How To Delegate and Why It's So Important

Do you know how to delegate and why it’s important? This post I found answers that question. Here are a few highlights: 

Delegation goes beyond just handing off the job. It includes setting performance expectations, following-up, and providing feedback. Below you’ll find tips to help you learn to successfully delegate. But first, let’s look at why it’s important to delegate.

• Delegation allows you to devote energy to more important tasks. Managers often spend too much time on the action-oriented activities, such as dealing with sudden problems or issues, and not enough time working more strategically on process improvements and future planning.
• Delegation gives employees necessary opportunities to grow in skill and experience. This is important for the company’s long-term success. Someone seeking to move into a managerial role may be eager to learn about the critical elements of budgeting or other departmental administrative duties.
• The ability to delegate is important for your own advancement. As you move up in the organization, the managers above you watch to see not only whether you get the job done, but also how you get it done. They want to see your management skills, especially your ability to act strategically, with a focus on future planning and innovation.

Here's How to Delegate

1. Give a clear description of the task. 

For example, you may ask an employee to look into possible suppliers for something you’ve never had to buy before, and report to you in two weeks with information and a recommendation. To set the parameters, you might say, “Talk to enough people to get a good feel for the subject, but no more than eight.” Explaining the purpose helps the employee determine how to go about the task. Seeking a supplier for an immediate need and looking into suppliers for a possible future need might be carried out differently.

2. Specify what you expect the employee to learn.

You might say, “I’m turning this over to you so that you can learn more about plant management. I want you to pay attention to how the policies we set are actually playing out in the plant and what obstacles they run up against.”

3. Ask your employee for his ideas on how to proceed. 

This would include the timeline and the resources needed. Say, for example, “Tell me what you see as the right next steps, or action plan.”

Want to know more about it? Find the full article here and let me know what your thoughts. You can also direct any questions to my email [email protected], or call me on 0488 548 854 if you want to discuss!

Thanks,

Jess