To Lead Effectively, Learn to Delegate Well

One of the most difficult adjustments many rising leaders make is the transition from the “doing mode” to the “leading mode.”

It’s a natural tendency to want to do your own work yourself, but as a leader, it becomes necessary – some would say imperative – to master the art of delegating tasks and responsibilities to others.

To become a better leader, you must extend your presence by engaging people to not only perform the tasks they’re assigned, but to do so with the kind of motivation and care that raises the bar for the entire team and organization.

Leaders who know how to delegate effectively accomplish more for themselves and their company, while those who don’t tend to suffer from job burnout along with underperforming staff members who feel unneeded and unchallenged.

But the very act of delegating also presents leaders with an unavoidable paradox: they need to be more essential – meaning essential to fulfilling the organization’s core objectives – while becoming less involved in its hands-on operations.

When faced with this paradox, it’s vital to remember that being busy is not what matters, being productive is. Effective delegation is the way to build your capital as a strong leader while simultaneously raising your team’s productivity, morale, and self-esteem.

According to Dr. Scott Williams, professor of management at Wright State University, delegation means much more than just moving agenda items off your plate:

“The people who work for you will be able to develop new skills and gain knowledge, which prepares them for more responsibility in the future. Delegation can also be a clear sign that you respect your subordinates’ abilities and that you trust their discretion. Employees who feel that they are trusted and respected tend to have a higher level of commitment to their work, their organization, and, especially, their managers.”

What is “Delegation?”

Delegation refers to the transfer of responsibility for specific tasks from one person to another.

From a manager’s point of view, delegation happens when a manager assigns specific tasks to their employees. By delegating those tasks to team members, managers free up their time to focus on higher-value activities, while keeping their reports productive with greater autonomy.

Savvy leaders know they can’t accomplish everything by themselves, and their time must be applied to those leadership tasks to which they are especially qualified (such as hiring, budgeting, planning, forecasting, strategizing etc.). Effective leaders must free up their time to focus on activities yielding the highest returns and growth opportunities for the company.

The bottom line: delegation is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of a strong leader.

Common Reasons for Not Delegating

If delegation is so important, why are some leaders still reluctant to delegate? Here are some common reasons. Read them over and see if any of these apply to you.

They think delegating is just passing off work to someone else.

Leaders often mistake delegation for passing off work. This is hardly ever the case.

Delegation makes workloads more manageable for everyone and improves overall productivity. It can also open up valuable learning opportunities for employees that pay off handsomely in the Big Picture.

They think they can do it better themselves.

Micromanagers are of the opinion that if they don’t do something themselves it can’t possibly be done correctly. In reality, no one can be the best at everything, especially in today’s complex business workplace. It’s the smart boss who takes the time to evaluate each staff member’s strengths and talents and then leverages those skills to boost the organization’s overall performance. Embrace the fact that someone else is better at doing a particular something than you, and use that to empower your team.

They’re nervous about “Letting Go.”

Letting go can be challenging, but accepting that you can’t do everything yourself is important. Therefore, remind yourself that your team wants to do good work and be successful just like you do. If your employees succeed, you succeed. When entrusted with roles and responsibilities they understand and value, people will seldom disappoint their leader with substandard work.

They’re worried delegating will slow things down too much.

There’s no denying that teaching someone a new task takes time, and it’s likely the learner will perform the task slower than the experienced person, at least at the start. However, it’s high time to recognize training as an investment in overall team performance that pays off with big dividends. Once the initial learning phase passes and the trainee becomes task proficient, you’ll have recouped the time you spent on training and can apply that time to the tasks leaders are specifically paid to do.

They don’t understand the priority of the work.

When faced with delegation decisions, some leaders feel lost about priorities. Rather than risk getting it wrong, they decide not to delegate anything and just try to do it all themselves. This sort of blurred thinking can have a wide-spread negative impact on everyone’s performance. If a leader is unsure about prioritization, then there may be too many competing priorities or fuzzy messages coming from the executive leadership team. Best to consult with a senior leader, then delegate with priorities set.

They want to feel important to their team.

Leaders should see performance as a team effort, not the product of individuals trying to outdo each other. When leaders delegate properly, their importance to the team increases.

They aren’t sure who can do this work.

This gets back to knowing your team and each member’s strengths and capabilities. This knowledge will guard you from giving the wrong job to the wrong person. There are numerous ways to determine who’s good at what and, perhaps more importantly, who loves doing what. Take the time necessary to figure this out, then start delegating the right work to the right person to see productivity advance markedly.

They want to work on the most interesting projects themselves.

Good leaders always think about results, and how results are best achieved. It would be selfish and inefficient to reserve the plum projects for one’s self when someone else is either better qualified for it or the leader should put their energy towards higher level tasks. A strong delegator puts the team first and their wants and personal preferences second.

When is it Appropriate to Delegate?

We’ve established that delegation is important, but is it always appropriate? New managers in particular often struggle with this question. Career and business strategist Jenny Blake helped clarify this matter by creating a list of task classifications for determining task delegation suitability:*

Not to be Delegated Tasks: Personal and sensitive matters such as salary, termination, medical conditions, conflicts, or family-related difficulties must remain strictly between the manager and the employee affected. Also, strategic or business critical tasks should demand your personal attention. Don’t ask others to assume these responsibilities.

Tiny Tasks: These are the little things that only take a small amount of time to complete but add up over time. These might be things an assistant could do: scheduling meetings, booking flights for business trips, or deleting spam/marketing emails from your inbox.

Tedious Tasks: These are those tasks that may not require high level attention, such as reviewing vendor inquiries and scheduling travel. Tedious tasks require little skill and can be easily delegated.

