Delegation is one of the most important management skills. These logical rules and techniques will help you to delegate well (and will help you to help your manager when you are being delegated a task or new responsibility – delegation is a two-way process!).
Good delegation saves you time, develops you people, grooms a successor, and motivates. Poor delegation will cause you frustration, demotivates and confuses the other person, and fails to achieve the task or purpose itself. So it’s a management skill that’s worth improving. Here are the simple steps to follow if you want to get delegation right, with different levels of delegation freedom that you can offer.
The Steps of Successful Delegation
1. Define the task – Confirm in your own mind that the task is suitable to be delegated. Does it meet the criteria for delegating?
2. Select the individual or team – What are your reasons for delegating to this person or team? What are they going to get out of it? What are you going to get out of it?
3. Assess ability and training needs – Is the other person or team of people capable of doing the task? Do they understand what needs to be done. If not, you can’t delegate.
4. Explain the reasons – You must explain why the job or responsibility is being delegated. And why to that person or people? What is its importance and relevance? Where does it fit in the overall scheme of things?
5. State required results – What must be achieved? Clarify understanding by getting feedback from the other person. How will the task be measured? Make sure they know how you intend to decide that the job is being successfully done.
6. Consider resources required – Discuss and agree what is required to get the job done. Consider people, location, premises, equipment, money, materials, other related activities and services.
7. Agree deadlines – When must the job be finished? Or if an ongoing duty, when are the review dates? When are the reports due? And if the task is complex and has parts or stages, what are the priorities?
At this point you may need to confirm understanding with the other person of the previous points, getting ideas and interpretation. As well as showing you that the job can be done, this helps to reinforce commitment.
Methods of checking and controlling must be agreed with the other person. Failing to agree this in advance will cause this monitoring to seem like interference or lack of trust.
8. Support and communicate – Think about who else needs to know what’s going on, and inform them. Involve the other person in considering this so they can see beyond the issue at hand. Do not leave the person to inform your own peers of their new responsibility. Warn the person about any awkward matters of politics or protocol. Inform your own boss if the task is important, and of sufficient profile.
9. Feedback on results – It is essential to let the person know how they are doing, and whether they have achieved their aims. If not, you must review with them why things did not go to plan, and deal with the problems. You must absorb the consequences of failure, and pass on the credit for success.
