Let's Talk About Delegation - LeadershipBeyond

Let’s Talk About Delegation

Delegation is a very important tool in your leadership tool kit. It often doesn’t get the priority that it deserves because the added value is unclear. Let’s have a look at all the value that delegation can add before discussing some simple guidelines to implement it.

The added value of delegation can be:

Trust

Can you think of a moment in your career that you were entrusted with a big task or project. How did that feel? I bet a bit scary but exciting at the same time.

I still remember when I was asked to replace my boss because of his illness. From one day to another I wasn’t leading 30 some people but four time as many people. Did I feel scared? uhhh… yes. Did I feel excited? uuuuh … yes. Did I feel trusted? Definitely yes!

It was a huge gesture of trust in my capacities.

Growth of employees.

Delegation creates opportunities for employees to learn. Getting a new task or project is a great opportunity for employees to learn. And what creates a better learning opportunity than having the person who has done the project or task before as your manager? Your teacher is a couple of doors away.

Time

Although delegation is not about the person who delegates, it’s about the other person, delegation has a huge time advantage. No need to explain that if you don’t have to do a certain task or project, you can spend time on something else.

Signs that you can delegate more are:

Your in-box is always full.
You work often additional hours on assignments that “only you can do.”
You miss deadlines.

Some tips on delegation:

1 – Before delegating become very clear about:

The end result
Your expectations
How the employee will benefit from doing the delegated task or project.

2 – Out of sight but IN of mind

Delegation doesn’t mean “out of sight, out of mind”. Check on a regularly basis with your employee on how they are progressing.

3 – Give the authority and the resources

Make clear to the rest of the organization that you have delegated this task with the authority. The person you delegated to is now the decision maker and allocates the available resources.

Coaching Question

Ask yourself: what is stopping me from delegating more?

By Carla Schnitker|April 19th, 2017|

About the Author

Early in her career, Carla got fascinated by change processes and leadership. Now twenty plus years later she is still working in that field. No longer an executive or interim manager, Carla now mentors managers who want to make a difference in their organization. She’s the author of Leading through Change: Six Principles for Leading People in Unpredictable Times.