It is almost certain that you will have had to ask others for assistance (at some time). This could vary from taking messages or phone calls for you to taking your place at a meeting or even taking over and leading in your position when you are doing something else for a short time. By asking someone to help you, you’ve engaged in the process of delegation (at least to some extent). So, if you can delegate on occasions such as these why can’t leaders in general seem to do it more often than the research appears to indicate?

There are many reasons leaders do not delegate, including things like:

• Enjoying maintaining the impression of being overworked
• Believing they are indispensable
• Lacking trust in others
• Fearing criticism from others
• Fearing a loss of ‘face’
• Being concerned of overloading other people

Five steps to successful delegation

However, the main reason that leaders cite more than any other for not delegating, is that is takes a lot longer to delegate than to perform a task yourself mainly because of higher levels of familiarity with what is required.  Although this may well be true in some cases in the short term, it is not true for all tasks and less and less true in the medium to long term as people are given the chance to practise. For these reasons, delegation can and should be done selectively, on a task by task basis, and by carefully selecting the individual who is most likely to be able to perform at a reasonable level. But there’s also more to be done if we want to delegate more. Every leader needs a delegation process and the simple five step one below is an example of this.

Step 1. Identify the Task/Project

This needs to be a task that a leader can explain clearly and can sensibly offer to someone else to do. This may well be initially a small or routine task but the leader can add complexity to the delegated tasks chosen as confidence in those to whom he/she delegates grows.

Step 2.   Identify the right person

This simply means choosing the most appropriate person to perform the task and making sure that he or she is willing, capable and interested, especially given the current situation. It is also important to match the particular task to the skills and experience of the person to whom a leader wishes to delegate.

Step 3. Brief the person and set goals and priorities

This involves carefully describing what you’re aiming for by delegating this task and how and by when you expect an outcome. The aim here is for a leader to set specific goals and targets and then to offer as much help in the form of support as the task requires and the person needs (see next step).

Step 4. Coach/Support the individual appropriately

The amount of coaching, training and/or support will obviously vary according to the task and the person doing it. In general it is better to be available to offer guidance than not, especially in the early stages or when you are delegating to someone for the first time. This allows review milestones to be set and check-in discussions to occur as necessary.

Step 5. Recognise the effort or contribution

The quality of results is likely to vary greatly across different tasks and according to the different people doing them. In all cases it is important to jointly learn from the experience for next time and to offer thanks for the efforts, as well as recognition for a job done well, when it is due.

Summary Our simple goal as leaders should be to make delegation part of our normal schedule by identifying when we need help as well as when we can help others. If we can do even a little more delegating, we will not only empower others but also give ourselves much more freedom as leaders to do new or different tasks and projects ourselves.

Colin Noyes

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