This month, we're focusing on all things management - so keep an eye on the blog over the next few weeks to read more about Go1’s relevant training content!

Even if you are an experienced manager, it's important to not neglect your training. New managers typically understand that there is a lot they need to learn, with training they need to do. Whereas more experienced managers don’t necessarily need to focus on management techniques and practices, but instead on ways to take the next steps towards effective leadership and management. 

The workplace is evolving and managers must accommodate themselves to today’s ecosystem. The challenges managers need to be aware of today often involve their ethics and the way they make decisions for their team to ensure they align with today's corporate culture and social norms.

This week, we'll look at two courses that will help managers to ultimately shape healthy and effective teams in today's workplaces. As a manager, you'll learn how to: 

Ensure that you lead teams with equal employment opportunities and are aware of appropriate practices in regards to discrimination and compliance

Consider what ethical leadership means today in business, and equip yourself with tools to build an ethical culture in the workplace.

Equal Employment Opportunity for Managers

This course covers Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and discrimination in the workplace. 

The EEO course will help individuals avoid inappropriate behaviours in the workplace, that put themselves, their colleagues, customers, and the organisation at risk. This compliance course will educate staff on what are equal employment opportunity requirements in the workplace, how to report and respond to inappropriate behaviour, and the legal responsibility of managers. 

It is a highly engaging course that gives learners the opportunity to consider examples of what are and what are not appropriate workplace behaviours, with scenarios and animated videos plus the use of case studies. 

GVM is an award-winning company with a rich history and experience. With 20 years of expertise in the areas of instructional design, content development and learning management systems, their aim is to help their clients to measure the return on their training investment and to achieve maximum learning efficiency and effectiveness. Global Vision Media has a suite of Australian compliance courses which are particularly aimed at local councils. All courses are short, clear and concise and very easy for all employees to complete.

Ethical Leadership - Becoming a Courageous Leader

This course covers ethical leadership in the workplace, geared specifically for business leaders who want to build solid organisations that uphold strong ethical and moral values. 

Most people agree that good ethics is good for business yet we still have ethical violations showcased in daily headlines. The problem is moral leadership. The courageous leader needs to have the ability to face difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or intimidated by consequences. Being courageous requires that you discern and assess what needs to be done and have the fortitude to be able to deal with the consequences based on the foundation of those values. 

This course is divided into 5 parts, each section engaging the learner with videos, handouts and a quiz to conclude. 

After completing this course you will learn how to become a courageous leader and know how courageous leaders make decisions.

Global Ethics Solutions can help you create a safe atmosphere that is key to improving the integrity of a company. Through knowledge and accountability, your business' day-to-day operations will experience a significant decrease in unethical conduct. With 90+ resources Global Ethics Solutions provides customised ethics and compliance training programs to teach employees important skills, principles, and policies to make the right ethical choices. A company or organisation is only as "ethical" as the people in it. The key to a strong, thriving organisation is to encourage and build up the character of all individuals with positive tools and training that foster an ethical culture in the workplace.

 If you want to enrol in these courses, simply:

From the Search Results Page -> use the provider filter to find Global Ethics Solutions or Global Vision Media Learning courses.

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Find courses from Go1's Premium training partners that will help your management capabilities grow. 

This partnership will see Go1's customer base now able to access Direction Associates hospitality training. 

Introducing Direction Associates - an online UK-based hospitality training provider developed by in-house hospitality professionals to ‘Best Practice’ standards. Their content explores courses for bartending, housekeeping, compliance for hospitality staff with CPD certification and more!

Don't let their location fool you, their content is relevant for international markets too! The great thing about Direction Associates is that the hospitality best practice standards they use are benchmarked internationally, which means that their learning content can be used in the Middle East, Far East, USA and Australia (with more to come)! Go1 recommends the content for customers in the UK looking for hospitality training.

Why use Direction Associates hospitality training for your eLearning?

Authored by industry experts with over 35 years of operational and training experience in hotels, they have a  clear understanding of the needs of hotel businesses and their staff which is core to all Direction Associates training. Throughout the courses, the principles of hospitality professional best practice are adhered to ensure the skills and knowledge the learner develops will stand them in good stead, no matter where in the industry their career path lies.

