How to Delegate Responsibility

Many people delegate less than they should. Divvy up your assignments and hand out tasks for others to do - this will increase your overall productivity and efficiency.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Calendars

1. Decide whether you want to delegate.

2. Decide to whom you want to delegate responsibility. Does this person have the requisite skills and background knowledge? How quickly will your helper learn?

3. Brief the person on the task: Define exactly what he is responsible for. Explain how the task fits into the larger project. Clarify objectives and decide on deadlines.

4. Encourage your delegate to act independently and to make his own decisions by emphasizing the results. Say, "I want to see such-and-such. Don't tell me the details."

5. Allow the person to perform the task. Offer help as needed, but don't be too intrusive ' if he has a different way of doing things than you do, be flexible and open-minded about it.

6. Periodically check the standard of work. Provide helpful feedback.

7. Recognize the person who does the job ' give him credit for it. Public recognition for a job well done will encourage effort in the future.

Tips & Warnings

• Delegate tasks at times when productivity is likely to be high ' try earlier in the week as opposed to Friday.
• Be available to answer questions and discuss progress.
• Be generous with praise for well-executed jobs.
• Avoid thinking that it is too much trouble to delegate responsibility ' delegating will pay off over time if the task needs to be done again and again.
• Delegating a task doesn't mean you are no longer responsible for seeing that it's completed.

[kandiamo]

on 10/11/2009 Good points. It's important to publicly acknowledge the worker and remember the contribution at evaluation time. Otherwise the worker appropriately interprets 'doing more work for same pay'. Most people are not lazy. They like to work for your recognition, exercise new skills and for career advancement. Nothing wrong with that.

[bobwash01]

on 10/30/2008 Good article. How do I know when to delegate or if it is just easier to do it myself????