How to delegate effectively
di Tom RoperWhen you lead a team, you take on new responsibilities and challenges and team leaders have to learn to delegate as much as possible. This can mean sharing and moving your responsibilities on to others, trusting them to do some of the work that is normally yours. Delegating effectively allows you the time and space to offer the required support to your colleagues, manage the problems that can arise, and maintain focus on the general situation, the key features of effective leadership.
Knowing which tasks to delegate can be a bit more difficult, let’s take a look at the 5 top tips on effective delegation:
- Start with the smaller tasks
If you are uncertain or worried about giving full responsibility to your larger projects, begin by delegating smaller tasks that don’t require a large level of oversight. This will provide your team members with the opportunity and time to get acquainted with their new responsibilities.
- Choose tasks that can develop your team members
Delegation isn’t only about reducing your workload, it should also be an occasion to develop your team and give them learning opportunities. Identify tasks that can help their professional development, and give them the time to get better at doing them. Through the passing on of work you are able to do competently and educating your team members to be able to do the same, you will help them grow professionally too.
- Delegate tasks to the appropriate people
The best managers know their team well and know exactly which tasks would suit which individual best. It would be easy to just delegate tasks you don’t like doing but this can have a negative effect. When people are doing tasks they enjoy, they become more motivated to do the best job they can do.
- Have faith in your team
After handing over a task, it is sometimes easy for some managers to regularly keep too close an eye on their staff and correct every action they see. This is micromanagement – a style of management where a manager watches and controls what their team is doing too closely. Micromanaging occupies almost as much time as it would doing the task yourself. It can also demotivate your team, and discourage creativity and innovation. Delegating tasks means we need to be able to trust that things will get done, this might not mean in the exact same way we would do them.
- Offer support
It is important for a team leader to set clear goals and expectations, communicate timelines and offer relevant guidance where needed. It isn’t enough to expect your team members to read your mind and understand your expectations when you haven’t given them the necessary information. Check in regularly to make sure everything is on track.
Delegating is not easy, and it takes practice to do it effectively. But it is by sharing responsibilities that we can become a valuable team player and a true leader.