Direction Associate's training is highly visual and interactive, enabling the learner to get the best out of their training journey. All modules provide an end quiz, to best measure the knowledge retention for each learner. 

Direction Training Associates content areas:

Via Go1 Premium you can find 49 hospitality learning resources from Direction Associates. 

A large portion of the Direction Associates library is Food Services training, including 'Working with allergens' and 'Professional food and drinks service.' The library also has a variety of service skills content such as carrying / clearing plates, folding napkins, serving wines and more.  

Operational staff in hotels can develop their knowledge and skills and increase awareness of legal implications of disability discrimination. This module will contribute to the guided learning hours for those staff completing a hospitality apprenticeship.

Suited to operational front of house staff in hotels and restaurants who need to develop their knowledge and skills in key aspects of foodservice. This module is a separate module from the Food Service course and can be used according to training needs. Modules are ideal for new staff entering the industry to support job training in house or can be used by individuals wishing to gain some knowledge of food service in order to apply for a job.

Food & Drink Safety Awareness is designed for all operational staff in hotels, restaurants and bars to ensure they are aware of all food and drink safety procedures. Individuals may like to develop their own knowledge and confidence or use the module certificates at interviews. The Food and Drink Safety Aware programme will contribute to the guided learning hours for those staff completing a hospitality apprenticeship.

Go1 recommends the content for customers in the UK looking for hospitality training. 

Go1 is very excited to be working closely with Direction Associates and building a great relationship. 

Take the next step and enrol in Direction Associates training on Go1 today or contact Go1 if you have any questions. Access Direction Associates hospitality content via a Go1 Premium subscription.

Introducing Direction Associates – providers of highly engaging, interactive hospitality content   

Go1 is excited to announce our new partnership with JobReady, a leading provider of people management systems for education and employment, to deliver a new generation of learning and support for its Australian education sector clients.

Beginning in 2019, JobReady will use Go1 to deliver integrated online training for new and existing clients of student management system JR Plus. JR Plus is currently used by leading brands in the higher education, international education, enterprise training, and RTO markets.

Through Go1, JobReady will ensure users can access a full online library of in-depth training and resources on JR Plus, allowing them to take better advantage of the system’s full suite of evolving features, while also helping them to deliver on their primary education mission.

“JR Plus is a complete student management system for education that continues to evolve to ensure our clients stay in front of the pace of change,” JobReady commercial director James Hourn said.

“After 20 years helping our clients adapt and grow, we’re taking this exciting step forward to allow them to take advantage of online product training delivered when and how they want it.”

Mr Hourn said Go1’s advanced online delivery model will mean clients will receive unrivaled learning and support throughout the customer journey, whether they are currently implementing JR Plus, or are looking to realise more business value from the system as a long-term JR Plus user.

“By giving clients the learning vehicle they need to unlock JR Plus, we are supporting them in running a better business and helping them provide the best possible education for their students as well.”

Go1 CEO and co-founder Andrew Barnes said the partnership with JobReady was a natural fit for both companies who both strongly believe in the power of education to advance Australia’s future.

“Go1 has a track record of partnering with innovative providers like JobReady to deliver education and training that makes the possibilities of online delivery real for their users,” Mr Barnes said.

“By helping facilitate the growth and utilisation of JR Plus across Australia’s globally renowned education sector, we believe we are doing what we’ve always set out to do at Go1 – allowing people to achieve their career dreams and live more fulfilled working lives now and into the future.”

JobReady is the leading provider of people management software for education and employment. Bringing together student management systems, apprenticeships systems, vocational education and training systems, employment services systems and behavioural science, we represent a powerful software continuum for managing the complex human journey through study, work and career transitions. Trusted for over 20 years, JobReady works with education and employment clients to co-create intelligent technology that helps them oversee, control and drive the business outcomes they need to succeed. In doing so, we ensure more people are fulfilled through meaningful work.

