You are no longer responsible for personally executing the task. But you are responsible for ensuring the task is completed. It is critical that you delegate to the right person and provide them with the tools and instruction that they need to execute it fully.
However, that is easier said than done. Finding the right person to delegate a task to can often be challenging for a good manager. What should you look for? There are four essential qualities to look for in employees who can be optimal targets for delegation. Employees that have some — or all — of these qualities are great options to take care of specific tasks for you. This is because each of those qualities focuses on a different aspect of the delegation process.
That aspect could be listening to intake of all of the instructions or being ambitious enough to never say no to a challenge. There are still many variables, including your ability to articulate the instructions, the given timeline, and the tools available. And the most important variable: the support you provide. You should be the one they look to as a resource.
They should approach you for counsel and advice. You will play a critical role in ensuring that your employee has the support they need to finish the task. By being supportive and assisting the employees responsible for the task, you can ensure that the project gets completed in the right way without having to execute it by yourself. Have you ever worked for someone who believes there is only one right way, theirs?
If so, you have been micromanaged. Micromanaging is delegation gone awry. It occurs when a leader has assigned a task but cannot seem to let go of the ownership of that task. Micromanagers conflate assigning work with overseeing exactly how to do the work. While micromanagement is common among new managers, it is seen at all levels, especially among individuals who are insecure in their position or overly emotionally attached to their work.
Leaders who micromanage tend to have low levels of trust and flexibility. If you see signs of micromanagement in your approach or among others on your team, review the list of good delegation practices and ones to avoid. Use one-on-ones and team meetings to clarify individual and team goals and the distribution of work across team members.
Each person is at a different stage in their career development and will require something different from you. Delegating means that you have transferred authority for the task to someone else.
But, as a leader, you still have to hold them accountable. The easiest reward is time. Block that time on your calendar to work on a project that is important to you or will provide you with an opportunity to shine.
Give your team members the time and space to do the work and avoid checking in too frequently. Allow for hiccups and small failures. Delegating means transferring ownership of the work to another person. Their end product will be different from what you would have done.
Be transparent about who is doing the work and give them credit by name in meetings and written communications. I recently worked with a client who had 20 years of leadership experience. They still faced delegation challenges with specific individuals and situations. Sharing responsibility for accomplishing tasks has many positive outcomes for teams and organizations. Delegating contributes to an organizational culture of trust and empowerment.
In high-trust organizations, managers focus on the whole person. They encourage their employees to grow professionally and personally.
They give employees autonomy in how they craft their jobs, manage their time, and accomplish their tasks. Research by Paul J Zak demonstrates that employees who work in high trust organizations have improved:. On an individual level, you as the leader will also benefit from improving your comfort with delegating.
You will find that you have more time on your calendar and increased opportunities for strategic work. You will also have greater visibility and lower stress. When practicing the art of delegating, you will invoke a number of your strengths and competencies.
We define empowerment as authority or power given to someone to do something. Every time you delegate is an opportunity to invoke your strength of empowerment. You can develop your strength of coaching through delegation. You use conversations to:. By clarifying roles and assignments, you help your team achieve alignment with larger organizational goals. Relationship building. Delegation inherently involves relationships with others. Through the process of delegation, you collaborate, experience mutuality, and improve your relationships.
Successful leaders are master delegators and masters at using Key Principles for effective communication. But leaders will only empower employees if they are able to delegate the right tasks to the right people. What does this mean? Well, the task must of course empower, engage, and encourage the person to develop. But many leaders have the best of intentions when it comes to being a successful delegator, only to be held back by themselves and subpar delegation skills.
And here are some ways they can learn how to delegate work better and build a team of empowered employees:. Instead, by building their employees up and using esteem to close out delegation conversations, managers can build confidence in their people. Leaders must have a conversation with the person, where both parties discuss and agree on a plan for following up to ensure progress is made. Leaders only delegate administrative tasks, leaving more strategic or higher-level tasks for themselves.
Team members want and need to be challenged to grow and feel satisfied in their work. Leaders must give equal opportunities to all their subordinate employees to tackle higher-level tasks to grow new skills. Leaders must also provide support to help them complete the tasks.
The bottom line? Even though delegating can be tough to get completely right, not delegating at all runs the risk of building a team of dissatisfied employees, which is a huge retention risk. Ultimately, an effective leader is also good at allowing employees to feel ownership in their work.
But what is ownership and what does it have to do with delegation? Ownership is when an individual is responsible for not only doing the task, but also the thinking behind it. So how can leaders help their employees to take ownership of delegated tasks? Here are three ways:. There are also some cautionary considerations when it comes to delegating responsibility.
Even a manager with high delegation skill can run into some challenges during the delegation process. After all, leaders are learning more about the capability of their team.
You might have to develop, train, and motivate people. Who said delegation was easy? No one. Managers are going to have to put in work to teach people and then give them many opportunities to practice what they learn. Delegations challenge both you and team members.
See the point above. Challenges should be embraced by both parties. Learning happens—and also innovation—when everyone on the team manager included has stretch assignments.
Finally, when it comes to upping delegation skill , there are ways HR teams can help their leaders. HR teams should look for leadership development programs and courses that are proven to help managers see positive behavior change on the job. But ultimately, learning to let go and delegate tasks is tough. Many leaders find it helpful to shift their mindsets.
When leaders learn to delegate effectively, their time is freed up and they can work on priorities key to moving your business forward. A Gallup study found that companies led by CEOs who were strong delegators achieved a higher overall growth rate compared to companies whose CEOs delegated less.
Great leadership has many components, and delegation is an important factor for maximizing employee contributions and increasing productivity among all members of a team. Here are four reasons why delegation is essential for effective leadership. Achieving the right balance between the strategic and the tactical is important for any leader to be effective, especially with the many demands on their time and attention.
In a survey conducted by the Strategic Thinking Institute, 96 percent of leaders said they lacked time for strategic thinking. When leaders delegate certain tasks to others, they become free to focus on higher-value activities and use their time more productively.
Delegation not only gives leaders time for strategic thinking, but it also allows them to focus on other tasks that only they can perform, such as leading and coaching their teams. As outlined in a Harvard Business Review article , one team leader adopted a strategy of delegation and made the shift from simply being busy to being productive. Prioritizing tasks helps leaders determine the most critical items to be delegated and who should perform them.
One tool for developing a prioritization system for delegation is the Urgent vs. Important Matrix. Using this matrix, leaders can categorize tasks based on their time sensitivity and importance.
Tasks or decisions that are less important but urgent, such as responding to a routine request from another team, can probably be delegated.
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