How To Delegate Work To Employees And Subordinates?

Workplace dynamics have changed drastically over the years with lesser employees and more stringent budgets to do the same amount of work.

The economic challenges that have emerged have given rise to the need for employees having to learn to work less and bring about structural changes in how a business is conducted. This has also changed the role of managers and leaders in a business. 

Earlier, it was a routine practice to keep all important decisions and tasks to themselves. In the current business scenario, there is a growing need among managers, to delegate work and duties now.

On the surface, delegating sounds like a simple, passing the baton kind of work. But in reality, it requires a lot of coordination, communication, patience, insight and trust.

Importance Of Delegation In today’s Times

Delegating is crucial because one can’t and shouldn’t do everything alone. Not only does delegating empower your team, but also, it nurtures professional development and lays the foundation for trust among team members. 

Dr. Scott William, a renowned management professor at Wright State University, gives much credit to delegating. According to him, employees you delegate work to will develop advanced skills. They will be trained to handle higher responsibilities in the coming future.

It also gives a feeling to your employees that you trust their discretion and they feel trusted and respected. Ultimately this will enhance their level of commitment to their managers and the organization on the whole.

Some Common Myths and Misconceptions about Delegating

• Harvey Mackay, founder, MackayMitchell Envelope Co, streamlines it for us and says that managers commit the mistake of understanding delegation as mere passing of work and hence, not doing it. This leads to wasting time and resources for the company.
• Sometimes, managers are under the ‘self-enhancement effect’. This can be summarized as the manager’s tendency to value a product/process in which he is involved. Another psychological process that affects managers is the ‘faith in supervision effect’. This makes them believe that people perform better under supervision. These prove as a hindrance to delegating.
• Often managers are nervous to let go. You need to believe that your team wants to do as much good to the organization as you and wants to be a part of its growth. 
• Lastly, often managers are under the impression that teaching an employee is a time-consuming process. They consider it more feasible to do the task on their own. It’s important to understand here, that this is true only for the first time! Once you teach someone how to perform a task, next time, it will actually save your time and energy.

When Should You Delegate?

Although the importance of delegating tasks can’t be denied, managers often find themselves in a fix over what tasks they should delegate and what they shouldn’t. You can audit your tasks to answer this question using the below-mentioned parameters:

• Delegate small tasks such as scheduling meetings and booking flights for business, which take only a little amount of time to do and are not too complex. 
• Delegate tedious tasks that are mindless and require little skill.
• You can break up a time-consuming large task into smaller portions and delegate these chunks to different employees.
• Delegate ‘teachable’ tasks. A task that you can easily teach someone else to do, is a perfect candidate for delegation.
• There would be several tasks that you have been doing, that you are not good at. They would understandably be too time and energy consuming for you. Hence it makes a lot of sense to delegate it to someone who might have the required skill set to perform it in lesser time.
• If there is a project that is time-bound, it is advisable to delegate parts of it so as to meet the deadline without stressing yourself out.

Preparing to Delegate

Since delegating involves handling work to other people, it is a good idea to be prepared before rolling out tasks to others. Let’s make a compact checklist of how you need to prepare before delegating.

• Develop an attitude of delegation and question every task before doing it yourself to see if it can be delegated.
• For every task, zero down to the outcome you desire from it. 
• While selecting the candidate to delegate a task to, consider several criteria like skills, qualification, time available with the person, their willingness to take up a new task, etc.
• Discuss with others and take their suggestions on who can be included, what all can be changed, and what are the desired results. 
• Detail the responsibility, deadlines, timeline for the work-in-progress reports, etc.
• Consider if there is a need for training for a particular task before delegating it but also keep a scope of creative and independent thinking.
• Decide upon the level of authority, powers, and cooperation needed for completing the delegated task.
• Monitor the progress and keep reasonable control over the entire process.
• Give timely feedback and motivation whenever needed.
• Identify, document, and share the key lessons the delegation process taught you. 
• At the end of the task, evaluate the performance, and give feedback to help the employee understand his progress better.