Go1 makes it easy for businesses to train their staff, with the world’s largest compliance, professional development and general training marketplace. By providing a single platform that extends from first aid training through to degree bearing courses, Go1 makes it easy to find and compare the best training options available. The marketplace features over 500,000 courses and other learning items created by local and international experts. Customers include SEEK.com.au, Oxford University, State and Local Governments and St John Ambulance.

Since launching in 2015, Go1 has grown to be a world leader in online learning and education. Local and overseas investors include Y Combinator, SEEK, M12, Tank Stream Ventures, Black Sheep Capital, and Our Innovation Fund.

JobReady to provide new generation learning with Go1

Growth is a wonderful double-edged management ninja sword. Because growth is good for both your employees and it’s good for you, the boss. But did you know that one of the unwritten responsibilities of a boss is that you have to ensure that your employees have the skills they need to do their job and are always working to improve? This is why employee development is one of the essential manager skills. But the problem is that school doesn’t teach you the skills you need to be Super Boss. And employee development gets left to HR. This article will show you why & how to use employee development as a management tool to increase results and retention. It contains information from the program on the Go1 Academy: How to Develop Your Employees

PS: Are you responsible for Learning & Development in your organisation? Help to build a culture of learning in your organisation by sharing this article with your managers.

Using online learning to achieve your development goals: Getting Going with Go1,

Do your employees have the skills and abilities you want? Take the online Development assessment to find out more (must be logged into your Go1 portal),

Be careful of one-size fits all management advice. Do what is right for you by finding out your Boss Superpower,

Why employee development is essential for employees:

Your employees are complicated animals. You can’t just give them a paycheck and a ping-pong table and expect them to be happy, productive employees. Creating a workplace where people want to work and are good at their jobs means fulfilling your employees need for growth.

Your employees have a desire to learn and grow

Your employees are motivated by doing things they are good at and

Developing skills helps your employees become self-actualised

To put this another way, your top performers will get bored and leave if they are stagnant. Less experienced managers try to motivate employees with pay and bonuses. But successful managers know that quality employees choose growth over short term pay.

Why employee development is essential for managers:

I remember a time when you weren’t a proper business if you didn’t have a fax machine. But business is competitive with unrelenting progress. If you think your employees have all the skills they need, then you may as well be waiting by your fax machine for an update. And if you think employee development is a job for Human Resources alone and not managers, then you will soon watch your competitors overtake you. It’s your jab as a boss job to deliver, maintain and grow results. And one of the best ways you can do this is to develop the skills & capabilities of your employees. Because:

Increasing skills delivers results with increased speed and quality,

Increasing capabilities supports delegation so you can manage your own workload,

A constantly changing competitive & technological environment means your employees need to constantly develop their skills and

Learning promotes innovation & problem solving

Less experienced managers view skills development as a “nice to have”. They leave skills development to Human Resources for “when they have the time”. Successful bosses partner with Human Resources to take an active role in developing their employees’ skills. This is because they know that developing skills delivers results. Effective managers know that employee development is an effective tool to motivate and retain top talent.

I get it, employee development sounds time-consuming, where can managers find the time to develop employees? This is really the wrong question, because the true problem is that no-one ever taught you how to develop employees or any of the other essential manager skills. Because employee development can be as simple as a ten-minute conversation about the future. And you don’t even have to book extra meeting time because the best place to do this in your in your regular one on one meeting with your employee. (Not having one on one meetings with your employees – well of course you won’t have time to develop your employees!)

3 Actions you can take to develop your employees:

Because I believe in actionable advice, here are easy 3 actions you can take to kick start your employee development right away:

Have a ten-minute development conversation with each of your employees. Tell them what skills you want them to develop. Collaborate to produce a training contract 

Delegate a growth assignment to your employees. This is something that will support their next career step or is a challenge that gives them a chance to use their skills. Helpful resource: The Ultimate Guide to Delegation

Pick a skill you want your employees to learn/improve and use the Go1 feature to assign a Go1 training course to them. Tip: Don’t forget the human touch, follow up the course assignment with a conversation explaining why, what your expectations are and what’s in it for them. 

