Lets face it, in an ideal world we would all like to do everything to the highest possible standard, but in reality work pressures and deadlines mean that we have to become professional jugglers of our workload. If used wisely delegation can help us make the best possible use of our time as well as nurturing the skills of colleagues by giving them opportunity to gain different experiences. This article provides some practical tips to help you delegate with confidence.
1. Is the task or project suitable to delegate?
Successful delegation can only occur if the task is suitable for delegation in the first instance. Think about the experience of your staff and the scale or complexity of the task. Are you setting a more junior employee, up to fail by delegating a task that is simply to large for them to handle?
2. Clearly describe the task and check understanding
It is always important to communicate delegated tasks to staff in a clear manner and remains your responsibility to check that they have understood what is required. This avoids time being wasted correcting errors caused by poor communication. Always provide a written brief of the delegated task to avoid confusion.
3. Explain why the task needs completing and why you chose a particular employee
Employees work better when they can understand why they are undertaking a task. Take time to help them understand why they have been given the task, perhaps to help them develop their experience or because of your complete trust in their abilities. Doing this will improve their commitment to the task and boost its chances of success and ultimately their respect for you.
4. Hand over control, but maintain responsibility
It is important to hand over the control of a delegated task and allow the employee to adopt their own approach to completing it, but you must retain ultimate responsibility. This requires you to make clear to the employee that you are available to offer support and advice to keep them on track, but that you trust them to achieve the objective through the most appropriate means. There is nothing worse than having a task delegated to you only to have continued interference on how it is carried out.
5. Set a timescale
Always set a timetable for achieving the task, but be willing to be guided by the employee as to whether this is realistic.
6. Delegate to Develop
Whilst there will be times that repetitive or dull tasks need to be delegated to free up your time, look for opportunities to delegate more interesting tasks to help employees to develop their skills. A good manager will seek to empower staff and increase their experience by selective delegation and observe how they respond. This can be a really useful tool to help identify future managers.
7. Spread the Risk
If you are required to delegate a particularly complex task, consider whether it can be broken up into a series of smaller tasks to enable a number of staff to complete the work. This may be particularly beneficial if you are unsure whether one employee is capable of managing a complex task and it reduces the risk of failure by sharing it between a number of competent employees.
8. Progress Reports
Once you have delegated a task ensure that you agree regular review periods for progress reports. This is essential to ensure that the task is progressing as expected and allows for corrective action to be taken if required or for timescales to be re-negotiated.
9. Allow for mistakes to occur
Don't expect too much of an employee to soon and expect that they are likely to make mistakes on a delegated task along the way. Remember that it is not so much the mistake that is important but the way in which they overcome the problem and learn from it. A delegated task is rarely problem free. |
