What are the 3 golden rules of delegation?

You delegate when you entrust another person – usually a subordinate or an underling –with the responsibility of carrying out a certain task, a function, or a decision. The verb “Delegate” derives from the Latin verb delegare, from de- down and legare ‘depute.’

Delegating is a management skill –an art, a technique - that you should master as a manager. You need to delegate to free  yourself up for  the bigger and more important stuff, to motivate and develop your subordinates, and to achieve more. Failing to do so  would overload you with work,  cause you much stress, and place you under constant pressure. It would also  make you miss important deadlines, adversely affect your performance, and render you un-promotable.

Here are ten golden rules to follow for effective and efficient delegation:  

1)Be specific.  You need to specify which tasks you want to delegate, what outcomes you expect, and the deadline by which the tasks should be completed.

Never delegate high-value and sensitive tasks for which you are hired and meant to handle based on your unique experience.

Meanwhile, you have to be realistic with your expectations and the deadlines you set for the assignments.

 2)Be Proactive.  Plan ahead of time for what you intend to entrust to others. Do not do this  at the last minute when the work is urgent and the pressure is high. Your subordinates may not be ready, and may need time to develop their skills. Beware that late delegation can lead to poor results or failure.   

 3)Base it on mutual agreement. Staff buy-in on the assignment, deadlines or timelines, required resources, and many other issues is crucially important. Coercing them to accept your terms would create resentment and lack of cooperation. It would  also demoralize and demotivate them.

 4) Support & Communicate. Delegating does not mean dumping and piling duties on the employees. Rather, it entails developing them through the provision of adequate training, coaching, and mentoring. Not only that but as a leader you ought to communicate with them regularly, clearly, and adequately. You should give them proper and enough feedback..

 5) Delegate adequately.  You may not delegate or delegate a little because you feel anxious and think that you do not have the time to explain things to the staff. You  fear  loss of control,  credit, the tasks you enjoy, and maybe your job. Besides, you feel you can not trust your subordinates with the assignments, and you perceive you can do the work faster and better.

But all those reasons are ill-founded. Delegating does save your time. Plus, you can maintain control through regularly checking progress of the task, Do not worry about losing credit as you can share it. Additionally, it is better for you to enjoy managing instead of doing. Further, your subordinate may turn out more capable than you think.

If you underdelegate, you risk ending up with too much work, not enough time, and lots of undue stress.

On the other hand, when you overdelegate, you may give away critical and sensitive responsibilities to your subordinates and overburden them with so much work to do. This may also give the impression that you  are unavailable, disinterested, or detached. You may become less essential to the business.  

6) Choose the Right Person.When entrusting responsibilities, match the person with the task, and make sure that he has the necessary skills, experience, and knowledge or at least the potential to perform the assignment. That will maximize productivity.

Avoid delegating to overloaded people who are already preoccupied with other important tasks and who do not have the time to complete the task successfully.

 7)Follow up.  Ensure that the person clearly understands the assignment, and ask him to report back to you every now and then. Check progress of the task occasionally, and provide the necessary guidance. Do not forget to define your role, but never micromanage.

 8) Provide the Necessary Resources. When you entrust work to other people, make available the necessary resources. They may need assistants, location, premises, access to information, equipment, money, materials, other related activities, and services.

 9)Make It Mutually Beneficial-‘What is in it for them.’  While  handing off work, do no forget to motivate the delegatee and get him fired up to achieve the desired results. If he is there to learn, present the assignment as a development opportunity. If he craves visibility, present it that way.

 10)Install Accountability. The person to whom you delegate should be held liable for how well he uses his authority and lives up to his responsibility for performing the assigned task. It implies punishment and reward.

Finally, proper delegation is SMART or SMARTER.: Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, Timebound, Ethical, and Recorded.  It benefits  you, your workforce, and the organization. It saves you time, enables you to seek higher tasks, grows your people, grooms a successor, and motivates. Instead, poor delegation causes frustration, demotivates and confuses others.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Thank you for reading my post. Here are some other recent posts I have written:

 Hanna Saba is a freelance management advisor.

Delegation is deciding on tasks that you will hand over to someone on the team, and ones which you will leave to yourself. Although we think that delegation is transferring tasks, it is more than that. Delegation means giving a member of your team the authority to lead the task and thereby authorizing him to do so on your behalf. Although the task is led by someone else, it is important to note that you are still responsible for the outcome of that task.

1. Transmit complete information.

This includes relevant information a person may need to perform a task; the degree of freedom and judgment you expect the other person to use, and communication to make sure there is a complete understanding between the people involved. (The person to whom he or she is delegated should express his or her wishes and needs concerning that task.)

