The achievement of the organizational goal mostly depends on efficient management. There is a very common definition of management that “Management is the art of getting things done through others” – Mary Parker Follet. So it is very important that as a manager you can enable your employees to get things done. That means you have to delegate. But some leaders find delegation as one of the most difficult tasks. Because some leaders are very good executors for themselves but they can not lead the execution of others. In other words, they are unable to delegate their tasks properly.
Why is it important to delegate?
The major role of a manager is to drive his or her team towards the successful accomplishment of the organizational goals. In this journey s/he has to motivate, guide, monitor the performance of all the members of his or her team. So, if s/he spends most of his or her time, knowledge, energy, and caliber doing small tasks, perhaps s/he will not be able to focus to improve the performance of others. Maybe, his performance, as an individual employee, will be remarkable but he will not be able to lead the team towards the achievement of organizational goals. In the end, his role as a leader will fail.
On the other hand, your organization will expect you to perform more strategic work as you progress upwards within your organization and do less transactional work. To concentrate on strategic work, you need to move your focus from clerical tasks that you can delegate to your subordinate. It seems, the more you delegate the more effective you will become. Because delegating the small tasks will give you enough time and relief to do what the others are not capable of doing.
How to understand that you are not delegating properly?
Instead of delegating you can do everything on your own. But it will increase your stress and you will be feeling overloaded all the time. Because as a human there’s only a limited amount you can do. Also, we all work a certain hour a day. Therefore, your career will be stalled. Most of the time you will find yourself engrossed and exhausted, bogged down with routine tasks.
Moreover, if you do not delegate properly, your employees or colleagues will be unsupportive towards you. Your relationship with them will be worse as you will remain stressed, short-tempered, and anxious due to extreme workload. Concentrating on small tasks you will fail to fix your priority and the important tasks will always remain undone. Also, your efficiency will be under question.
5 signs of efficient delegation
“No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.”– Andrew Carnegie. Now the question is, how to delegate effectively? Lots of people think themselves good at delegation by assigning certain tasks to others. But it is not enough to be a good leader. You need to focus on certain things while delegating something to others. Here are the five signs of effective delegation –
1. Describe your expectations clearly
While delegating any task you need to clearly describe your expectation from it to your subordinates. It will help them to know what outcome you want from this task and they will work accordingly. A clear expectation will eliminate the confusion and increase the chance of success.
2. Delegate the authority not only responsibility
When you delegate a certain task to your subordinates, you also need to give the authority necessary to accomplish the task. This process enables your employees to perform their tasks more efficiently. Some managers are found to be reluctant to delegate authority. They always get themselves involved in the tiny details of every small work. Which makes the implementation process more complex and difficult. Also, increase employee dissatisfaction.
If you want to read more about it click on “How Micromanagement Destroy Your Team”
3. Give the freedom to your subordinates to complete the job their way
As a manager or a leader, you should give the freedom to your employees to perform their tasks in their way. If you always keep telling them how the task should be done they will lose their creativity. So, they will not grow. At the end of the day, you will be leading a team of inept, and uninspired people entirely dependent on their boss.
On the other hand, if you only focus on the final result and give freedom to your employee for performing the tasks on their own, it will increase efficiency. Everyone has a different way of thinking. An employee who performs a certain task every day often develops a more efficient way to accomplish the task. So, allowing him to implement his thoughts will help you to achieve your mission effectively.
4. Provide necessary guidance
As a manager, your main task is to guide your people. Here are some points that you can follow while guiding your employees –
- Use simple language
- Be straightforward, no room for confusion
- Give examples/Share previous experience
- Set a time limit/deadline if applicable
5. Always get feedback
Employee feed is one of the most crucial things for effective delegation. Employee feedback will help you to understand the progress of the delegated tasks. Also, you will be able to measure the capability and dedication of the assigned person. Moreover, regular feedback will help you to get a clear picture regarding the overall progress of the task assigned to them.
Why a manager doesn’t want to delegate
Although delegation is the key to efficient leadership, some managers still don’t want to delegate properly. Some will say, “I can do better than my subordinates. So, why should I delegate? But how many tasks s/he can do by himself? Only a few, right?. So, still you need to delegate a large amount of tasks if you want to accomplish your goal timely. Also, you are not the only one who really knows how to perform the task accurately. Some are afraid that other people might complete the task more effectively so they feel insecure to delegate. However, here are some main reasons why a manager doesn’t want to delegate –
- When they have no trust over their employees’ efficiency.
- When they are not transparent enough about what they are doing or expecting.
- When the manager or leader has the dominant Tendency.
- When you are too conservative in nature
If you can’t delegate your tasks you can’t be a good manager or leader. Effective delegation helps you to get rid of small transactional work and focus on the bigger picture. So, as a manager you should effectively delegate your small and transactional work and it will help you to focus on doing what others can’t.
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