Top tip: Looking for a good place to start? Choose something short/fun/informative/helpful. Here are some relevant Go1 courses to assign: 

a. Have better meetings with your employees by assigning One on One Meetings with your Boss

b. Improve your employees focus, stress management and more by assigning Desk Meditations

Super ninja manager skills are where you use momentum to go with the flow, instead of fighting against the tide. When it comes to skills development, it sometimes feels like you are pushing uphill to develop your employees’ skills. The smarter way is to help your employees to develop themselves by assigning Self Leadership: Developing Yourself.

I just want to leave you with this final thought: Have you ever had a mentor (a boss, teacher, coach, etc.) that invested in you?

Someone that guided you through your career path,

Someone who knew what you were capable of and supported you to achieve your potential, and

Someone who pushed you to be better when you needed a little extra encouragement.

What difference did this make to your performance? How meaningful is this person to you? When you are a boss, you have an opportunity to make a difference to your employee’s lives. And this isn’t just because it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling but also because it makes fantastic business sense. This is the difference you can make when you invest in developing your employees. 

Note: employee development and online learning by Go1

I don’t work for Go1, I work with Go1 to help businesses deliver results via improved soft skills. Go1 is a fantastic resource where you and your employees can access training for almost any development need. But giving your employees access to an online library and expecting them to develop themselves into happy, productive employees is not realistic (Hot tip: How’s your own online development going?). To make the best use of online development tools such as Go1, don’t forget the human touch. Such as: Encouraging and supporting employees through their development. Helping them to choose the right development for them and their career. 

The concept is to leave the time-consuming training to the subject matter experts on Go1 and you do the less time-consuming parts of coaching your employees through their development. 

Keith Tatley is a Chartered Accountant and Yoga Teacher. He helps people to have successful and happy careers by showing them the soft skills that people need to be effective in the workplace. 

Headline skills that people need for better relationships between employees and their bosses include: 

How to have One on One Meetings with your Boss

Keith operates the brands www.ManagerFoundation.com, Karm.Academy and WWW.BOSS.CAMP . Contact him at Keitht@ManagerFoundation.com for consulting on how to create better work environments. 

The hospitality industry is fast-paced, creative and unpredictable. In such an energetic environment, ensuring staff members are up to date with the latest training and compliance can be a challenge.

With the anti-social hours most employees work, and the physical nature of the job, finding the time for training can be difficult. The team is exhausted at the end of a busy shift, and when the customers are in, the focus is on their experience. 

Essential areas of training for hospitality staff

Hospitality environments are often stressful and fast-paced. Kitchens are places where a lot of accidents can happen, so safety of staff and customers should always be paramount. Training in this area will supply learners with the knowledge and skills required to apply solid WHS practices.

Being up to date with guidelines on workplace bullying is crucial for those in hospitality management. The high-pressured service industry often creates a climate of perfectionism, and in such conditions, it can be easy for staff members to take out their stress on each other. Training will encourage staff to reflect on how they should act in certain situations and what to do about bullying incidents.

Linked to training on workplace bullying, harrassment and discrimination can easily arise when a workplace cutlure becomes unfriendly.  In times of stress, it can be difficult to remain civil and treat other employees and customers with the respect they deserve. However, customers will notice if staff members or other customers are being treated poorly. 

Knowledge in this area is a basic prerequisite for any establishment preparing food for customers. Making mistakes can result in businesses paying the ultimate price and being shut down. Training your team with real-life scenarios will educate them on the importance of food safety, and the consequences of their actions if mistakes are made.  

The hospitality industry can be physically draining.  The heat of the kitchen, constantly being on your feet and lifting stock can be extremely taxing on the body. Those responsible for staff welfare need to be sure that the team understands how to stay safe. They need healthy bodies to do the work to the best of their ability! Training will provide learners with the skills they need to look after themselves in the workplace. 

Tips for hospitality staff to make the most of online learning: 

As the person responsible for ensuring your staff is compliant, it can be difficult to know whether the information from an online course has been taken on board. It can also be tempting to tick the box once the course has been completed, but your staff needs to apply what they’ve learnt to a practical context. 

If you are the manager or owner, you will already have a lot on your plate to keep your business running.  It might be helpful to designate a trusted employee to oversee and implement training. Then, you can be sure your staff members are not only well-trained, but also have a senior member of staff to ask for help should they need it.

