A hallmark of an effective manager is their ability to delegate. You cannot effectively manage and lead without delegation. Delegation is where you give responsibility and authority for a task to another individual which both useful and intimidating at the same time. Delegation can be a major challenge for some individuals who may be reluctant to give up control and are unsure about the ability of others to do the job as well as they could. However delegation is one of the most critical skills and allows managers to significantly increase their productivity and to concentrate on the key aspects of management (plan, lead, organise and control) freeing up their time to attend to more strategic concerns.
In order to ensure that tasks are not completed to an unsatisfactory level there are a few simple rules to remember when it come to delegation, First analyse the job as a whole, decide what parts you wish to delegate, then plan who you are going to delegate these to. Once allocated you must ensure that the individual is willing and able to complete the task satisfactorily. You must also ensure that all relevant parties are aware of their roles, and finally be sure to monitor the progression and a completion of the tasks delegated.
You must compose an idea of what is required to complete the job as a whole. How long will it take? What are you best at? What needs to be completed first? Upon answering these questions you will be able to appropriately delegate jobs specifically to individuals who have skills in certain areas. If you have to formulate a document, give it to someone who is skilled at the computer software. Need to work out profit and loss margins? Hand it to someone with sufficient math knowledge, and if you need to develop a new logo or plan colours for a document, find someone who is great with colours and design. Delegation is all about giving varying jobs to people who not only have the skills and knowledge, but are willing and able to complete the task.
You must however ensure that you are not employing delegation in effort to avoid doing the most part of the work, but are coming together as a team with a common goal. To avoid unhappy employees you must make sure they are aware of the many tasks that are to be completed and why they have been assigned their specific job. You don’t want to give the impression that you are avoiding work, or favouring certain employees so be sure to delegate evenly and fairly in terms of workload.
Usually jobs have time pressure of when they are to be completed, for this reason it is important that you do not simply delegate all of the tasks off, and then expect them to be completed to a high standard by the desirable time. Be sure to monitor the progress of certain tasks, offer help, ask questions, make sure that your employees know that you are there to help and how you expect their tasks to be completed.
Delegation is an effective tool if used appropriately and can enable you to complete a range of different tasks quickly and effectively. As an employer or employee you must ensure that effective communication is made throughout the entire process so that the job is done on time and correctly. Remember to be respectful and make sure that you are working as hard, if not harder that your counterparts and show what a wonderful leader be and successful team you can manage.