Time-consuming Tasks: Time-consuming tasks are opportunities to break work into smaller chunks and delegate portions of the work to others. If you perform a task regularly that takes a lot of time, look for opportunities to hand off segments of that task to others.

Teachable Tasks: Do you have tasks on your plate that you could easily teach someone else to complete? If a task is entirely teachable – if it does not require expertise that only you can provide – it’s a worthwhile candidate for delegation.

Things You’re Terrible At Tasks: Maybe you have no design skills, so it takes you six times as long to create slides for routine presentations. It’s better to delegate that task to someone on your team who’s more equipped to do the work quickly and well.

Time-Sensitive Tasks: As Harvard Business Review explains it, maybe it would be better if you handled all of the tasks belonging to a time-sensitive project, but if you won’t have time to complete it doing it all on your own, find ways to delegate parts of that task to other members of your team

11 Delegation Tips for Leaders

Now that we’ve surveyed the delegation landscape, here are some useful tips to help you master this surprisingly challenging and complex job function:

Identify work to delegate.

Use Jenny Blake’s classification criteria listed above to sort out and prioritize what should or shouldn’t be delegated. Also, if a team member has expressed interest in developing a new skill or honing an existing one, see if there’s any work you can delegate to them to help them build those skills. One of the best ways to delegate is to assign work that connects to a team member’s professional goals.

Choose the right person for the job.

Part of being a good leader is understanding your employees’ strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. If you need to delegate a task that requires a lot of collaboration to complete, don’t delegate it to someone who very strongly prefers working alone. Delegate it to someone who prefers collaborating. Letting people choose the tasks they’re delegated is another way to build trust with and inspire engagement among your team.

Explain why you’re delegating.

If you’re delegating a task to someone for the first time, it really helps when you provide context for why you’re giving them that responsibility. It’s ideal when employees see delegated tasks as opportunities to take on more responsibilities or grow new skills.

Provide the right instructions but don’t micro-manage.

Every good delegator provides basic and important information without micromanaging.

Tell employees your goals or the milestones you hope to achieve and let them tackle the problem in their own way. Don’t look for perfection or rote duplication of the way you do something. Someone else might complete a task differently than you would, but as long as you get the result you’re looking for, that’s fine.

Provide resources and invest in training.

You must ensure that the person tasked with a job or project has the tools and resources they need to be successful. Use the “I do, we do, you do” approach to train and build confidence. Also, train constructively in a step-by-step manner. For example, if you ask someone to use a specific tool they’ve never used before to complete a task, make sure they’re trained in the use of that tool first before moving on to the task itself.

Delegate responsibility and authority.

You’ve probably been in a situation where you were tasked with something but didn’t feel fully empowered to make decisions. As a result, the work stalled whenever you had a question or needed assistance, and the task took more time than anyone expected. Cultivate an environment where people delegated tasks feel they’re able to make their own decisions, ask questions without repercussion, and initiate the necessary steps to complete the work.

Say thank you and give credit once work is completed

When someone completes a task or project you delegated, show genuine appreciation and thank them. Point out specific things they did right or well, and perhaps areas for improvement. Once the work is completed, make sure the team member who did the work is credited for completing the task. When you show such appreciation, and recognition, most people tend to thrive at their jobs.

Practice letting go.

Delegating can be difficult for first-time managers because they’re putting important work into someone else’s hands. You probably feel connected to your work and responsible for it getting done well, even when you realize that doing it is not necessarily the best use of your managerial time. To overcome this tendency, practice handing off small types of work at first, before building up to bigger projects. This will enable you to gradually let go of your personal connections to a task or project.

Clarify priorities.

Understanding the priority of tasks makes it easier for you to delegate. The best way to clarify priorities is to connect work to team and company goals. When you and your team have clarity on why the work matters, it’s easier to effectively prioritize and subsequently delegate tasks.

Prioritize communication and feedback.

Delegating work creates strong opportunities for two-way feedback and communication. Make sure the person you’ve delegated work to has a way to contact you with any questions, and set up a regular check in, like a 1 on 1 meeting, where you can review things in more detail and give helpful feedback. Also, ask for feedback from them on how well you’ve delegated. This is a long-term skill you’re starting to build, so soliciting feedback helps you get better, too.

Trust but verify.

Once you’ve delegated work, try to take a step back and give the team member the space they need to do the work. Check in with them periodically to make sure they don’t need any additional support, but also be hands-off enough to show your team that you trust them. “Trust but verify” means keeping an eye on things without projecting a smothering or overwhelming presence.

Apply These 5 Principles for Better Delegation

While delegation is an ability that’s not innate to every person, it can be learned with study and practice. Apply these five principles of delegation and you’ll stand on firm ground:

the Right task
the Right circumstance
the Right person
the Right direction/communication
the Right supervision

When you delegate well, you increase trust and commitment with your employees, improve productivity, and make sure the right people are performing the tasks that best suit them. It will take practice to become a great delegator, but if you work at it, everyone involved will benefit.

Good leaders demonstrate multiple positive traits: honesty, integrity, authenticity, confidence, drive, dedication, . . . the list goes on. Another such trait, which is also a fundamental component of emotional intelligence, is self-awareness. Read our article on Strategies for Boosting your Self-Awareness to become a More Effective Leader.

If delegation is a skill you want to develop as a leader and you’d like the support of a great coach to ensure it gets done, reach out to us to set up a conversation. We’d be more than happy to support your growth in this essential leadership skill.

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Delegation is the subject of numerous books, articles, and media. If you’re interested in learning more, here are some resources to get you started:

Books (all available from Amazon)