4 Steps to Delegate Effectively

4 Steps to Delegate Effectively

As your business or organisation grows, it becomes increasingly apparent that you may not be able to conduct all the tasks on your own. As an effective leader, delegating allows you to focus on the tasks that truly require your skillset while providing your employees with a new range of skills ensuring that they grow alongside you and your company. Like everything, there are effective ways and wrong ways to do so. Here are 4 steps that can help you delegate effectively.

Give clear Instructions, but don’t Micromanage

Effective delegation should be seen as a vote of trust from the employee’s point of view. Therefore, providing a detailed and rigid set of instructions would indicate that it is otherwise. Instead, specify parts of the process that are important and let the employee use their talent to flesh out the complete picture. This lightens your workload and increases the employee’s trust, confidence and capability at the same time.

Correct When Necessary

Too much autonomy may cause work progress to veer too far away from the agreed guidelines so it pays to know when to step in and guide the employee. Have a verbal discussion with the employee where possible and agree on a plan to realign the task towards the targeted goals and the consequences if the target is not met.

Grant the Necessary Resources

An often overlooked part by most managers is that delegated work may require additional resources or authorization that are out of the designated employee’s credentials. This may make it difficult for assigned tasks to be completed. Ensure that relevant resources and authority are given to employee to ensure effective completion of the delegated task.

Choose Wisely

In most organisations, there will be many employees that display the capabilities required to grow significantly. However it is critical that employees are chosen based on overall strengths with regards to tasks at hand. Do not let factors such as personal relationship or perceived ability influence the selection process. Choosing the right employee for the task is arguably the most important aspect of effective delegation and there should be no room for misjudgement on this aspect.