However you decide to ensure your team is up to date with the latest training, here are our tips to be sure your staff members make the most of their online learning experience:

When setting staff the task of completing online training, it can sometimes be difficult for them to see the bigger picture or understand why it is important.  They have physical and often challenging work days, so they need to understand why they are making the extra effort.  

Many who work in the hospitality industry are driven by the desire to serve customers to the best possible standard.  If you can use this purpose to frame regular training updates, it will help staff to become invested and want to ensure they complete the training to the best of their ability. Ultimately, if your staff is not compliant in these areas, the customers will pick up on this and think twice about coming back to your establishment.

 It is important that every member of staff is well-versed in the online training.  This includes those in management, or even investors. Anybody who has regular contact with the business should understand the rules and live by them.  A whole-team approach is key.  

Show staff examples of best practice: Whether you as the manager are responsible for training, or you have allocated this job to another member of staff, modelling best practice is the best way to ensure team members take their learning on board and begin to apply it in the workplace.  If those in leadership are not showing staff how things should be done, the online training will lack purpose.

Although it can be difficult to find the time to do so, taking the time to consolidate learning from online courses in a practical environment can be invaluable to staff members.  Every staff member needs learning put into the context of their daily work.  This could be as simple as demonstrating steps throughout the day to ensure the safe handling of food, followed by reviewing the steps with staff members. 

To make the learning process easier, Go1 has partnered with Allara Learning to help you keep your staff up to date. Whether you run a bustling cafe or sophisticated fine-dining restaurant, well-trained staff members are guaranteed to improve customer satisfaction. Allara Learning’s Hospitality Compliance Training Package is specifically designed for the Australian market, and is essential for reminding staff of their legal obligations.  The package can also be used to on-board new team members, and focuses on five key training areas. All are equally important for ensuring your establishment is up to scratch and meets the basic requirements. 

Easy steps to make sure your hospitality business is compliant 

When looking for a Go1 Premium provider with great management courses, Cegos has risen to the challenge.

For nearly a century, Cegos has supported companies in their plans to transform and grow, advancing the personal and professional development of individuals worldwide - and we think Cegos is an excellent tool to use for your management training needs. With over 100+ Cegos learning resources available to all Go1 customers, they have great coverage of soft skills training, with content for almost every soft skills topic imaginable.  

Cegos offer a range of management training via Go1. Their expert training offers guidance for all levels of management and has been developed by drawing on research, their own business experience and work with thousands of clients around the world.

They have courses for new managers - to take their existing skills and knowledge, and translate them into effective management techniques. And for more experienced managers, who are looking to refresh their skills, learn to think more strategically or understand how to manage specific people or situations, Cegos also has a range of courses on topics such as Remote Management, Emotional Intelligence and more. 

In Go1 Premium, the Cegos courses for management we suggest you should have a look at are:

Making your new management position successful - Part A and B

For anyone who is taking up their first management position, this two part course will help you to learn about the demands of a management posting and your medium-term priorities, and how to prepare for your new appointment. 

Part A takes you through key responsibilities such as delegation and team motivation. 

Part B will show you how to lead your first meeting as a manager, handle initial interviews with your coworkers, or manage more delicate situations - such as managing former colleagues, experts and more senior coworkers. You will also be able to identify and differentiate between tasks that are urgent and important, thereby helping you to delegate effectively.

Managers have to deal with a range of different situations, from co-workers with different skills and motivations, to circumstances with varying imperatives and degrees of urgency. Managers must constantly adapt. Intuition, experience and personality are not enough on their own. Instead, managers must be conscious of their preferences, strengths and weaknesses, and constantly adjust their behaviour. They need to assess risks and develop their interpersonal and organisational strengths if they want to succeed. This module will help you understand the different options and adopt the appropriate behaviour.

Being persuasive in management situations - Part A and B

The term “negotiation” is used to refer to relationships with unions and management, customers and suppliers. However, the term “negotiation” is less widely used in relationships between managers and staff. Nevertheless, certain situations involve negotiation, even if it is implicit. Use this course to prepare for your negotiations.

