Effective Delegation Skills
Share the Workload: Developing Effective Delegation Skills
Managers, supervisors, business owners, and anyone responsible for completing tasks need effective delegation skills in order to complete the daily workload. These skills allow you to assign others various tasks that would only waste money and time if you completed them on your own. The team can perform to its fullest capacity because everyone works together to complete jobs more efficiently. Tasks allocated poorly, however, result in only pure and utter chaos. Tasks are left unfinished, and as the saying goes, ‘the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.’
Choosing the Tasks to Be Distributed
The most important step in delegating jobs involves deciding which jobs to give to someone else to save time and money. You also need to define which jobs you need to complete on your own. Start by compiling a list of the day’s tasks and evaluate each one.
As you go through, keep anything that gives away full control of the team on your personal to-do list as well as any jobs that will solely determine the entire success of the company. With this type of responsibility, see if you can divide it up and delegate certain parts, or if you need to complete the full project on your own.
Deciding Who Can Best Complete the Job
In order to determine which task to give each person, consider the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. Are any of the team members more experienced and adept at completing a particular job? Are there individuals with a high level of reliability within the group?
Give larger jobs to those who exhibit both experience and reliability. The smaller jobs can go to individuals who require constant help and supervision. This solves the problem of having to spend more time helping the other person to do the job then you would have needed if you had done the job yourself. For jobs that you cannot make decisions on, either refer them back to your superior or find outside professional help.
Throughout the process, one basic rule needs to stay in the forefront of your mind during the process of task delegation: All team members should share in success, but supervisors should bear failure alone.
Create Situations Where Both Sides Win
When both sides benefit from the delegation of tasks, the team provides you with the highest possible quality because the tasks become interesting and enjoyable. You can achieve this in one of three ways. First, some jobs are best to outsource because of the particular requirements that accompany the task. This might include a higher level of knowledge or particular piece of equipment that the team does not have.
Sometimes, a task done by others automatically benefits both sides. When this happens, you benefit from having the work completed without having to spend the time on it yourself. The other person gains by having the chance to work on something new, learning something different, or acquires a set of skills necessary for advancement.
You can also achieve mutual benefits from delegation through cooperation. In this situation, someone completes a particular job for you and you complete a task for them. This way, you both finish the work on your to-do lists efficiently and everyone wins.
Distribute the Tasks and Supervise the Process
When you put others in charge of completing a task, you are still responsible for the end product. This means monitoring the status of the projects to ensure everyone finishes on time. As you go through the process, remember that you gave the other person the responsibility of deciding which methods and techniques to use to get the work done.
After you assign tasks to the other team members, your role should be providing guidance and only stepping in if the train goes too far off the track. So long as you clearly define all of the requirements of the job and explain exactly what the finished project should be, there should be very few issues.
Anyone responsible for completing a set of tasks needs to execute effective delegation skills. These skills allow you maximise the productivity of the entire team while accomplishing the greatest level of quality possible. When you distribute tasks appropriately and accurately, you can save time and money. This way everyone enjoys the taste of success with the least amount of stress.
