better. I realized that allowing others to assist you in completing a significantly challenging task is not lazy; it is smart. And it yields a more organized and streamlined event. How about you? Do you find delegating helpful, daunting or just plain scary?