Effective ways to communicate with team members: This module will give you a few tips about how to manage team members’ activities as well as how to boost each remote team member.

How to handle poor performing employees: Handling team member’s performance remotely is not an easy task. Learn how to create an employee performance improvement plan and choose between asynchronous and synchronous interaction. 

Try out Cegos training and let us know what you think!

From the Search Results page -> use the provider filter to find Cegos training

Want to access Cegos courses but don't have Go1 Premium? Enquire here!

The spotlight this week is on Cegos - a Go1 Provider with great management content.

Check out Go1 Premium Playlist: July 19th

Check out Go1's latest updates for Go1 global customers. 

Go1 welcomes SkillPath (business and software skills)

A leader in learning and development since 1989, SkillPath provides professionals worldwide with strategic and innovative training solutions. Their mission is to provide the highest-quality training for companies and businesspeople around the world, so they can benefit personally and professionally from the experience. 

Go1 has over 200 SkillPath learning resources available in Premium - the courses are most relevant to US Go1 customers. 

Check out some of their courses below, available to all Go1 Premium customers:

Course blurb: It doesn’t matter if you’re addressing an informal meeting or making a full-blown presentation in front of hundreds… you need a winning speaking style to convey that you’re in charge and get your message across. This confidence-boosting video provides the preparation pointers and critical delivery skills you need to overcome any uneasiness you may have in order to make a dynamic presentation and leave a memorable impression. 

Different resources cover: Begin and End With a Bang!; Constructing Your Content the EASY Way; Confidence – It Will Make or Break You;  Your Body Language Speaks Loudly; Connect With Your Audience; Handling Unexpected Situations With Immediate Resolve;  Digital Age Dilemmas. 

Course blurb: The workplace is bursting with emotional situations, and the people who most successfully navigate through it are the ones who’ve unlocked the power of emotional intelligence (EI). This DVD is your key. It reveals the secrets of EI — the ability to stay calm and in control of every situation — and explains how to use this skill to take your career to the next level. 

Microsoft Excel 2013 Essentials (content divided down into different functions)

Microsoft Powerpoint and Word 2013 Essentials

Microsoft Excel 2010 Pivot tables + Charts and Graphs 

Go1 has added a large amount of training to Go1 Premium from new Provider eSoft Skills, covering topics such as soft skills, management, leadership, HR, compliance and more.

eSoft Skills creates engaging courses developed by subject matter experts for individuals and teams. The courses include video tutorials, training manuals, activity worksheets, Q&A reviews and animated case studies.

Course blurb: As we grow, we learn to become leaders. Being a leader is natural for some, and learned for others. No matter how we have become a leader, it is important to remember we must lead ourselves before we lead others. Take the time to motivate yourself and realize that you can do it.With this “Self-Leadership” workshop, your participants will discover the specifics of how to be a better leader for themselves and for others. 

Course blurb: The meaning of Soft Skills can sometimes be difficult to describe. It can be that unique attribute or characteristic that facilitates great communication. It can be the special way that you show confidence in a challenging situation. These and other events can become more easily managed with this great workshop. With this course, participants will begin to see how important it is to develop a core set of soft skills. By managing and looking at the way people interact and seeing things in a new light, participants will improve on almost every aspect of their career. 

Every organization is responsible for ensuring cybersecurity. The ability to protect its information systems from impairment or even theft is essential to success. Implementing effective security measures will not only offer liability protection; it will also increase efficiency and productivity. With this “Cybersecurity” workshop, your participants will discover the fundamentals of cybersecurity as well as the methods that should be implemented to make sure their computer systems are protected.

This week, we welcome some exciting new providers with plenty of training content to help boost soft skills!

What does your to do list look like at the end of the day? Has it got shorter or longer? Sometimes it feels like you’re fighting against the tide. You’re getting work from your own boss, at the same time as managing your employees. Are you neglecting your own important priorities because of work overwhelm? Effective managers don’t do everything themselves. Effective managers focus on their priorities and delegate work they should not be doing to their employees. This article will help you identify the work that you should not be doing so you can start delegating work to turn the tide around.

