Knowledge
Delegating tasks: how to do it well?
Delegating tasks was the topic of one of our recent meetings in the TechMine Coffee series. A seemingly obvious topic, but as always the devil is in the details. An experienced business owner and manager knows that delegating tasks is a skill that needs to be learned and its effectiveness verified in practice; they also know that it is a responsibility not only for the tasks and the team, but also the art of effective communication, which, properly conducted, gives a fantastic opportunity to develop employees’ creativity and independence.
Delegating tasks: a definition
So what is delegating tasks? It is handing over authority to another person so that they carry out a specific activity, and establishing shared responsibility for its execution, bearing in mind that full responsibility for the task always rests with the person handing over the responsibility. The key words in this definition are: authority and responsibility. For the problem and the art of delegating lie in responsibility, since many managers and leaders are afraid to hand over authority, because ultimately they are the ones responsible for the final result of the task anyway. The only question is whether and for how long one can work this way? And is that what we want?
Responsibility for delegating tasks to employees
It follows from the definition that the superior or leader is fully responsible for the delegated work, so they should be convinced that the employee understands and accepts this work and will be committed to carrying it out. Together we considered what the difficulty associated with this consists in.
What are leaders afraid of, who by definition should stand at the head of the team, organizing its work? We agreed that it can be a challenge, because it requires of us:
- an analysis of the content of the work: we need to know what can be delegated,
- choosing the right person, who is aware of the responsibility for the task received,
- the scope of authority that can be delegated.
What do you gain from the ability to delegate tasks to employees?
We also analyzed the question of the benefits resulting from delegating tasks to employees. We considered what can be gained by handing over a list of duties in the right way. Many managers are afraid of handing over some of their competencies to the employees they hire, believing that only they have a monopoly on knowledge and nobody will do it better than they themselves. Meanwhile, by delegating, you can gain a lot. Here are at least 9 benefits that will make you start expanding the competencies of your colleagues, because thanks to this we can talk about:
- Increasing the effectiveness of the organization.
- Relieving managers and leaders of excessive work, so they can devote themselves
to carrying out other important matters. - Making more distributed decisions in the organization, so that the organization
reacts faster to market requirements. - Performing duties more effectively.
- Increasing employees’ innovativeness.
- Increasing satisfaction, motivation and engagement.
- Increasing the level of trust in the organization.
- Strengthening teamwork.
- Developing the competencies of the employees themselves.
How to delegate tasks?
At our Thursday meeting among entrepreneurs we also considered how to approach effective delegation of tasks. How to do it to be sure that the tasks handed over will be carried out properly? And finally, what are the most important principles of delegating them? Here is what we propose:
- The subject of delegation is always: responsibility and authority.
- We place the obligation to carry out tasks on the lowest competent level of the organization.
- We avoid placing responsibility for the same task on more than one person.
- We do not delegate to others:
- More important personnel matters: evaluation, selection, bonuses.
- Matters requiring discretion, conflict resolution.
- Matters that were entrusted to us to carry out personally.
Fear of employees’ freedom to make decisions
What are leaders really afraid of? What holds you back from handing over some of your tasks? Perhaps:
1. You do not believe your employees are responsible enough to perform important duties.
2. You believe that when you delegate a task, you lose control over its execution.
3. It seems to you that only you know all the answers.
4. You believe you will do the task faster yourself.
5. You think it will weaken your authority.
6. You think your employees are too busy to find the time.
7. In your opinion employees do not have a vision of the whole.
The most common mistakes in delegating tasks to your employees
It is also worth knowing that a “dry” handover of duties alone is not enough. Business trainers who support the processes of learning this skill mention mistakes in the delegation process, which include:
- Delegating tasks that are too simple for the employee.
- No deadline set for completing the task.
- No feedback after the task is completed.
- Not motivating employees to complete the task.
- Delegating tasks without conveying the purpose of the task.
- No information about the criteria for completing the task.
- Assigning tasks that are too difficult and throwing the employee in at the deep end.
- Failing to provide, or providing incomplete, instructions for carrying out the task.
Delegating tasks: summary
As you can see, distributing duties to your employees is not an easy task, which means that a number of additional factors have to be taken into account, such as: team motivation, willingness to learn and develop competencies, or the employee’s responsibility. Delegating tasks is, however, a skill worth learning, and one that is often perfected over years. Despite the initial difficulties in acquiring this competence, it ultimately brings more pluses than minuses. In a word, it streamlines and speeds up the delivery of projects and gives a chance for the development of both the company and the staff employed in it.
Delegating tasks to employees has to be learned in daily practice, and this particular task cannot be delegated. You can better learn to develop an employee’s competencies by commissioning a process of direct coaching, which a manager may need in the course of developing management skills.
