Saturday, November 7, 2009

A Simple Introduction To Delegation

By Martin Haworth

It is well known that effective leaders are those people that understand what delegation is and who also have the required skills with which to delegate tasks effectively. A manager who is not good at delegating tasks to a team, will soon find that they have started to burn themselves out and this will build their stress levels.

Some tasks are delegated as a matter of routine, while others are so important that managers decide these kinds of tasks more suitable for their personal attention and hence will not be delegated. It is therefore important to ensure that you know which tasks are appropriate for delegation and those which should not be.

You must also appreciate that there is a right way to delegate things and a wrong way to delegate tasks. The wrong way will lead to failure, whilst the correct ways will ensure success.

However, in its truest sense, delegating tasks and authority is not really an exercise of free will; it is meant to be a means whereby a manager can alleviate heavy workload and additional responsibilities that they cannot do on their own. By delegating some work and authority to others, it allows you to free your time and focus on doing more important work.

Nor is delegating authority and work is such a simple thing; for those who have never delegated before, chances are that they can make it difficult for themselves - because they do not know what is really required of them to get bit right. To successfully delegate, you will need to have certain skills, patience, confidence and some courage too. With these attributes can should be able to delegate successfully.

Another question that you will need to answer is just how will you benefit by delegating work or authority! Effective delegation means picking the right person to do the right task - choosing a responsible person who can be given certain amount of authority to get things done.

However, even after delegating work/authority your job will not end there because you are, after all, going to be held responsible for the outcome for that you have delegated. You will always need to ensure that the work delegated is performed according to your high standards.

At the same time, it also means that you must give sufficient backing by training and advising them, as well as provide all other necessary resources (such as time and materials), to ensure that as little as possible stands in the way of successful completion of the work to be delegated.

At the same time you will find that your team of workers will also, once they get the hang of doing the things you have delegated to them, start becoming much more productive too, whilst enjoying these new challenges all the more.

The bottom line is that managers can use delegation as a means to resolve short-term activities, where they themselves need support. In fact, by delegating it is possible to create enough time to personally deal with more important tasks, improving effectiveness, whilst being more efficient in your work, whilst developing your people too.

A good manager who delegates, will be able to manage better and those entrusting new and interesting tasks will be more motivated and committed to their work - and an amazing win-win that works for all.

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