Delegation as an essential manager skill - getting work done with delegation

Keith Tatley

2018-06-06

Have you ever wanted a clone of yourself so you can finish all the dull tasks on your to do list and get on with living your life? It’s impossible to do everything yourself and you can’t make another copy of yourself. But the fundamental reason for having employees is to do work for you. This is why one of the routine things that managers do is delegate work to employees. And when you get it right you’ll find that employees aren’t there just to help carry the load.

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What you will find is that your employees often do a better job than you because they have more time available and different skill sets. But that’s the dream vision of delegation, in reality you and I know that bosses struggle with delegation. So how do we move from an overflowing inbox to a world where we use delegation as a motivational tool for growth?

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Delegation is an essential manager skill. But it’s one of those life skills that they don’t teach you how to do in school. Like many manager skills, it’s not just what you do that counts, it’s how you do it that makes the difference. Want to be a better boss to advance your career and earnings? Then improve your delegation skills.

Delegation for organisations

Have your managers had formal management training? Delegation is a great tool to improve employee productivity which is why organisations need to make sure they’ve trained their managers how to delegate.

Is your delegation working for you? Take the Work Delegation Checkup to find out.

Are you in a delegation hole?

Do you have a high workload or maybe you work a lot of overtime? Or
Do you have a work backlog that is dependent on you to start/ progress? Or
Are you doing things your employees should be doing or can do at a lower cost? Or
Are you doing things that you are not an expert at?

The hidden costs of a lack of delegation

You’re neglecting your priorities
Your employees aren’t learning and growing
Your employees don’t feel challenged or trusted
Everything is dependent on you, causing you manager stress

But it doesn’t have to be that way because effective bosses know how to use delegation to get stuff done and also as a motivational tool to grow their employees.

You see, here are three beautiful things about Effective Delegation:

One, tasks you don’t want to do can be an attractive development opportunity for an employee,
Two, as talented as you are, you’re not the best at everything. The beauty of diversity means that there’s someone out there who is better than you at some tasks. and
Three, your employees can dedicate priority, time and focus that you can’t.

Don’t let management myths hold you back

How delegation motivates your employees

Progress. Delegating responsibilities is like a small promotion without the increase,
Grow and learn new things,
Have autonomy and be entrusted with responsibilities and
Do meaningful work, make a contribution and be valued