Delegate, Delegate, and Delegate Some More

Why do some leaders resist delegating tasks to their employees? The most common reason is fear. Fear is what causes leaders to not trust their staff enough to help them. Another manifestation of fear in the workplace is micromanagement. Whenever a leader micromanages their team members on an ongoing basis, it is evidence that the leader is operating from a place of fear. In this blog post I will discuss the reason leaders delegate tasks.

Remember, your staff is there to help you. They should be lifting your workload and not adding to it. If your staff is consistently adding more work to your load, you may have the wrong employees in place. However, if you know that you have the right staff in place, then you need to delegate. Next, we will talk about why experienced leaders delegate work to others.

Why Leaders Delegate Tasks

Here are some benefits to delegating tasks to your employees:

• When you delegate tasks to your employees, you will experience less stress in the workplace.
• You will be able to focus on the tasks that truly require your attention.
• It can build your employee’s confidence and your belief in them
• You will give your employees an opportunity to increase their skillset.
• Employee confidence will promote a positive work environment.

You may have heard the saying before, “staff your weaknesses”. This is one of the key actions that experienced leaders take. They know that they are not good at everything and that it is better to hire a person who is knowledgeable in certain areas. This is a better use of the leader’s time, and it frees them up to be able to focus on the areas of their strength.

Whenever the disadvantages of learning a new skill outweigh the benefits of learning that skill, it is better to outsource that task to another individual. For example, I am naturally a problem solver, a strategic thinker, and I am organized. Although I am detailed at some tasks, I am not strong in every area. There are some tasks that would fall to the wayside if I did not have a staff member track them for me. What about you? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What should you outsource to others?

Tips to Help You Delegate

What should you do if you are new to delegating or you want to stop micromanaging your staff?

1. Identify the strengths of each of your employees and assign tasks to employees based on their strengths.
2. Identify those who are intrinsically motivated and work out of a spirit of excellence. (These are the employees who go above and beyond without being asked)
3. Give those employees a test task – this is to see if they follow directions well and can be trusted with future tasks.
4. Informally evaluate how the employee performed with the delegated task.
5. If feedback is needed, provide it and see how the employee performs with the task after receiving the feedback.
6. Give the employee another task and see if they can successfully complete that task.
7. Continue delegating but be careful not to overwhelm your best employees with too much work.

Make a commitment this week to delegate a task to your staff this week. You might be surprised by how much relief you experience by taking tasks off your own plate.

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