The Art of Delegation-Is there a Down Side to Delegation?
Is there a Down Side to Delegation?
Looking back to what was said in the introduction, the responsibility of how well the delegated task is completed is still in your hands. If the employee makes a complete mess of it, then it is down to you to sort it out. This all comes back to choosing the right employee to delegate the task to. You must have confidence that the employee is right to do the job better than anyone else available at the time.
Successful delegation doesn't happen over night. You have to 'ease' your staff into coping with delegated work, particularly if they have only recently been employed. For them, it could be learning a new skill to complete the task whether it requires training or is self-learnt.
You may be the type of person that feels they should keep everything in their control (autocratic) and therefore complete the tasks yourself.
This way, you are giving yourself unnecessary workload for a simple solution: delegate the tasks but keep in regular contact with the employees to monitor the progress and so that you can put them back on track if required.
You may be worried that if you delegate a task, that they wont produce results of your own standard. In most cases, this statement couldn't be more true but this is where you need confidence in your staff.
Delegate the same task to him/her as often as possible and with your assistance they will learn to optimize their results: is something you do now the same standard as how you did it the first time?
Finally, you may feel afraid that by delegating tasks, the speed at which your employees' capabilities accelerate may become apparent that you will lose them. This may be through promotion to other areas or perhaps they may leave the business for another job. This could then be considered as to how loyal they are to your business but also, to how much satisfaction you get out of developing people.
What Tasks Can Be Delegated?
The answer to this is anything that you feel necessary which is compatible to the capabilities of your current staff. This could be stock taking through to report writing or a project.
Think of simple things that could save you time like writing addresses on envelopes and signing letters 'p.p.' (per pro) on behalf of your name.
If you have a secretary, then again you could give him/her time-saving tasks like sorting the mail, keeping your diary, filing documents, answering the telephone and making your arrangements (booking hotel room, flight, meetings, etc).
Summary
Delegation is used for a number of reasons that can bring benefit to both yourself and your staff. There are down sides to delegating but they all have simple solutions.
Effective delegation is apparent if you use the right employees, otherwise it could create more work than you started with in the first place. Be careful not to over-delegate tasks or your employees may lose track of their own work missing essential deadlines: finding the right balance between yourself and the employees will take good practice.
Delegation isn't easy and it will take time to integrate if it is new to your business. Once you have mastered the process, you will have become a better and more efficient manager than you were before.
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