Reliability. Assurance. Dedication. Involvement. These are the feelings your employees and team members experience when you assign them important tasks. Delegating can often be daunting, unsettling, or intimidating. However, you can pave the way for success by grasping the reasons behind delegation and mastering the most effective methods to implement it.
Delegating tasks and assignments conveys powerful and affirmative messages: it demonstrates your trust in your team; it reflects your confidence in the skills and talents of your employees; it shows your dedication to their professional growth; and it indicates your desire to connect and collaborate on a deeper level.
Assigning tasks to team members is a crucial responsibility of effective leadership.
Delegation goes beyond being just a task; it serves as a powerful and meaningful demonstration of strong leadership and management abilities. When you assign responsibilities to your team members, you tap into one of the most valuable opportunities for fostering both employee growth and leadership enhancement.
Many individuals in leadership roles struggle with the necessary skills, motivation, or capability to delegate tasks effectively. This deficiency in leadership can lead to a variety of adverse effects on both organizational performance and employee productivity.
See, delegation isn’t about a management style. It’s not about a leadership style, and it’s not a matter of preference. Delegating to employees is a leadership imperative just like making effective decisions, creating great work environments, managing and balancing budgets and demonstrating strategic thinking.
Delegation inherently means that you are assigning tasks to another person, allowing them to handle responsibilities that typically fall under your purview. Ideally, effective leaders and managers delegate assignments that engage, challenge, and expand an employee’s capabilities, skills, and thought processes in significant ways.
- What is your intention as a supervisor or leader?
- How much time do you spend developing your employees?
- And how do you go about it?
Strategies for Successfully Delegating Tasks to Employees 1. Understand Your Team’s Strengths: Assess the skills and capabilities of each team member to match tasks with the right individuals. 2. Clearly Define Tasks: Provide detailed instructions and expectations for the task at hand, ensuring that employees understand what is required. 3. Set Realistic Deadlines: Establish achievable timelines that allow employees to complete their tasks without undue pressure. 4. Provide Resources and Support: Ensure that employees have access to the necessary tools, information, and support to complete their tasks effectively. 5. Empower Decision-Making: Allow employees to make decisions related to their tasks, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability. 6. Communicate Openly: Maintain open lines of communication for questions, feedback, and progress updates throughout the delegation process. 7. Monitor Progress: Check in regularly to assess how the tasks are progressing and provide guidance as needed while avoiding micromanagement. 8. Recognize and Reward Efforts: Acknowledge the hard work and achievements of employees to motivate and encourage continued effort in future tasks. By implementing these strategies, you can enhance productivity and help your team thrive through effective delegation.
As a supervisor, it is incumbent upon you to create an environment for those you lead to do their very best work. You have an obligation to challenge and develop your team and employees as part of your overall leadership responsibility. And, as a strategic leader, you likely want to buttress institution-wide strategic thinking and innovation.
Successfully assigning tasks is crucial for reaching these objectives. Here’s a guide on how to do it effectively.
Four (4) crucial steps of delegation discovered through experience and experimentation.
Kerry Jefferson, U.S. Air Force veteran, experienced supervisor and independent contractor, provides leaders and supervisors with a straightforward and easy-to-follow process for how to master the art of delegation. If you want to delegate effectively, apply these four (4) essential steps.
- Set the Right Environment. People thrive in trust-filled spaces where expectations are clear.
- Assign Thoughtfully. Understand the strengths of your team. Give people tasks that play to their talents and passions.
- Hand Off with Purpose. Don’t just toss them the ball—explain the game plan. Provide context, set goals, and outline deliverables.
- Monitor without Hovering. Keep track of progress without suffocating creativity or initiative.
After reading Jefferson’s article, I reached out to get more of his thinking on the topic. His experiences help us to contemplate the benefits of delegating work and to better understand how to realize success with doing so.
Jefferson emphasizes the importance of fostering a culture of accountability, reminding managers and supervisors that “delegation goes beyond merely assigning tasks; it involves equipping others with the necessary tools, trust, and clear guidance to thrive. The greatest threat lies in micromanagement, as it erodes trust and contradicts the essence of delegation. Effective delegation fosters accountability and promotes growth for all parties involved.”
Alongside the four fundamental steps mentioned earlier, you can enhance the success of your delegation choices by considering these important strategies.
Assign tasks for the appropriate motives.
You possess the ability to delegate tasks efficiently and with purpose. My journey into supervising staff began in 1998, and during that initial period and for several years thereafter, I found myself assigning responsibilities primarily out of necessity to ease my burden. Whenever I faced limitations in managing my workload, delegation became my solution.
Although delegating assignments for this reason is valuable, it is neither the sole nor the most compelling justification for doing so. A more significant reason to delegate tasks is that employees are often eager to embrace challenging assignments or explore various responsibilities beyond their usual scope.
