Delegating as a skill is not taught in schools. Yet it is one of the most critical managerial skills. It is not an innate quality and has to be developed and nurtured as a tool to motivate employees do better for themselves and thus the organization. Delegation of routine as well as important tasks to employees is an art in itself.
Thoughtful and planned delegation goes a long way to enhance morale of the employees, managerial productivity and of course organizational success. In these uncertain times for businesses where change is the only predictable, the ability of bosses to deliver optimum results is paramount. Instead of delegating responsibility and allocating tasks effectively to team members, managers most often end up carrying more work. This is more counterproductive than useful.
You, as the organization’s or team’s leader can accomplish much more productivity for your company and concentrate on innovations that others may not yet be able to achieve. To accomplish the goals of the team the leader has to delegate tasks for efficient time management and empower the down-line employees so that they become capable enough to take further responsibility and grow professionally. This in turn helps employees and your team members to develop their existing skillsets which adds value to the organization’s growth.
In delegating you will find that motivation levels of your team members go up instead of otherwise. Team members work more effectively, efficiently and quickly. Above all they learn to collaborate to produce the best results as well as take responsibility, individually and collectively.
The truth is, in actuality, bosses find it difficult to delegate work! There are several reasons for this. Few of the reasons that stops the boss to delegate responsibility is more related to ‘vision’ about the end goal – it’s quality and time efficiency. Managers or bosses may not be able to trust employees with the kind of expected quality; they often fear that the project may not get done within the expected time and so on.
Therefore without seeming like a ‘bad’ boss or ‘stickler’ the question to answer here is, “How can task be delegated to employees that not only lighten the task-bag, but also be a learning and motivational tool for them?”
Here are some tips!
In order to meet the organization’s goals, leaders should offer certain tools like motivational and direction for its employees. Effective delegating yields several immediate benefits for managers and the entire organization.
It enables managers to mobilize existing resources in order to achieve the desired and mostly better results than what they would have achieved alone. When managers can focus on more ‘priority’ tasks for themselves and have the time to concentrate on those which require their personal attention, processes work out much more optimally for all. Managers develop their skills and leadership potential while supporting others to learn on the job and succeed.
As far as the organization is concerned, delegating tasks increases current productivity levels and opens new channels of communication. Employees are engaged in their roles and encouraged to offer ideas to enhance and improve the existing systems. This in turn leads to changes in the collective attitude to the organization’s decision making as employees become more proactive and responsive willingly as well as take greater ownership for their actions. This is much needed in the 21st century market.
Typically there are two areas where managers must consider delegation – it is not simply passing on the workload to employees – the purpose and aim should be for developing employees to reach their potential and achieving common organizational goals.
What not to delegate?
When it comes to strategic planning, organization’s code of discipline and review of performance, managers and bosses must keep these for themselves.
