Most business owners understand the importance of successful delegation in management: you can only do so much work in a day.  I’ve written a whole blog post about how delegating is vital to the success of your business.  Where people go wrong, however, is assuming that successful delegation is as simple as handing off a task and expecting it to get done. Genuinely successful delegation in management requires a more hands-on approach and frequent communication.

Here are five steps to learn how to delegate successfully to your business.

1.  Decide what you can delegate.

Forbes mentions the importance of not delegating anything you wouldn’t do yourself: while it’s tempting to hand off all of your tedious tasks to your employees, that type of work won’t make them feel important or valued.  Successful delegation in management requires you to be strategic about what you’re delegating.

There might be a lot of work that you enjoy doing, but that wastes your time overall.  These are the tasks to delegate: the important but not necessarily urgent responsibilities that prevent you from getting around to the critical and urgent things.  You want your employees to feel like they’re doing valuable work while freeing up your schedule for vital tasks only you can do.

2.  Be specific in your expectations.

When giving directions, you want to be as specific as possible and leave nothing up to interpretation.  Your vision might make sense to you, but your words can mean something entirely different for your employees.

If you can, show examples of what you’re looking for and encourage your employees to ask questions to eliminate miscommunications.

3.  Schedule regular follow-ups.

As I always say, when it comes to delegation, you can expect only what you inspect.  That means checking in on your employees to ensure your tasks progress instead of waiting until the deadline to see if there’s a problem.

Set reminders on your calendar to follow up with employees working on your delegated tasks.  This can be an in-person meeting, a Skype call, or a progress report.  However, it’s better to set aside a block of time to talk to your employees rather than just emailing them, as this shows you value the task at hand.

Aim to chat with them at several points to see how they’re doing.  This allows employees to share any questions or obstacles with you early on and will enable you to steer a project back in the right direction if it’s gotten off-track.

4.  Allow time for revisions.

This might be a no-brainer but don’t wait until the last minute to delegate a big assignment.  It would help if you allowed time to explain the assignment, check in with your employee, and make sure there’s time for changes to be made in case they’ve started incorrectly.

It can help assign several mini-deadlines for different parts of the assignment throughout the process so that you can check them before the whole thing is complete.

5.  Work with your employees.

If an employee doesn’t meet your expectations, talk to them about what went wrong.  It’s one thing to have a misunderstanding, but continuously missing the bar can signify a lack of cohesion that might indicate a broader issue.

Communicate with your employee to see if an underlying problem keeps them from succeeding at their tasks.  According to the Free Management Library, working together toward improvement ensures accountability and dependability for future projects.  Over time, this can shape an underperforming employee into a driven and successful team member.

Successful delegation and leadership go hand-in-hand, and successful delegation in management is vital tothe long-term success f .  ou have been frustrated by delegation and leadership issues, fill out my contact form for a complimentary coaching call to discuss some ideas.

Coach Dave