Delegation

One of the most important skills of a manager is delegation. 

Good delegation not only saves you time and money but also develops your people, aids succession planning and motivates and empowers individuals and teams. 

Delegation is therefore a vital part of effective leadership which allows people to grow in the job and builds strong and successful team who are able to meet the demands of all situations.

Delegation is defined as:

“Giving responsibility for particular jobs, functions or task and the decisions to others, whilst retaining the accountability yourself.”

There are many benefits to delegation which include:

• Development of staff
• Gives you more time to focus on the development of the business
• More job interest for your people
• Helps to train staff

However, we often find that we fail to delegate as much as we should.  Some of these barriers include:-

• It’s quicker to do it myself
• It involves training and I have not got the time
• The staff are already overworked
• I enjoy doing this job
• I’ve always done this job
• I can’t trust that it will be done the way that I want it to be done

In order to become effective delegators we need to overcome some of these barriers and develop a strategy for delegating work.

A simple strategy to follow is:

• Make a list of what could be delegated
• Select people who are capable, willing and interested
• Explain reasons why and the results expected
• Let go of authority but maintain responsibility
• Let staff establish their priorities – you fix deadlines
• Follow up on the task
• Be available for help when needed but don’t spy
• Be prepared to invest time early on explaining/coaching – it will pay off in the end
• Demand finished work.  Don’t accept problems but do accept suggestions for solutions
• Always give credit for good work
• Remember – intelligent people learn from their mistakes

Tasks delegated – what next?

Once you have delegated appropriate tasks to your team, what do you do then?

Obviously, you still need to monitor the tasks you have delegated whilst continuing the development of your people to help them exercise their authority well.  You should, however, also be benefitting from additional time that has become available to you.

As a manager, you have a responsibility to define the vision for the company, ensure that everyone understands that vision and the part they play in it, and to make sure that everyone has the knowledge and skills needed to achieve the company’s goals.  

With the free time you have created through your effective delegation, you can now task yourself with looking at the big picture, checking that the vision is still appropriate and that the business is in good health and on track to achieving the vision within the timescales you desire.

Effective delegation is a mechanism for creating opportunity.  Take that opportunity and use it well.

By Letitia Cavanagh, Business Adviser