Employees, specifically high performers, seek out ways to add value. They want to feel needed. They want to contribute to team and organizational success. They want to be challenged to do more and contribute differently—so by all means, let them.
Assign the appropriate type of tasks.
Delegation should not be seen as a means to offload tedious, low-level tasks. While these tasks are necessary and must be completed, they shouldn't simply be handed off to others. Rather, it's important to establish a dedicated role for such work and hire someone specifically to fill that position. Additionally, fostering an organizational culture that acknowledges that every employee has certain aspects of their job they find monotonous can be beneficial. Everyone has elements of their responsibilities that they may not enjoy, but they are essential to the overall function and success of the team.
Keeping this in mind, it's important to recognize that when it comes to delegation, the significance of the work is crucial; the worth of the task holds importance; and the impression conveyed to employees is essential.
- Asking an employee to get you coffee is not delegating.
- Assigning an employee grunt work is not delegating.
- Handing an employee busy work that you don’t value or simply don’t want to do is not delegating.
- Turning over tedious, repetitive work tasks to an employee is not delegating.
Delegation involves empowering your employees with opportunities to learn, develop, excel, and broaden their skills, all while alleviating your own workload and contributing to the organization's objectives. It creates a win-win scenario for completing essential tasks. When you entrust your employees with tasks and responsibilities that enhance their roles beyond their usual duties, you are effectively delegating. This process entails assigning them significant work that would typically fall under your responsibilities—work that is integral to your role.
Failing to delegate tasks—beyond just the basic chores—will hinder your ability to nurture your team members. Consequently, you will struggle to foster the trust, confidence, commitment, and engagement needed to reach your organization’s strategic objectives.
Assign tasks to the appropriate individuals.
Delegation should not be confused with training. While it does offer a chance for development, it is most effective when assigned to individuals whose skills match the requirements of the task. When you delegate responsibilities, whether they are tasks, assignments, or projects, your goal is to ensure they are completed efficiently and effectively. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose the right person or team for the job right from the outset.
The aim is for you, your colleagues, the entire team, and the organization to have a positive experience and present a strong image once everything is completed. Assigning tasks to unsuitable individuals can create various issues within the team and ultimately result in subpar results that consume more time than anticipated.
Assigning tasks to the inappropriate individual can lead to a scenario where, after experiencing numerous frustrations, inefficiencies, and shortcomings, you find yourself investing significant time and energy to complete the work you initially delegated. Unfortunately, by this point, you may be pressed for time, exceed your budget, and be considerably less effective.
Training opportunities exist, but when the difference between an employee's current skills and the requirements of a task is significant, it's best to assign the work to those who are more qualified. It's important not to overlook employees who may need further development; investing in their training can prepare them for future roles. However, in the short term, focus on delegating tasks to those who are better suited for them.
Assign the tasks and then—step aside.
Have you ever been labeled a micromanager? It’s okay if delegation doesn’t necessarily come naturally to you. Many managers and supervisors struggle with letting go—letting go of the work product, letting go of control, letting go of creative influence, etc.
You may also find it challenging to establish trust—or rather, the absence of it. This includes doubts about whether the employee will be as committed to achieving results as you are, concerns about whether they will represent you positively, and uncertainty about their ability to keep you informed while meeting deadlines and staying within budget.
This feeling of unease with delegating work is natural. Delegating work can be scary and uncomfortable, especially at first. This doesn’t, however, mean that you shouldn’t do it. Here are tips to manage delegation and reduce any micromanagement tendencies that might creep up.
- Remind yourself that you are not completely letting go. As the supervisor, you’re required to remain involved. You don’t give up all control when you delegate assignments. You ultimately bear responsibility for the results, the timing and the budget.
- Outline what success looks like. Get input from those you will delegate the work to, but you need to define the outcomes and then let the employee create a plan and set the path to get there.
- Establish performance standards and communication protocols. And also follow up along the way. When you delegate work, you want to ensure your employees have enough autonomy and support to deliver on the outcomes you’ve defined. You also want to ensure that everyone understands how often—and in what methods—communication needs to occur.
- Set your employees up for success by making yourself available when they need you. As part of the job of creating an environment for your team members to do their best work, you should do these two things exceptionally well: (1) provide resources and (2) remove obstacles. Your employees can’t deliver the best outcomes and make you look good if they don’t have what they need to succeed.
The key aspect to focus on is that, as a supervisor, you are responsible for your sections of assignments or projects while allowing your employees the freedom and authority to take charge of their own tasks. Delegation should serve as a collaborative strategy that promotes success for both the team and the organization. When executed properly, it creates a rewarding experience for supervisors and employees alike.