In the example above, Jane might be busy with another task and reply that she will be happy to publish the blog, but that she won’t be able to do it until 3 pm. An example could be: “Jane, would you please publish the blog on Monday before noon, and send me an email when it has been posted?” Respect the responseĪssigning a task by first asking the person if he or she would do it means that you need to listen to the response you are given and respect that response. They recommend that you start with “Would you please”, then state the task, the deadline, and what kind of status reporting you expect (in other words how you would like to be informed about the completion of the task). In Manager Tools, they have a great podcast on how to assign work tasks. Ask the person if he or she can do the taskīefore you assign a task to someone, and before you enter it into any system, make sure that you ask the person if he or she can do the task. In this article, I will share with you an effective way to assign tasks to others by asking politely and I’ll tell you about different ways of how you can track task progress. It’s important that you find a way that works for you and your employees.
The culture of assigning tasks to others varies drastically across companies and countries. As some of you might know, you have the ability to assign tasks to other people in Microsoft Outlook. During these sessions, there are always questions about assigning tasks to others. In my productivity workshops, I often talk about task management and I show the attendees how they can effectively use Microsoft Outlook to keep track of their tasks. Business Productivity > Blog > How to effectively assign tasks? How to effectively assign tasks?