2. Delegate authority as well as responsibility.

When authority is retained, it gives a signal that I, as the one delegating, either don’t believe it or don’t want to lose control. In both cases, delegation can be fraught with difficulties.

3. Set performance standards

Communicate the expected results and include such parameters as quality, quantity, deadlines and costs. When this makes sense, those to whom authority and responsibility have been delegated should have a role to play in agreeing on standards.

4. Establish control

Another way to say this is to establish a process of calling to account. The process could include personal checks, feedback from the client, status reports, etc.

5. Challenge your co-workers

Encourage the delegate to take some risks, thus allowing staff to develop through greater responsibility and freedom.

6. Provide adequate training programme and development

There are many options available to make sure this happens: guidance, the opportunity to collaborate with a more experienced staff member on specific tasks, creating a team, and more formal learning opportunities.

7. Support your co-workers

Don’t undermine them with decisions they can make once both authority and responsibility have been delegated to them.

8. Delegate: don’t just get rid of certain obligations!

If you see delegation as an opportunity to get rid of all those not-so-dear commitments while keeping all the interesting ones, you may soon encounter the revolt of co-workers.

9. Don’t give up your responsibilities as a supervisor

Delegating responsibilities and competencies associated with it does not mean the person delegating is not responsible as supervisor.

Delegation is a very important skill that you should have and develop as a business owner. It saves time and money with the added bonus of building up your team. Learning the art of delegation is important because if you don't do it correctly, it could cause your team to become demotivated which could ultimately lead to frustration and resignation. You are then left to pick up the pieces and start all over again.

These 10 rules will be able to help you delegate successfully.

#1 Make a list

Stop wearing so many hats and start making a list. As a business owner, you often fall into the trap of doing things yourself. This gives you no time to work on your business because you are busy working in it. Instead of balancing the books yourself, hire someone who can do it in less time. Suck at making a marketing plan, get a marketing manager who has experience and can do it for you. The first step of successful delegation is to make a list of things you don't enjoy doing, are not good at, and can be given to someone else to do so that it frees up your time.

#2 Be Patient

The first time you decide to start delegating, it will take time. Since you have been doing the task yourself, you have been responsible and also quick at it. Once you delegate, it takes time to hand over the task to one of your employees or a hired contractor or vendor. The key is to be patient – whilst this will take time, it will also be beneficial and easy in the long run.

#3 Be Clear

Once you have picked the right person to delegate the task to, it is important to be very clear in what you want achieved so that you are both on the same page. It will not help if you dump the task on to someone else without any clear guidance and goals. They will do the task inefficiently which will then create more work for you.

#4 Let it go

A very big issue faced by business owners is that they cannot let go of their work. They feel a sense of ownership which comes in the way of delegation. Consequently, this is not good for motivation or morale. Your team is relying on you for support and training. Once you delegate the task(s) and are clear on what you need, let them get on with it. If you have a problem letting go, the best solution is to start small.

#5 Use Resources for Accountability

Establishing clear tasks, rules, KPI's and deadlines is what makes a project successful. If you are delegating a project (big or small) using tools and resources will help you with accountability and will give you a bird's eye view without micro-managing.

Some of the best tools out there are:

• Wunderlist
• Trello
• Evernote
• Slack

#6 Dedicate an Overseer

If you have a big time, it may be worthwhile to dedicate a manager as an overseer. Instead of you looking after every aspect of the project or task at hand, hire someone or give someone in your team the responsibility to oversee the project for you. Set clear goals for the overseer so that they can successfully complete the project. This increases morale in your team, gives the overseer a chance to expand their skill set, and frees up more time for you.

#7 Use the 70% rule

If you are asking yourself – when and what tasks should you delegate – then this clever article published by Inc (https://www.inc.com/jim-schleckser/the-70-rule-when-to-delegate.html) is a must read. In short, if you appoint someone to do the task and they are able to do it at least 70 percent as well as you, delegate!

#8 Be the teacher

Use this opportunity to teach your time. One of the main reasons business owners are so busy all the time is that they want to do everything themselves. They fear that no one can do a better job than they can. Not true! Whilst you may be the expert there are things you can teach someone else to do. This proves beneficial in the long room and even though it may take longer in the interim, the benefits of freeing up your time far outweigh that.

#9 Communication

It is important that you communicate with your team. Clearly state your goals, your expectations and your deadlines. Pipe in every so often to check on progress and ask if they are on track. This is a great way to verify progress and build the relationship with your team.

#10 Feedback and Appreciation

Once the task is complete, and you have successfully delegated your list of things that can be passed on to someone else, it is important to provide feedback. If there was anything that could have been done better, you can provide training and support to improve. This will help with the delegation process. Don't make the mistake of playing the blame game. Pass on credit where credit is due, reward performance where possible, and most importantly, remember to say Thank You!

Sonia Irani