Increase Your Effectiveness By Delegating Wisely
Delegating Is A Crucial Trait For Leaders To Effectively Use
If your in a leadership position or strive to be you must ensure that delegating wisely is something that you practice. Leaders need to empower those that they lead, and the best way to do that is through delegation. Sure, we can all feel and think at times that in order to get something done the right way we best do it ourselves. However, a leader who lacks delegating prowess runs a very high risk of alienating themselves and not eventually promoting distrust with those that they lead. If you want to learn how delegating effectively works, then this post is for you. I will cover 10 ways on how to use delegation to increase your leadership effectiveness.
Is Delegating That Important?
Delegating is important and critical for leaders if it is done right. I have seen, coached, and experience poor delegating behaviors by leaders. I have also seen highly effective delegating behaviors by leaders as well. A company cannot and will not thrive without effective delegation. If the leaders of the company, organization, or any other body of people never delegate then what are the “followers” there for? If you want to lead effectively, make sure to save a copy of the 10 ways for delegating effectively below:
1. Don’t just delegate the bad duties. Inexperienced managers and leaders will quickly delegate what they no longer want to do once they have someone they can push those boring and annoying duties. When delegating make sure that there is a balance between the bad duties and the more challenging and fun duties. This may not always be easy, but those that you lead will be great full.
2. Delegate to empower. Don’t hoard your power and leadership. Delegate it and spread it. A leader is much more powerful if he/she let’s those around them take ownership of selected areas. Insecure leaders want to hold their influence and position close. Experienced leaders want to open it up and spread it.
3. Delegating for development. One of the main reasons for delegating should be to develop those that are being delegated to. If you only delegate the bad duties your followers will grow frustrated. A strong leader will look for growth opportunities during delegating and make it a focal point to use it as a tool so that others will grow.
4. When delegating, know your employees. Delegate to their strengths rather than their weaknesses. If you focus on things outside of their abilities and strengths you will have a greater risk of failure. It is worth to note that sometimes this is needed to stretch a person, but if you don’t know your employees abilities that is another issue in itself.
5. Be the backstop. If you are delegating authority to someone and that authority gets put into question you need to be their backstop. If you point the finger at them when failure arises it will dismantle trust. Be there for them when times go great and not so great and coach/counsel as needed.
6. Delegate with consistency. If you are erratic in how and how much you delegate it only increases stress and anxiety. Delegate consistently so those that are being delegated can at least sense when and how much delegation will occur over a certain period.
7. Delegate with clarity. Make sure the person that you are delegating to knows your expectations and the aim of what is being delegated. If you delegate without clarity you are not setting the person up for success.
8. Allow for questions. Make sure that when you delegate that you allow the person to ask questions so that they can be fully aware of your expectations. It is one thing to delegate with clarity, but another to delegate with clarity and allow for questions.
9. Know what to delegate. You have three choices when it comes to getting a task/project done. Do it, delegate it, or ditch it. Do it if it is a must do or a high priority. Delegate it if needed, or ditch it all together. Don’t get caught up in things that you shouldn’t.
10. Implement how Bill Gates delegates. ”Develop your people to do their jobs better than you can. Transfer your skills to them. This is exciting but it can be threatening to a manager who worries that he is training his replacement. Smart managers like to see their employees increase their responsibilities because it frees managers to tackle new or undone tasks.” This is the sum of 1-9.
Closing Thoughts On Delegating
The more effective you are at delegating the more gets done and the more you will grow those around you. Micromanagers have a very hard time delegating and allow those that they lead work in autonomy. Delegation done right will increase the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the entire group and promote a culture of growth. Take the 10 steps of delegating presented in this post and implement them wisely. What are your thoughts on delegating?
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Delegating is a must for a leader. I have found a leader needs to focus on strengths while delegating their weak areas. This leads to results being accomplished and a more productive team. Great points and thoughts.
Hey Dan:
I agree with leaders needing to focus on their strengths but if they primarily focus on delegating their weak areas it would be harder for them to develop the people they are delegating to.
James