The Secret to Delegating

The occupation of Artist seems like a very individualistic job requiring someone to do all of their production work solo. However, there will always be times in an artist’s life when a project or deadline will come up and they have to ask for help. Whether hiring assistants or barking up the family tree, there are people who can be available to assist in artistic endeavors despite the fact that they aren’t necessarily the artist who conceived the project. Utilizing these people to lighten the load is an act called, delegation. In the creative field, many artists find it difficult to delegate because they have a very distinct image in their minds of what they want to create. I too had a hard time owning up to the times that I needed help and would often try to handle much more than I was capable of, causing stress and anxiety. Thanks to the experiences at my job working at a megachurch, I was able to overcome that self-consciousness and learned to more easily and effectively delegate my work.

I worked in an office with very particular bosses. They had high standards, heavy workloads, and events every week that sometimes required unique decorations and laborious preparations. However, we also had a list of volunteers who I could call to help me. Once I was getting overwhelmed and my boss told me about this list. I called a volunteer to help me make some paper handouts. I told them how they needed to be done and left them to it without supervision and went about my job. When I came back to them, they had finished the entire job incorrectly and I had to re-do everything by myself. After that, for the longest time, I didn't utilize the volunteers. However, gradually my workload increased more and more, and delegating my work to the volunteers became a necessity. I carried over this idea of delegation when I was in college. I set out to make a seven-foot-tall comic page for my 2D design class final project and another large scale gateway piece in my 3D design class. The scale of those school projects forced me to rely on delegation in order to get things done in time.

So, here is what I learned in a cute little rhyme: To delegate without stress, first, you need to assess.

Break down your project to see what you have to do, what you don't have to do, and what you CAN'T do.

Give your volunteers the full picture. You want your help to be able to see how what they are doing fits into the whole.

Have an example and/or demonstration of what needs to be done and let your aid(s) demonstrate to you that they can do what you've asked.

Give your help the time they need. Waiting until you're at your deadline and everything is going to hell is going to make everyone stressed and things difficult to understand.

Communicate with gratitude. Sometimes one small task can make all the difference in how long and difficult a project is and consequently, your level of sanity at the end of it. So be kind and appreciative to those that step up to help you.

There were many projects in which I had to do 90% of the work, but that last 10% of my family or friends helping me to erase pencil lines, fill water balloons, cast my torso, or just prepare all those freaking pamphlets is what pushed me over the finish line and brought me success.

Many successful artists have had assistance in preparing canvases, cleaning tools, modeling poses, household upkeep and meal preparation, studio setup, advertising, etc. There are people who are willing and able to help. It takes practice, just like anything else, but delegation is an indispensable tool that expands limitations and makes so much more possible.