The Art of Delegation: A Key Skill for Business Leaders

1. Introduction

The art of delegation is one of the key skills for business and project leaders. I remember that when I first became a supervisor, one of the most challenging things I had to learn was to delegate tasks to my staff. It was very difficult for me to determine what tasks I should delegate and to whom. I worried that tasks wouldn’t be completed correctly if I handed them off, so I found myself putting in long hours to complete all of the work. My mantra was always “If you want it done right, then do it yourself.” But taking this approach shortchanges the staff who could develop new skills when given the chance, and more importantly, it shortchanges me. I too should be developing skills to take on more complex tasks and projects, and to do this, I need to learn how to delegate. In a busy work environment, it can be a burden to add one more task to an already full plate. On the surface, that practice may seem like a good way to get things done right and on time. However, one must consider whether a missed opportunity is being created. Are you developing or coaching your staff? If you have been completing the same type of work yourself, are you using your time and skills to the highest degree? Perhaps there are new challenges or high-level tasks that you can be working on to further your own professional development.

2. Benefits of Delegation

Employees that feel that they have a real say in what they are supposed to do will feel more responsible for the results. This increases the employee’s self-worth and esteem and can lead to a greater feeling of accomplishment. The majority of the benefits of delegation come from effective delegation. A manager does not receive the benefit of freeing up themselves for higher-level tasks if too much time is spent explaining the task to be done and the expected results. Similarly, an employee does not benefit from the increased level of decision-making authority if the manager is going to question their every move and micromanage the task.

Delegating tasks has many benefits. The first benefit is that it can make a manager’s job easier. The manager can spend the bulk of their time and energy on higher-level tasks, hence will have more time to do the job they were hired to do. The manager also has the benefit of grooming their employees. Through effective delegation, a manager can continuously build up their employees and prepare them for advancement within the organization. This eventually increases their performance and skill level. Delegation is also beneficial to the organization as a whole because it helps with the decision-making process. Employees will be able to consider alternative methods and simply make decisions on their own within their authority. Involving more people in the decision-making process enhances the quality of the organizational decisions. Finally, delegation helps to develop a sense of responsibility and ownership within an employee.

3. Key Principles of Effective Delegation

Finally, build in some form of result measurement or monitoring points. For complex or long tasks, set some intermediary review dates. This ensures that the task stays on course and if it is straying too far off, a wrong assumption can be corrected before too much time is wasted. At the end of the task, there should be a method of comparing what was achieved against what was expected. This may be a presentation of the findings or simply a short written statement. Take the example of an R&D project, a manager isn’t going to wait for the final product to see if it was a success or not. They need to see at various stages what has been discovered and that progress didn’t lead to an unplanned outcome.

Ensure that the delegatee has the necessary resources to complete the task. These may be: time, training, access to certain data, and/or financial resources. If it is found that the delegatee does not have sufficient resources to complete the task, then this should be treated as the same as failing the task. Any time a task is delegated, there is an element of risk involved in that it may not be completed. For this reason, it should be known what the next steps are if the task is not a success. It may be possible to retry with the same delegatee; it may have to be passed on to another person, or the manager may have to become involved again in a consultative role.

The second principle is to match the amount of responsibility with the level of delegated authority. The key here is not to overload the member of staff. Allowing them to take ownership of a task and see it through to the end result is perhaps the most motivating factor in delegation. As they build experience and confidence, they can take on more complex and critical tasks. A common downfall in delegation occurs when a manager selects a candidate to delegate a task to and then, finding the person is not ready to take on that level of responsibility, takes the task back, or more typically, dictates how it should be done.

The first principle is to clearly identify the task, or the desired outcome. Be specific about the results that are expected. This will help the delegatee to focus their energies on precisely what is wanted. As a result, the output is more likely to meet the manager’s expectations. Strive to avoid blanket statements such as “sort that out”. These are open to a variety of interpretations and likely to result in work that has to be redone. Instead, try “I want a list of alternative suppliers for our overseas project, with a pro and con list for each”. This will focus the delegated person and ensure that they are not wasting time researching suppliers that are later rejected anyway.

4. Overcoming Challenges in Delegation

Challenges in delegation usually relate to the period when the relationship with the member is unformed. It is common for delegation to initially lead to inefficiencies. Members may be inexperienced or unskilled in the particular task. In the short run, this can slow down the leader by using more time and energy in explaining, overseeing, and correcting. However, investing this time is worthwhile in developing the individual and the task so that they require less direction in the future and become more skilled and self-sufficient. In order to realize this long-term efficiency, the leader must persist through the initial pain, avoid the common trap of giving up and taking the task back, and have faith that the member’s skills will improve with practice. One of the biggest problems posed by delegation is the leader’s struggle to let involvement in the particular task go. In most cases, effective delegation means transferring the responsibility and accountability for a particular task to another person. This can be difficult for the leader if they have a strong emotional attachment to the task or the task has been very important to them. Leaders often find that they are happy to delegate the task itself but reluctant to relinquish responsibility and control. However, it is important to distinguish between effective delegation and abdication; the leader must recognize that it is not effective to give a task to someone who is not yet ready to take it on or in a situation where failure will reflect very badly on the leader or the team.

5. Conclusion

Delegation can greatly benefit both the leader and the staff. Many leaders who do not have the skill of delegation are overworked and stressed because they are handling too many tasks themselves. This type of leader usually has staff standing around with nothing to do. This is frustrating for staff who want to be involved and wanted a chance to exert themselves. Staff generally want to be asked to pick up higher level responsibilities. Delegation is not just dumping tasks on staff; it is a motivator and can empower a staff member to feel part of the team and offer opportunities for personal and professional growth. An effective delegator is willing to train and develop staff to prepare them for the added responsibility. As long as the delegator is supportive, this can promote a quality work environment. Staff can often provide fresh ideas and new perspectives on how to complete tasks. A good delegator will allow time for the employee to accomplish the task his way, as long as the employee uses good judgment and keeps the delegator informed. Step by step feedback can be mutually beneficial. In this manner, delegation can result in higher job satisfaction, increased productivity, and a sense of shared endeavor towards common goals.

A leader’s time is a scarce resource and too often the time of leaders is spent on activities which others could do. Yet it is all too tempting for the leader to hang on to the activity. He may say he enjoys it himself, he may say he can do it better than anyone else, he may fear others lack his perfectionism and will do a bad job if left to their own devices. But the hard fact is that in all three cases he is usually deceiving himself.

The art of delegation is one of the most important skills any leader can bring to bear in his job and on this skill depends his future and the success of his organization. Many people find delegation one of the hardest skills to develop. It can be hard to let go of certain tasks and trust your employees to complete them to your satisfaction. Learning the skill of delegation is not as difficult as it seems. With practice, anyone can learn how to delegate effectively and efficiently.