If you want to become a successful leader, you need to learn when and how to efficiently delegate to your employees, according to their strengths, your needs and the best interest of the company.
Yes, you need to make that strategic step from “doing” to “leading”, meaning a shift in your mentality, in the trust you invest in others but also a new “way of doing” things around the office.
As a manager in an organization, you will generally be in need to delegate work either to:
✳️Take control of your time, and/or
✳️Grow and encourage development of your employees.
If you have trouble with any of these options, let’s take an honest look at the overall situation.
Each time you share important work to others and transfer responsibility and authority – you demonstrate trust in your employees. This way, you will support them in growing and you will inspire them in taking ownership over their work. Your team will grow their skills and abilities while increasing motivation, feel in control and also receive feedback on their work.
Empower your people to grow is one perspective. Another one is that, through delegation, you also empower yourself as a manager. Thus, you will be able to use the spare time for different activities that will allow your growth as well, because learning is continuous and we need it, no matter the proficiency level we reach.
Therefore, through delegation, the whole organization will be empowered. This sounds easy or, at least, pretty straightforward but, in some cases, this also means a total cultural change.
So, what can we do? Well, the only way to progress is by practicing delegation. It’s not going to be perfect from the start. We need to educate ourselves as managers into “the art of delegation” as experts are calling it and also, we need to be very sincere with the result of our delegation process and ask for feedback.
Please be sure to check all the boxes in order to delegate efficiently:
✔️Match the job you delegate with the expertise level of the employees you delegate to. In other words, make it an achievable challenge for them.
✔️Delegate areas of work more than task by task. This way, you’ll alienate your desire to micromanage the work you delegate.
✔️Set clear goals and communicate them efficiently to the team.
✔️Delegate authority as well, while defining also the boundaries. Don’t forget, you are still responsible for the end result.
✔️Invest time and patience: be there to offer support and guidance whenever needed.
✔️Give feedback, assess and repeat. The key is to keep delegating and to make it as efficiently and rewarding as possible.
Delegation requires time and energy. While learning to delegate efficiently, one should focus on the long-term benefits and practice in the short term a better and faster way of performing their job.
