How To Delegate Successfully?

No matter how good you are and the time you devoted to your work, if you can only accomplish a limited number of tasks alone, you have limited success.

 

Delegation is the tool used by leaders to optimize their time in order to focus on the company's growth.

  Today people normally have a workload greater than what they can perform. Therefore, employees must work under higher levels of stress, and be able to prioritize and manage their time efficiently. Delegation allows you to make the best use of your time and skills, and it helps other people in the team grow and develop to reach their full potential within the organization.

Why delegate?

Delegation allows you to focus on high-value tasks. The more essential tasks that you can teach and delegate to others, the greater the time you will have to do the things that only you can do. Leaders who want to be involved in every single detail, risk losing the big picture and not noticing in time when the objectives are not being fulfilled until it is too late. Leaders must have free time to focus on looking ahead, steering the course, and making needed corrections to avoid getting off track.

Delegation allows you to develop human talent in your company. Giving tasks of great responsibility to your subordinates or team, along with the freedom to carry them out is a direct way to tell them "I trust you." This behavior builds employees’ innovation, morale, and satisfaction while allowing them to feel that they are growing within the company. The more often you assign responsibilities to the right people, the more competent they become.

Delegating saves you time. It does not only free you up to focus on higher-value activities but also gives you more time for yourself and your family.

How to delegate successfully?

1. Know exactly what you want. Before delegating is important to establish the goals of the task you want to delegate, how you will measure its success, and a fair time frame for reaching it.


2. Pick the right person. Match the required knowledge and skills to do the job to the abilities of the person. Furthermore, make sure the person can work independently. Although it s important to be available to give guidance, if this person continually asks questions, you end up spending more time on the project than you would if you have just done it yourself from the beginning. This is called “reverse delegation.”


3. Provide complete and clear job instructions. Let the person know exactly what you want, which are your expectations. Give them some advice on how they could do the job, and let them know why it is important. Once you establish the expectations, let your staff decide how to carry out the project.


4. Follow up. Give employees the freedom to do the work, but check in periodically on progress. You'll know how to determine which tasks need more monitoring than others. By tracking the evolution of the job, you will realize if the person correctly understood your instructions, and if the work done so far is according to your expectations. Moreover, is a way to provide guidance in order to support that the task is achieved on time.


5. Give credit. Always keep in mind that if the project is successful, the employee gets the credit. If it fails, you are accountable.