Delegation is both a critical Leadership skill and a business productivity essential yet few Leaders own a process. Here is a simple and straightforward guide with a plan, strategies and do's and don'ts for both new managers and seasoned leaders to follow

1. The Art of Delegation
A Practical Guide Outline
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2. What are the reasons for
Delegating?
— Manage Leader’s time/productivity/opportunity
— Increase accomplishment
— Get to important things on the “back burner”
— Develop a critical leadership skill
— Develop staff skills and create career opportunities
— Improve team functioning
— Positive and informed responsibility improves
company results as well as morale
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3. What to Delegate?
Definition: entrust (a task or responsibility) to another
person, typically one who is less senior than oneself.
— Tasks that you used to do before being promoted
— Tasks where experience suggests success capability
— Functions that fit a staff development agenda
— Tasks that logically fit an evolving job description
(the Leader’s and/or employee’s)
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4. What shouldn’t you
Delegate?
Delegation implies tasks or functions, it does not suggest
an abdication of responsibility. The leader retains
responsibility for the actions/decisions of staff.
— Managerial functions to a non manager
— Financial responsibility inconsistent with a job title/
level and/or experience
— Responsibilities where the consequences directly
affect other staff without prior communication
— Your problems
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5. Delegation Strategies
Similar to LEADERSHIP, there are basic strategies in how delegation is assigned,
communicated, evaluated.
ASSIGNMENT
— The Leader tells who, what to do, by when, etc.
PARTNERSHIP
— The Leader sets two or more participants to share a task/function and gets
commitments
VOLUNTEERING
— The leader describes needs/situations, scales/scopes project or tasks, involves
team, then encourages individuals to volunteer or accept tasks/responsibility
PURE DELEGATION
— The Leader develops a task/outcome and leaves it to a team or individual to
plan and accomplish
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6. Delegation Challenges
Some Leaders struggle with effectively delegating, often due to:
— Not knowing how to effectively delegate
— Inability/Inexperience tracking delegated tasks/roles
— BELIEFS:
— It will take longer to explain than to do it myself
— Can’t ask others to bear my responsibility, “it’s my job”
— Others are already too busy to ask them to do more
— Staff will demand to get paid more if asked to do more
— FEARS:
— Fear of failure or
— Fear of push back from staff
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7. Delegation Do’s
Before delegating be sure as a Leader you:
— Appreciate the value of time, yours and staff
— Understand your needs and the needs of whomever you are delegating to
— Determine the needed skills/experience to succeed
— Match tasks to appropriate employee
— Are comfortable if decisions are delegated
— Have context of delegation within staff development
— Anticipate mistakes, teach/learn, no 2nd guessing
— Prepare for questions by first asking, “What do you think?” to both test
knowledge and insight and to create a sense of responsibility
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8. Delegation Process
When delegating a Leader needs to communicate clearly:
— If you are doing a “one off,” “trial” or a “hand off”
— The expected outcome(s) and appropriate metrics
— The timeframe for completion (hard or soft deadlines) and required checkpoints
— The big picture context of the result
— Particular employee has been asked/chosen
— Relevant background, how to access data/info
— You are giving ownership so responsibility accompanies
— The transfer of authority that accompanies the task
— How and when you will provide feedback
— Effort and Accomplishment public and private recognition
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9. Delegation Dangers
When delegating a Leader should try not to:
— Pass off problems or dump only the mundane (share it)
— Be random with assignments (seniority is not necessarily the
best pairing, weigh skills as well as experience to needs)
— Parcel tasks into fragments, favor complete tasks
— Hover, Helicopter Bosses only work in Aviation
— Abdicate responsibility (you own what you delegate)
— Keep every decision to yourself
— Feel threatened or diminished by other’s excellence
— Delegate what is clearly a manager’s role/responsibility
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10. Summary / Conclusions
Delegation Strategy is mission critical to business because:
— Delegation skill is an absolute indicator for LEADERSHIP
success
— Delegation is critical to cohesive, cooperative and
communicative teams
— A process for delegating offers a far greater success
opportunity than randomly assigning tasks as needed
— Delegation should be part of all Professional
Development for both the giver and the receiver
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11. Contacts
MyEureka Solutions provides strategy, process and training for
business success and personal development.
For more information contact:
Tom Fox, president
tom@myeurekasolutions.com
917 539-6617
Other topics of expertise, training and consulting include:
Leadership, Process Engineering, Manager Development,
Communication, Effective Meetings, Culture Paradigms
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