10X3 Tips for More Effective Delegation
Delegation is an essential skill that every leader and manager needs to master in order to enhance performance and output. It is the process of assigning tasks, projects and responsibilities to individuals while providing them with the direction, authority, resources, and support necessary to achieve the expected results.
Delegation has several benefits, which include but are not limited to:
It can allow leaders and managers to focus on more complex and demanding issues.
It can reduce stress and burnout from overwhelming workload by redistributing tasks to others.
It can foster trust with team members as it demonstrates the leader's faith and confidence in their team's abilities.
It can maximize the use of resources, which improve productivity and efficiency.
It can improve job satisfaction, commitment, and motivation if team members are granted both psychological safety and autonomy to determine how to accomplish assigned tasks
It can result in better decision-making when members, who mitigate blind spots, are closer to a problem and have more timely information about it, are empowered to act. Moreover, making decisions can be mentally taxing, leading to decision fatigue. This may cause decision-making quality to decrease over time. Delegating decisions can help leaders avoid this fatigue and maintain high-quality decision-making.
It provides professional growth opportunities for team members, thereby enhancing their competencies and value to the organization.
To maximize the benefits, allow me to share with you some actionable tips that can make a difference in your delegation process. Moving forward, please consider the following 10x3 tips of before, during and after delegating.
BEFORE:
Overcome hesitations to delegate and accept that you have limited capacity that prevents you from doing everything as a leader. If not, at least recognize your preferences for delegation as a leader, and identify low-risk, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks that you can delegate with minimal fears and hesitations.
Reflect on previous delegation experiences, and examine what went well and what you could have done differently as a leader.
Develop a delegation framework or process that can be used as a reference point to guide you and other leaders within your organization on when and how to delegate.
Define the goals, expected quality, and desired results of the task or project.
Determine the timeline and resources (tools, budget, staff, information, etc.) to be allocated to the successful completion of the task or project.
Recognize the interdependencies of the decisions around the task and project you aim to delegate in order to inform your expectations, decision, and delegation strategy.
Set boundaries and limits regarding responsibility and accountability:
What level of autonomy and authority will the team member be granted?
What resources at their disposal must they adhere to?
What is the feedback mechanism and cadence?
When can he/she ask for guidance and direction?
When can he/she take initiative and immediate decisions and actions without explicit instructions?
How often should he/she update on progress? What type of report is expected?
What cultural nuances must be considered in communication or otherwise?
If possible, include the team members in the decision-making process of what tasks and projects are delegated to them.
Evaluate the potential team member’s knowledge, strengths, weaknesses, interests, skills, work style, preferences, current workload and attitude to determine if they match the task and project.
Does the team member have the capacity to take on more responsibilities, tasks and projects?
Will the new task or project require reorganizing their ongoing responsibilities and tasks in a beneficial or detrimental manner?
Does the delegated task align with the team member’s short term or long-term career aspirations and interests?
Does the team member prefer self-reliance and independence or highly involved prescriptive guidance?
Does the person have the competencies necessary or would they need training to better perform the task?
If they are less skilled, do they prefer more structured assignments? If they are more skilled, do they prefer less structured assignments?
Is this the right time to delegate the task or project to the team member, or are there potential schedule conflicts due to personal (vacation) and professional reasons (an expected client delivery)?
Is the team member too close to the trenches of similar tasks or projects to avoid blind spots or too far removed to avoid inefficiencies?
Does the team member typically find meaning and motivation in tedious tasks or projects?
What degree of ease and difficulty is ideal for the team member’s comfort and capability?
Consider a short trial period to gauge a team member’s ability and dependability, and prepare your backup plan accordingly.
DURING:
Communicate the assigned task or project and ensure the team member understands what is expected and why it is important. Articulate the goals, deadlines, expected quality standard, resources, constraints and measures of success in a clear manner.
If necessary, train the team member on how to successfully execute on the task or project.
Be patient if the team member is new to the task or project and hence takes longer to complete it at first until he/she gets in a rhythm and learns to become more efficient with it.
If applicable depending on the team member, encourage independent thinking, innovative problem solving, and decision making autonomy within appropriate parameters.
Ensure resources are available to the team member and major roadblock are removed to enable success. Even though lack of resources and abundance of problems can encourage and challenge some to be more resourceful; it can demotivate and frustrate others.
Monitor and track the progress of the task and project. Even though you delegated it, the overall responsibility still lies with you as manager. Maintain oversight to ensure that the decisions and execution align with the project objectives and broader strategy of the department and organization, and adjust plans and tactics as needed depending on performance.
Acknowledge mistakes as part of the learning process, and remind and reinforce boundaries if forgotten, misunderstood, or violated.
Provide adequate support, feedback, and answer questions as needed or agreed upon to cultivate trust and demonstrate faith in the abilities of the team member.
Avoid the trap of upward delegation by not allowing the person to pass the task back to you when problems arise. Instead, encourage them or coach them to come up with potential solutions. In rare cases when you have to consider alternatives, re-delegate to another team member.
Prioritize the result over the process by concentrating on what needs to be achieved and allowing the team member to figure out his/her own method and use his/her own approach, instead of insisting on a particular method of task completion. There are exceptions of course depending on the type of tasks, projects and team members.
AFTER:
After task or project completion, refrain from re-doing or over-correcting the work unless absolutely necessary, then coach the assignee.
Ensure proper documentation of the completed task and project that will serve as a repository of organizational knowledge.
Assess and compare the final results and outcomes with the initial expectations and goals to identify the gaps in the delegation process, allocation of resources, communication and feedback mechanism, and/or execution of the task or project.
Encourage self-evaluation by allowing the team member to reflect on the experience, understand what went well, and identify areas of improvement.
Provide constructive feedback whether the task or project was completed successfully or not, and consider investing in training programs to bridge the skill gaps.
Ask for feedback yourself from your team members, and determine what you could do better as a leader to improve future delegations. Identify patterns in the tasks that are frequently delegated to forecast and plan for future delegation, and adjust based on the ever-evolving team and organizational dynamics.
Reward your team member’s efforts by celebrating even the small wins and milestones reached, and recognize and give credit where it’s due.
Depending on the case, empower the team member with more responsibility and authority by delegating more important and complex tasks and projects in the future.
Refine your delegation framework or process for a more streamlined, flexible, efficient, and improved experience.
Encourage a team culture where team members also feel empowered to delegate tasks within their purview.
I hope that applying the above tips will help you lead and delegate more effectively.
Best Regards,
Dr. Mohammed Almathil