What do you do if you want to advance your career through effective delegation?

"Empowering Your Team, ??? Not Escaping Workload" Delegation often gets a bad rap, seen as a way to dump tasks. But true delegation is strategic talent management. It's about identifying high-potential activities for your team, fostering their skills, and ultimately, unlocking collective brilliance. By strategically delegating, you become a leader who cultivates a culture of growth, not just a relief valve for your own workload.

Mindset is critical to maximizing your time. The mentality about delegation is about choosing the right people at the right time with the experience, strengths, and capabilities to support or manage a project. When you are leading others, that includes understanding how and when to assign projects and delegate responsibilities to others. Even individual contributors can be effective at delegation. It's not about passing work out to others--it's about the vision for the shared experience. Delegation is about prioritization and growth. Yours and those you work with. When you master your mindset around delegation, you become an influential leader.

To advance your career through effective delegation, start by identifying tasks that can be delegated. Clearly communicate expectations and provide necessary resources to your team. Delegate based on team members' skills and development goals. Provide guidance and support as needed, but empower them to make decisions independently. Regularly review progress and offer constructive feedback. By mastering delegation, you free up time for strategic activities, showcase leadership skills, and foster a collaborative team environment, propelling your career forward.

To advance your career through effective delegation, we should identify tasks that can be outsourced or handled by team members. Then delegate these tasks based on team strengths and expertise. The clear instructions, set of expectations and the support when needed are the best tools for the overall success. Regular communication and follow-ups will ensure that tasks are on track. By mastering delegation, you free up time for strategic work and demonstrate leadership skills.

As an individual contributor, I found it helpful to build a relationship with someone who had the skills and will to effectively manage a piece of the project. If I didn't know the person, I connected with their manager and shared the vision for the work. When leading a team, I assessed not only their skill and will, but also their vision and aspiration for development. I ensured that the project would help them achieve their goals. for their development and how this project would get them toward their goal.

Many managers hold onto tasks which could be delegated in fear they will not be completed correctly. This can lead to a heavy workload and potentially burnout. It is important to give a definition of done to the delegate so it is clear to them what the final product should be. For example, rather than asking a staff member to write a draft proposal for client A, give them specific details. The proposal should have an introduction, company mission, about the team, overview of proposal, detailed scope of work and terms. If you have a template or prior example, provide that to the staff person. By setting your definition of done, the delegate has a clear picture of the work product to deliver.

Delegation is not a set-and-forget-it process. You should not micromanage the person, either. It is essential to agree on how and the level of support needed with reasonable check-ins agreed to upfront, set, and managed by the person you assigned responsibility to. They now own the success with your support. However, you are 100% responsible for the program or project, even when you delegate to others. One of my mentors told me, "Inspect as much as you expect."