Reclaim Your Time with the Delegate and Elevate Tool

Time is arguably the most valuable resource for Visionaries, Integrators, department managers, and efficiency champions. Yet, many leaders find themselves bogged down with low-impact tasks instead of focusing on their Personal Core Focus or high-value responsibilities. The good news? There’s a powerful tool that can help you reclaim your time, drive efficiency, and empower your team to grow in the process.

Enter the Delegate and Elevate tool. This tool will not only help you identify tasks to delegate but also guide your teams to achieve the same across the organization.

By cascading this method, you can enable your entire company to focus on what truly matters while ensuring no task or responsibility falls through the cracks.

The Four Quadrants of the Delegate and Elevate 

At its core, the Delegate and Elevate tool organizes tasks into four quadrants based on their fit with your skills and energy.

1. Love and Great

These are the tasks and responsibilities that align with your passion and expertise. They feed your energy and deliver the greatest impact. Keeping these tasks in your hands ensures you’re working within your Personal Core Focus.

2. Like and Good

These tasks may not energize you as much, but you’re still highly skilled at them. They’re candidates for delegation eventually, but no immediate action is needed unless they pull focus from higher-value tasks.

3. Don’t Like but Good

These responsibilities drain your energy, even if you’re effective at them. Tasks in this quadrant are ripe for delegation to team members who may enjoy and excel at them.

4. Don’t Like and Not Good

Here lie the tasks that waste your time and energy. These should be delegated, outsourced, automated, or eliminated as soon as possible.

By auditing everything on your plate with this matrix, you’ll gain clarity on exactly where your time goes and what needs to change to maximize your impact.

Hosting a Company-Wide Delegate and Elevate Workshop

To amplify the effectiveness of this method, consider running a Delegate and Elevate Workshop for your team. Here’s a step-by-step guide to get started.

Step 1: Set the Stage

  • Objective: Clarify that the goal is to help team members free themselves from low-value tasks, take ownership of their strengths, and improve overall workflow efficiency
  • Preparation: Ask participants to list out all their current tasks and responsibilities in advance

Step 2: Introduce the Four Quadrants

Use a visual tool like a printed Delegate and Elevate tool template to explain the four quadrants.

Step 3: Task Sorting

Have each team member map their tasks into the correct quadrant. Encourage honesty and self-awareness during this process.

Step 4: Group Discussion

  • Discuss recurring themes. Are there common tasks in the “Don’t Like It and Not Good At It” quadrant that could be reassigned?
  • Identify team members who are “great” at those tasks and could take them over

Step 5: Action Plan

  • Each team member drafts a plan for tasks they’ll delegate or eliminate in the next two weeks
  • Managers set up follow-up check-ins to ensure accountability and support

Step 6: Repeat Quarterly

Revisit the Delegate and Elevate tool quarterly to refine workflows and keep everyone operating at their best.

Automate, Delegate, or Eliminate?

When you’ve identified tasks that shouldn’t stay on your plate, the next step is figuring out how to reassign them effectively.

Automate

Some tasks don’t need human intervention at all. Explore tools to automate repetitive processes like data entry, email follow-ups, or report generation.

  • Examples of automation tools include Zapier, HubSpot, or Slack integrations

Delegate

Reassign tasks to team members who have both the capacity and interest to own them. Use tools like margin calculators or workload visualizations to ensure assignments are feasible and balanced.

Eliminate

Question whether certain tasks even need to be done. Are they outdated? Redundant? If so, remove them completely. Eliminating inefficiencies is one of the quickest paths to productivity.

ROI Case Study: 30% of Tasks Reassigned

Still skeptical about the Delegate and Elevate tool’s impact? Consider this real-world case study.

A mid-sized firm with 120 employees introduced Delegate and Elevate workshops across its leadership team and departments. After implementing the matrix, they discovered that 30% of tasks being handled by senior managers were either low-impact or misaligned with their skills.

These tasks were delegated to junior staff, automated, or eliminated entirely. This change resulted in the following measurable outcomes within six months:

  • 17% Increase in Manager Productivity

Managers were now spending more time focusing on strategic projects and leadership rather than daily admin work.

  • 10% Reduction in Overtime Hours

Redistributing workloads evenly across the team decreased burnout and overtime, improving morale.

  • 30% Faster Project Timelines

Clear task ownership and better workload allocation streamlined project delivery times.

Tools to Implement the Delegate and Elevate Method

To help your team start strong, we’ve created several resources:

  • Delegate and Elevate Tool Template (ready to print and use for your workshop).
  • Ask each team member to list their top recurring tasks and identify which are the most time-consuming.
  • Have your team rank tasks by importance and impact to visualize where their time is best spent.

These tools and actions are simple to use and will set your organization on the path to more effective time management.

Reclaim Your Time and Refocus

The Delegate and Elevate tool is more than just a time-management tool. It’s a mindset shift that empowers leaders and teams to align work with their strengths, focus on their core roles, and scale their impact. Are you ready to put this method into action? Get started today with our free Delegate and Elevate Worksheet and unlock your team’s full potential.

Picture of Mark O'Donnell

Mark O'Donnell

Mark O'Donnell is a Certified EOS Implementer who is passionate about helping entrepreneurs get what they want from their businesses. His Unique Ability is to help clients to clarify and crystallize their goals and objectives, and to take immediate actionable steps to achieve them. Mark is a 4-time Inc. 500|5000 entrepreneur with experience in high-growth organizations. View my EOS Implementer Profile

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