There just isn’t enough time in the day for you to do everything on your list. You know you need to pass some things on. But how do you go about it?
- Know your strengths and your team. I hate to break it to you, but no one is good at everything. We can’t all be proficient presenters as well as accomplished accountants. There may be a task that you feel like you are waging war with that a colleague or employee has a particular knack for. Is it something they could take on?
- Establish responsibility. Ultimately, if a task is yours to delegate, it’s also yours to sign off on and take responsibility for. However, there are levels of delegation to consider. Do you want every decision to be run past you or to just give a quick review and final nod when a job is complete? Decide how much control to pass on. Let others know that you have delegated.
- Set the ground rules. Outline the assignment you are delegating, as well as time restraints, desired results and when you expect to be updated. Give a chance for discussion and questions to ensure a thorough understanding of what’s required.
- Leave the door open. If you’ve decided to delegate something to someone else, DON’T constantly hang over their shoulder to see how it’s going. You should already have told them how often you want them to check in. DO allow your employee/colleague the opportunity to approach you for guidance, if needed.
However…
- Don’t dump and run! Don’t offload all your menial chores on some poor unsuspecting employee. There is nothing more demoralising than consistently being assigned the grunt work that no one else wants to do. Don’t overload a colleague and allow them to use their brain!
- Don’t steal the glory. It may be your task to oversee, but someone else has done the hard graft on this one. Credit where credit’s due.
DO delegate! Just do it right!
