Last Updated on February 3, 2024 by Dave Schoenbeck
Letting go of some of your responsibilities and learning how to delegate are critical factors to being a successful leader in business. For some managers, it can be challenging to take this step and have faith in other people to take on the essential duties of their work. These leaders may be worried about the quality of failing to meet their personal standards or may avoid delegating jobs due to the fear of losing their reputation as individual experts.
The reality is that it’s nearly impossible to continue to do everything yourself and make progress toward your organization’s goals. To get to the next level of success, you’ll need to delegate.
Ignoring the importance of delegation means you’ll be stuck doing the same things and spreading yourself too thin. Instead, here are a few ways to learn how to delegate and reap the benefits of delegation on your business.
What Delegation Looks Like
To start, you’ll need to know what effective delegation looks like before you can feel comfortable doling out responsibilities. In most cases, delegation involves prioritizing specific tasks and assigning them to other capable teammates.
Delegating also means you must empower others to complete the work you assign them and help them make decisions that mirror your work process.
Choose the Right People
Those who understand the importance of delegation also understand the need for top people with various skills.
You may be tempted to try to work with people with a similar work style to yourself, but it’s better to consider a diverse pool of talent to help you tackle different tasks with a broad approach. In some cases, you may need to recruit people for your company who have the potential to help expand in areas where you feel weak.
Set Guidelines and a System to Oversee Tasks
Once you’ve set up your team, it’s time to create an organized system for task management to ensure everything gets done. Set guidelines for your team that address delegation’s importance and help them accurately complete each task. You’ll need to think like a project manager and develop a timeline with checkpoints for each essential step.
Maintain a High Level of Quality
Quality plays a significant role in a successful delegating process. Stressing the importance of delegation can lead your team to produce excellent, high-quality work. Effective delegators clearly communicate quality standards to their team members and motivate their staff to go above and beyond. This way, you (and your workers) can manage more on your plates over time.
Aim for Attainable Results
The biggest key to success when managing several delegated projects is to focus on results – not the individual tasks that got you there. You’ll be more productive if you avoid micromanaging the finer points of the process.
The people on your team won’t appreciate managers who don’t trust them or lack faith in their work. Instead, drive all your energy into achieving a specific result and praise your employees who reach these goals, no matter their process.
If you want to learn more about how I help leaders work more efficiently, download my free eBook. Move closer to being the leader that brings innovation and success to your organization.
Coach Dave
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