3 Things about delegation management

Delegation Management skills are a necessity if you are to achieve your goals by using the skills of your employees. A good leader will be fully aware of the team's skills and who can perform certain tasks effectively.


Article: Delegation Management

  • What is delegation management?
  • Three strategies to improve delegation management skills
  • Delegation Management - Conclusion

What is delegation management?

Part of a manager's daily task is to delegate responsibilities to the team members who are reporting to him.

As we move through a career we find out that delegation is a very useful action in order to achieve targets. Learning how to manage tasks and the employees needed to complete those tasks comes down to refined delegation management skills.

Not every manager knows how to use delegation effectively and as we all know there is a thin line between delegation and shirking responsibility.

The main purpose of delegation is for a leader to distribute minor tasks and responsibilities so that they can focus on bigger issues that will ensure the successful long-term survival of an organization.

Three strategies to improve delegation management skills

There are 3 different strategies that you have to apply to your delegation skills for them to make a positive difference in an organization.


IDENTIFY EMPLOYEE SKILLS

You have to fully understand the scope of your responsibility and know where your skills are most needed.

Tasks that do not need your skill level can be delegated to others who report to you and have the skill level to perform those tasks successfully.

You must teach the people reporting to you the skills required to complete tasks you expect them to perform.

It will make you more comfortable in entrusting them with some of the tasks on hand.


COACH AND TRAIN YOUR EMPLOYEES

Through coaching and training, you must build up a trusting relationship with your team that reports to you.

Make sure that you are developing your processes in a manner where people with different skill levels can efficiently take care of them in your absence or instruction.

This will mean that you do not have to directly oversee the process and will free up some time to do more important things.

Feedback on performance is important and your team needs to know what the strategy is and how you as a team intend on achieving these targets.

You cannot delegate tasks to somebody who does not fully understand the reason why they are doing it or more importantly why they were chosen to do it.

Follow up on tasks that you have delegated but use this feedback session as an opportunity to coach and advise.


BUILD TRUST RELATIONSHIPS

For delegation to work, you have to trust your employees to deliver to the best of their ability. It is therefore your task to spend more time working on their ability.

If you delegate tasks do not micromanage the team member responsible as it defeats the purpose of the delegation and damages the trust relationship.

Some leaders put more time into micromanaging a delegated task than it would have originally taken to complete the task if they had done it themselves.


Delegation Management - Conclusion


Without the skills of delegation management, a leader will struggle to match specific tasks with the correct employee to execute the task successfully.

The ability to delegate with success will come from self-development and skills development.



Develop your delegation skills