The ability to delegate effectively is a key skill to master when you run a team or business.
Many clients in their leadership development coaching sessions spend some time looking at how they can develop their delegation skills.
The benefits to leaders of effectively delegating tasks are:-
• Creates more time and opportunity to focus on and complete the most important tasks
• Helps develop skills and confidence
• Develops mutual respect and trust
• Forces them to become clearer about their own expectations of goals, standards and responsibilities
• They achieve more in less time than would be possible by working alone
I have found that leaders and managers that are new to their position or have inherited a new team sometimes do too much themselves.
They don’t always delegate effectively and need some help to develop this skill. Normally it is because they have not had sufficient time and space to assess the relative capabilities and skills of their team or develop trust to give up control of tasks.
A lack of effective delegation means they are not fulfilling their or their team’s potential. Increased delegation leads to a growth in results and productivity.
I have listed below some common reasons clients give for them not delegating effectively:
• “It seems quicker to do things myself”
• “I have an issue with sharing control”
• “Other people might not do it as well as me, to my standards”
• “My staff might do it better than me and my ability will be questioned”
• “If it goes wrong, it will rebound on me, I will get blamed for other people’s mistakes”
• “I don’t feel secure enough in my position yet to share results and credit with others”
• “My staff are already over stretched and I’m not sure they have the capacity or desire to take on more tasks”
• “I’m not sure that the staff have the skills and capability to take on more tasks”
• “I am busy and don’t have the time to train people or show them what I need doing”
Do any of the above statements sound familiar? Sometimes leaders tell me that they are just too busy to delegate effectively. They are in a vicious circle of being too busy and not having sufficient time to plan their way out of the habit and free up some time.
Effective delegation requires an investment of time and careful planning. It also involves undertaking an exercise with the team to see if any of their present duties that can be streamlined or dumped to free up some time and capacity before delegating some tasks to them.
Here are some tips to help you improve your delegation skills:
• Make a commitment to permanently delegate at least one significant task per month over the next twelve months. Start with tasks which are absorbing your time but which would not cause significant damage if done less well.
• Delegate to people who are capable of carrying out the task and who would benefit from the extra responsibility.
• Be very careful to explain the outcome you expect. Define time frames and measures of success. Ensure that there is complete understanding of your requirements.
• Show interest and regularly check in to see how they are doing and if they need any help or guidance. Don’t dump and then forget!
• Praise the successful completion of the task. Help people to learn from their experience, particularly if mistakes have been made. Draw out the lessons to be learned.
• Progress towards the delegation of more challenging tasks as you and your team gain more confidence and trust.
• Always take care to match the experience, ability and motivation of your staff to the nature of the task being delegated.
A final thought:
Avoid allowing your team delegating upwards to you. Share responsibility as much as you reasonably can. Remember that upward delegation and over dependency are usually symptoms, the cause of which could be your reluctance to delegate in the first place.
Learning to delegate productively will take time, patience and courage. It is certainly not a quick fix solution to management problems. However, if it is done well, in the long term nothing is more certain to improve your performance or that of your team.
This week why not take a few moments to consider how effective your delegation skills are. Do you need some additional help or support? What tasks/habits do you need to let go of or change?
Quote for the week:
“You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible” Anton Chekhov
To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk