delegation

Delegation: How To Delegate Effectively? Best Tips For Managers

Leadership 22 August 2023 5 Mins Read

Handling a large workforce while engaging in the necessary higher, value tasks is difficult. That is when managers delegate tasks and responsibilities to their employees. This allows managers to handle the job while also paying attention to high-value activities. Let’s Understand what is delegation?

But how is this possible? Delegation of tasks involves the transaction of trust. The manager entrusts the employees with a specific set of functions and expects them to complete them. The employees are provided with a certain level of autonomy with their responsibilities. The members are then expected to be accountable for their actions and autonomies.

Here is a brief overview of delegation and how to do proper delegation. Go through this article to apply to delegate leadership style in your workplace.

What Is Delegation?

What Is Delegation

The first step of delegation is knowing that you cannot do everything all by yourself. A Gallup Study reveals that CEOs are able to achieve 33% more in revenue after they have delegated the tasks. When a leader or a manager delegates tasks among their team, they transfer a certain amount of authority along with the workload they have to carry. There are four different types of delegations done by a manager –

  • General or specific delegation
  • Top to bottom or bottom to top
  • Formal or informal delegation
  • And lateral delegation

After delegating tasks with autonomy added, employees have a chance to perform better than they usually do. This allows leaders to formulate high-performing teams. Below are some strategies for effective delegation.

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Best Tips For Delegation Managers Should Follow

Best Tips For Delegation Managers Should Follow

Here are some of the best tips that managers should follow for proper delegation of their tasks –

What To Delegate?

Proper delegation from a manager starts with knowing what responsibility requires delegation. There are certain tasks that employers can delegate, but certain responsibilities need to be under their radar alone.

For instance, employers can keep the tasks such as performance reviews and handle personal matters by themselves. This needs to start with hiring the right talent for the job and understanding their strengths and weaknesses. Then employers can go forward with the delegation and transfer certain responsibilities and authorities to them.

As a manager, you may not need to have oversight on some of the day-to-day tasks. If your co-workers are better equipped to handle the task without your intervention, it is time to delegate the tasks. Doing so will help leaders develop trust among their members. Also, they will have more time on their hands to do other tasks.

Align Your Employee’s Goals With Yours

As a manager, you can take some work off your shoulder by delegating them. You can start doing that by first finding out the strengths, goals, and weaknesses of your followers and then aligning them with yours.

Let’s say that one of your teammates wants to gain managerial experience. You can let them supervise a new intern. Or let them handle a certain portion of a project that helps them develop their professional skills and also helps you complete it in due time. Leverage your employee’s strengths and allow them to achieve their professional goals, and in the process, you can delegate tasks and responsibilities to get them done.

Delegate Tasks With A Clear Set Of Expectations

Add a proper context to the tasks and autonomy you delegate among your team members. The team members need to understand the exact reason for the delegation and have their understanding clearly tied to the organization’s goals.

Do not let the employees start a project without first outlining their responsibilities and what they are doing. They should also know by when they need to finish the task and responsibilities delegated to them. You can include metrics and see how successful they are on their parts.

Provide Necessary Resources And Authority

A proper delegation of any work requires your team members to have a certain level of authority. For that to happen, as a manager, you need to ensure that your team has all the components required to complete the tasks.

Provide them with the training, resources, time, and authority your team needs to fulfill the mission. Setting your employees to do unimaginable jobs without providing necessary resources would only frustrate both parties.

Also, a manager needs to battle the urge to micromanage each of the steps their team members take. The managers need to stop micromanaging each step of the way and guide the team members to achieve their goals. However, if any employees have a skill gap to fulfill the objective in time, then you can mention them and help them fill out those gaps.

Establishing A Clear Channel Of Communication

When delegating tasks, responsibilities, and authorities, employers need to establish a clear channel of communication. The team members need a clear channel of communication with their managers to share problems, provide progress reports and ask questions.

Employers can better manage it by setting up regular check-ins and detailed discussions on the project. They can also discuss different challenges employees face while carrying out their responsibilities. Regular feedback sessions and check-ins allow employees and employers to find solutions to any challenges faced along the way.

Allow For Failure

As an employer, you should also allow failure on the employee’s part. Delegation might help reduce the task burdens, but it does not help you avoid failure completely. However, if your employees have the chance to fail, they will find room for experimentation and empower them to finish the project with success.

Being Patient

Some tasks that take 30 minutes to complete might take an hour for an employee when they are doing it for the first time. You cannot expect them to be a perfectionist on their first go.

But, if you be patient, they will learn to do it faster and deliver the result you expect of them. Efficiency comes with experience, and experience comes with confronting difficulty and hardship. A manager needs to provide their employee with that time to experience hardship.

Give Feedback And Criticism

Your employees also need to know if they are living up to the employer’s expectations. So, when you are taking those sessions to check in, you can also provide some constructive criticism where it is most necessary.

Also, do not hold back your appreciation or recognition of your employee’s success. Employees feel motivated to have their employer provide feedback and appreciation for their success. So, do not keep due credits and give them away to your team when they need them.

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Final Words

Delegation of tasks and responsibilities is not easy. You need people who you can trust, and the people you delegate the task to must have the responsibility to understand and achieve the objective. It starts with aligning the right people and delegating the right tasks.

If you have completely read this article, you will have an idea of what delegation is and how the best managers use it. Please let us know your feedback on the same. Thank you for reading.

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tags

Decision-Making Delegation of Authority Delegation Techniques Managerial Skills Workload Distribution

Shahnawaz is a passionate and professional Content writer. He loves to read, write, draw and share his knowledge in different niches like Technology, Cryptocurrency, Travel,Social Media, Social Media Marketing, and Healthcare.

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