It’s the start of the week. And you’ve been given a new project assignment which has to be completed as a group. This means then that you need to plan each and every step and decide how everyone will contribute. You’ve seen this in school, in college, and now in office too. The same strategy has to be utilized, with everyone being provided with an opportunity to lead a project in a particular manner.
With a project comes the multitude of components in the project to be executed. Different people in your team means different capabilities, and a standard expectation of quality and on-time delivery So the next question that comes in is as to how to divide and assign these properly so that the project output is efficient and effective. This is where task allocation comes in.
To elaborate, task allocation refers to ensuring that all relevant tasks have been allocated to someone in a team, and that the workload has been distributed properly in order to balance the load among the participants. It’s important to distinguish this from Task Assignment, which is to ensure accountability for assignment of tasks to specific individuals or teams of individuals.
By taking certain measures with your team, Task Allocation can be handled effectively.
Have A Plan
As the popular adage goes, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And each working hour is a step forward in the journey of your project and the impact it has on your business. So, set aside one or two hours at the end of each week for reviewing your delegation strategy.
This is especially important as you’ll need to ask yourself the following:
- What are the achievement outcomes of the meeting?
- Who are to be the involved players?
- Which person performs well in what
- Who needs development in what areas?
A group call without a purposeful plan results in no one in the team learning how to execute the tasks. As a result, the team’s true potential will not be built, nor tapped into. Doing so requires calling in the right people , and placing them into groups as needed. Keeping this in mind, one such tool to help with this MultiCall. MultiCall is a calling app that allows group collaboration, be it your friends, family, or even your office team.
With multiple features such as Call Monitoring and Recording, MultiCall does not require heavy-duty networks. In the case of a MultiCall, data is required only to initiate the call. You also can select individuals from your contact list to set them as a group in the app, or even as your favorites; should you need to contact them frequently.
Clarify Roles
If a team member didn’t know what exactly their role was, would you be able to clearly allocate a task for them? Correct allocations of the tasks also means ensuring that the involved team members are clear on their roles. The more certain they are of their roles and responsibilities, the greater the efficiency and effectiveness in assignment and review of work. This is especially important in the context of letting everyone contribute as well.
Set the expectations clearly
Emphasizing the effort levels and engagement allows for letting the team focus is key, but the challenge at this point is in making sure that the workload is fair and equitable. The best manner in which this can be ensured is in setting clear expectations to the entire team as to what the outcomes would be. It would also mean knowing to let the other participants engage in dialogue as well.
This would help get the most out of the MultiCall, increasing its effectiveness and shortening its duration. Showing the expectations however, is only one part of it. Managers also need to show the reality; progress must also be also apprised to everyone who is involved. Performance updates are critical in allowing everyone to understand whether or not you are on track to meet the expectations outlined.
Communicate One-on-One
Part of being a good manager is in the ability to maintain clear communication itself. This is quintessential for managers to perform basic functions in their role such as Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. This is more so at this time of pandemic, with remote working and social distancing in place.
As a result, this directly affects task allocation too. Having individual conversations with team members about their share of the collective workload is critical to ensuring employees stay motivated and engaged. And besides that, this is a good opportunity to talk to your team members about their professional goals. It also allows for gathering and noting aspects on team dynamics, and resolve problems.
With minimal facilities, clear conveyance to the team with regard to information and thoughts is needed. Communication goes both ways; therefore it’s equally imperative to have the communication skill to listen and encourage input by others; and to motivate the other individuals to contribute ideas and solutions. MultiCall’s call-monitoring feature lets you add or remove participants as and when you require them during a group call, and to also see who’s speaking.
Be Available
The aspect of being available is not just about you as a manager being flexible ; a person’s availability is also essential in properly allocating work. It also comes down to asking yourself as to who is free to do the work, and to prioritize resource of time accordingly.
And this can be done over a MultiCall too. The Call Scheduling feature lets you set the date and time for the call, with the ability to notify all contacts involved. And as time is money, the duration feature is also present which lets you set the call duration for up to 120 mins / 2 hours.
Fixing Right Deadlines on a Call
This is inclusive of setting priorities and deadlines, detail sharing and task assignment. Creation of the right deadlines on call not only helps augment efficient task allocation; it also creates helps create visual project plans to see how every step maps out over time, thus keeping an eye on deadlines, and eliminating potential obstacles.
Transparency in Work
Transparency, at a given time, was an element only held by executives and leaders of a company. But the world we live in today has employees being more transparent than ever. This is to the point where it’s not just expected, but even demanded as well.
Just as expectations are clearly set, work transparency needs to also take place, as this is critical to assessing a member’s capabilities before a task is allocated to them. To that extent MultiCalls would be best effective with full transparency in all aspects.
Conducting the Call Positively
Staying positive while at work and on calls is critical to a successful task allocation, and in the long run, the success of your organization. But we get it, this is not always possible. You had a late start past your morning alarm, you’d have your problems at home like everyone else, and the traffic in the morning to rush hour is enough to leave you frustrated with impatience.
However, approach your team with the bad attitude that comes of this, and you’re likely to only succeed in driving them away. Approaching every call with a positive attitude, you’ll find team members becoming more responsive, more cooperative to allocated tasks and even loyal to your company in the long run.
Being Considerate of Feedback
Last but not least, the ability to allocate tasks swiftly also is dependent on both the ability to give and take feedback. This means making feedback clear to everyone involved, and to document needed areas of improvement. With a quick response, greater receptivity of feedback would mean a faster and more effective allocation of tasks, and therein a more streamlined communication among teams.
Like in sports, task allocation is just as important in business. Putting the right people in the right place and at the right time will mean the difference between success and failure for an organization and its ability to operate. Using effective people and tools like MultiCall for this, will pave the way to success.
“We accomplish all that we do through delegation; either to time or to other people.”
– Stephen Covey