PS: Delegation is one of those Essential Manager Skills that they just don’t teach you in school. This article contains information from the Ultimate Guide to Delegation. 

How do your delegation skills compare to other managers? Take the Delegation Check-Up to find out (must be logged into your Go1 portal to view)

Is your never ending to do list a source of stress? Feeling overwhelmed can turn healthy work pressure into unhealthy distress. Take an online Stress Assessment (must be logged into your Go1 portal) to find out your stress score and get customised stress management advice,

Want to be a better boss to deliver results & supercharge your career? Have you got what it takes to be a great boss? Start by finding out your Boss SuperPower 

Delegation to Motivate & Retain your Employees

Did you know that you can use delegation as a tool to motivate and retain your employees? This is because:

Your employees want a chance to learn & grow and;

Your employees want to be entrusted with responsibilities

If you don’t delegate effectively, then your top talent will leave you to get their growth needs met elsewhere.

Effective managers know how to use delegation as a management tool “to get stuff done”. That’s why delegation is an essential manager skill. But the problem is they don’t teach you how to delegate in school. Following a good delegation process means starting by identifying what to delegate:

Tip: As you read through this list get a pen and paper out to write down these responsibilities. Take a look at your calendar, email and to do list to make sure you don’t miss anything. This list then goes on to your delegation worksheet. (Helpful resource: Delegation worksheet to download from Go1)

1. What tasks can someone else do better than you? AKA what challenges can you solve by asking for help?

Did you get to be a boss because you were good at what you did? What got you here, won’t get you there. The truth is you’re not the expert at everything. The truth is you don’t have the time to “do everything right”. Effective managers know how to use their employees, time, skills and abilities to do a better job than they could do themselves. 

Super Ninja Manager Skills Bonus: Solving problems by asking for help. We’ve all got those lurking demons on our to do lists. Those problems that tend to get pushed back because we aren’t quite sure how we are going to fix them. This is a clear sign that you’re not the best person for the task in question. A great way to solve difficult problems is to talk to your team about the issue and see if any team members have a solution. When you have a particularly difficult assignment, instead of neglecting it, paying it too little attention or having it suck up all of your time. Delegate it to an employee as a stretch assignment. Remember that people like having problems to solve and want to be entrusted with responsibilities.

2. What tasks do you dislike doing that a staff member would prefer doing?

While being a boss is hard, you do get some privileges. One of which is you have the ability to delegate work you don’t like so you can shape your job to be more enjoyable. But this isn’t about abusing your power because the beautiful thing about diversity is that a task that you hate can be done better by someone else.

Personally, I don’t like doing sales and that means I neglect it and I’m not very good at it. That means someone else should do it.

3. What tasks consume a lot of your time?

All tasks are not created equal - some just seem to suck up hours of your day. Every hour a low priority task takes away from your key deliverables means you’re going to be functioning less effectively as a manager.   

On the positive side, you’re the boss which means you have employees to help you to get your work done. Free up a lot of time in one go by delegating time consuming tasks. Even if your employee takes twice as long to do it, you’ve still saved yourself time.

4. What tasks have to be done but aren’t on your key deliverables?

Are you spending enough time on your key deliverables? Or are urgent, low priority tasks getting in the way? The key to success in life and business is to focus on the right things. The most important things for you to focus on are your key deliverables. These are the things that you can make the biggest impact on. These are the things that matter the most.

Don’t fall into the trap of holding onto work because you like it. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to do everything yourself. Prioritise your work into your top priorities and give the rest to your employees.  

Helpful Resource: Now if you’re like many managers who get to the end of a busy day wondering where your time went, then start off by working out what tasks actually take up your time. You can do this with an activity log delegation worksheet to track where you actually spend your time (must be logged into your Go1 portal to view). 

Bonus Time Management Tip: Have the courage to delegate the lowest priority tasks to never-never land.

5. What tasks can contribute to the development of your employees?

This is one of my favourite things to delegate because by moving work around you can create value. Giving challenging assignments to your employees isn’t just a way to get stuff done. It’s also a way to grow your employees’ skills and capabilities. You’ll end up with a better team, ready to take on extra challenges.

Effective managers know that employees get job satisfaction when they learn and grow. 

Helpful Resource: If your employees don’t have the skills & abilities you think they need to take over responsibilities, then you can use coaching as a time saving method to develop their skills.

6. What can your staff do at a lower cost than you?

When you get your management badge, you should also get some extra in your pay packet. But the way you earn a higher salary is by being efficient with money. Put another way, hoping to walk home with a large pay packet is unrealistic if you fill your days with low value added tasks. Being efficient with company resources doesn’t always mean doing everything yourself. Being efficient with company resources means getting the job done at the lowest cost.

Add value by delegating lower value work to more junior (and cheaper) employees and focus on delivering higher value work yourself.

7. What routine tasks can be codified? AKA delegate tasks that are easy to delegate

Sometimes, a barrier to delegation, is the time and effort involved to train your employees sufficiently to support the delegation. Kick start your delegation by delegating the work that is easiest to delegate. The low hanging fruit is work that lends itself to easy codifying. 

Secret Ninja Manager Tip: Don’t document your work yourself, request that your employee codify your work as part of the delegation process. The easiest way to do this is to get them to shadow you while you do the task.

Did you know that you can use the Go1 system as a tool to codify, store & deliver standard operating procedures? For each process that needs codifying, you can create an online course showing employees how to do the job.

Did you make a list of the work you should not be doing? This is the start of your delegation worksheet. The next steps are to:

Change manage delegation into your team by securing employees support of the process

Identify which employees to delegate what work to

Make the delegation by using a proven delegation script

Avoid reverse delegation by using Active Listening Skills to coach your employees to fix their own problems

Keep your delegation on track with Effective Performance Communication

Helpful Reference: Find out how to delegate effectively in the Ultimate Guide to Delegation.

Managers are responsible for allocating work to the best person for the job. By matching work to skills & availability, you increase the efficiency of an organisation.

Effective managers use delegation to manage their workload, get stuff done and to grow the skills and abilities of their employees. 

The role of the manager isn’t to be a superhero and do everything yourself. Being a better boss means improving your manager skills. When you improve your manager skills, you’ll have more work success, happiness and improve your confidence at work. Kickstart your journey to being a better boss by knowing what to delegate and what not to delegate. 

Keith Tatley is a Chartered Accountant and Yoga Teacher. He helps people to have successful and happy careers by showing them the soft skills that people need to be effective in the workplace. For example: How to have One on One Meetings with Employees, One on One Meetings with your Boss. He operates www.ManagerFoundation.com, Karm.Academy and WWW.BOSS.CAMP 

What are the 7 tasks you should not be doing as a manager? 

Go1 is pleased to announce a new content partnership in Australia, teaming up with building and construction eLearning specialists Pointsbuild. Pointsbuild delivers their own digital learning content, specifically for the Australian building and construction industry. 

The partnership between Go1 and Pointsbuild has initially given Go1 Premium customers access to 12 Courses in the National Construction Code (NCC). The NCC is an initiative of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) developed to incorporate all on-site construction requirements into a single code.

For the last decade, Pointsbuild has delivered professional development courses too over 100,000 trades and professionals across a range of Australia’s leading construction companies. They make CPD easy for the construction industry, and can help ensure your organisation fulfils compliance requirements for licence renewal/accreditation in the industry. 

Mitchell Sabine, from Go1's Content Partnerships team, explains the value of this partnership for Go1 customers:

"Together, we will help employers and their staff in the building and construction industry achieve their training and compliance goals.  Pointsbuild are industry experts and have a leading library of courses for a range of trades and professions in building and construction industry." 

Go1 is excited to be partnering with Pointsbuilds - a leading online professional development company for all of the building, construction and property industries. We expect the partnership between both organisations will expand to include more of Pointsbuild's digital learning catalogue. 

Pointsbuild are leaders in education, training and innovation. Established in late 2006, Pointsbuild was founded to provide approved compliance based training for builders, with a focus on those in regional and remote areas - for which there has been a distinct lack of credible training and education options. Pointsbuild has grown from one of Australia’s first approved Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training providers for the Australian building and construction industry to now be the leader of online CPD, education and training services across Australia for construction and building professionals.