Delegation

Do you find yourself taking work home in the evenings and on weekends? Are you under constant pressure, jumping from one task to another? Do you find yourself too involved in doing things to spend enough time on planning, organizing, directing and controlling? It could be that you are not taking full advantage of one of the greatest time savers of all: delegation.

Delegation extends results from what you can do to what you can control. It frees time for more important tasks, allows you to plan more effectively, and helps relieve the pressure of too many jobs, too many deadlines, and too little time. Not only that, but it is one of the most effective ways of developing your staff.

Improper delegation, however, is worse than no delegation at all. It not only creates a greater demand on your own time, but messes up your staff members' time as well. Be careful what you delegate, how you delegate and to whom you delegate. Here are a few ground rules for effective delegation.

Don't delegate what you can eliminate. If it's not important enough for you to do personally, it's probably not important enough for your people to do either. Respect their time and their ability. Don't waste it on non-productive or unprofitable trivia. Your success can be multiplied a thousand times if you concentrate on the high-return jobs, and encourage others to do likewise -- don't spoil it by using your staff as a dumping ground for "garbage" jobs.

Delegate the things you don't want to delegate. We tend to hang on to the things we like doing, even when they interfere with more important tasks, and even though others could probably do them just as well. Share the interesting work with your staff. One of the most important advantages of effective delegating is the fact that it enriches your staff members' jobs. Don't confine your delegation to the boring, repetitive tasks -- look for the interesting ones first.

Delegate, don't abdicate. Dumping jobs onto others and then disappearing is not delegation -- it's organizational suicide. Delegation must be planned. Consult with your staff first; select people you think are both capable of doing the job and would like to do the job. Train them. Delegate gradually, insist on feedback, and then leave them alone.

Delegate the objective, not the procedure. One of the bonuses you receive from effectivedelegation is the fact that in many cases the job is better in the hands of someone else. Don't resent it, encourage it. Delegate the whole task or specific results, de-emphasizing the actual procedure. Your staff, under less pressure, less harried, and with a fresh viewpoint, will likely improve upon the method you've been using. Review results, not the manner in which he or she arrived at them!

Don't always delegate to the most capable people. Delegation is one of the most effective methods of developing others. Don't continually delegate to the most capable ones, or they'll get stronger, while the weak get weaker. Take the extra effort to spread delegation across the board, and develop a strong team with no weak links.

Trust your staff. Be sure to delegate the authority as well as the responsibility. Don't continually look over their shoulder, interfere with the methods, or jump on them when they make mistakes. Be prepared to trade short-term errors for long-term results. Maintain control without stifling initiative.

Delegation is not only a skill, it's a way of life. And like everything else, in order to be effective, you have to work at it. But once perfected, it will multiply your success a hundredfold.