Importance of Delegation
Power of working together; happy together
01 Jun 2019
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Do you regard yourself as a “do-er”?
If you are one of those people who are satisfied when you finish a task by yourself and snoops around looking for more work, then you probably have trouble delegating.
I consider myself a passionate and enthusiastic worker. I usually enjoy working and appreciate the moment of accomplishment and achievement; having the work performed myself. However, when the task is overwhelming, I find it is vital to delegate the job to someone else.
Time to delegate
There may be a person with more information and expertise in the area you wish to delegate. If the task can be handled through them just as nicely as through you, chances are it is a right candidate for delegation.
As a leader, time spent on strategic work planning is critical. To do this, you should weed out the time-consuming stuff, especially when it’s repeating like every week or month. Many people think they should delegate unimportant tasks. It’s a common assumption. You should know what important stuff is better when handled by you. When jobs aren’t important at all, you should take the opportunity to weed out these trivial tasks.
Also, delegate jobs to the person suitable and enjoys working on it. Does the task provide an opportunity to grow and develop another person’s skills? Make sure you support and complement along the way for the others to complete the job.
You must not think everything is delegatable. You should never delegate any personal matters (aka HR matters) which entails some level of secrets. Furthermore, I would not delegate if the task has no precise requirements to be done. You shouldn’t just ask someone to complete something without even a clear outcome.
Time you delegate
You should approach delegations as an offer to present to the member, not a demand or command to be made. Delegating outcomes, not actions, helps leaders present assignments and enables them to get the job completed well.
You might quickly fool yourself, thinking that jobs are better when completed in “my” way. The chances are they will follow and do the way you inspired. However, there are fundamental issues to this method:
First, people behave in the way you instructed them to do so. There is no room for any innovation there. Robots can probably handle things better. You want to encourage them to bring their best out of a job. Flourishing and complimenting along the way is perhaps one of the most essential virtues in the stage of delegation. You wish to have the best result out of a job.
Second, you are not even delegating any work at that point. You have not delegated anything. For example, A asks B to have something done, but if A wants it in A’s way. B would be too busy probing around A and not able to make the right decision, that’s not a proper delegation. It would sprout and grow rapid mistrust between A and B.
Third, lack of authority and privileges. When delegation is self-centred, it is hard for the delegator to have all the access to complete the job. When you are delegating, you must delegate all the authorizations and access you can give to the person completing the task. Delegator, as a person representing you, should have equal rights to complete the job.
"Here lies a man who knew how to enlist in his service better men than himself." - Andrew Carnegie Epitaph
