“If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” No, shut up.
Why is Delegating Important?
Delegation can improve your professional and personal life in a whole bunch’o ways.
1. Efficiency and productivity
Delegating allows leaders to focus on higher-priority activities that require their specific skills and expertise.
2. Skill development
Allowing employees/colleagues/your son Brandon to take on new tasks gives them the opportunity to learn new skills and grow. It also brings new eyes onto the task, which can reveal areas of potential improvement.
3. Team empowerment
Refusing to delegate is a quick way to show you don’t trust your employees or team members, which can demotivate them. Delegating shows trust in their abilities and intelligence, which can enhance their confidence and morale, plus incentivize them to do more.
Delegating can foster innovation in the way that empowered people are more likely to contribute ideas and solutions.
4. Improved decision-making
Involving more people in decision-making can provide diverse viewpoints and unique insights, which will lead to better decisions. With delegated authority, decisions can be made more quickly at various levels of the organization, rather than waiting for one guy on the top to figure it out.
5. Organizational agility
Delegation allows organizations to be more flexible and adaptable, as tasks can be reassigned quickly in response to changing priorities and conditions. As organizations grow, effective delegation is important for scaling operations and managing increased complexities.
How To Decide Which Tasks To Delegate
Not all tasks are equally suited for delegating. Here are some guidelines to determine if you should pass the task or keep it.
1. Evaluate the task
Good tasks to delegate are usually one or more of these things:
- repetitive or routine, but does not require high-level decision-making
- time consuming, but can be performed by someone else
- has well-defined process and guidelines
- can be a growth or learning opportunity for other team members (without posing significant risk)
- low-impact and not critical to your core mission
- independent from other tasks and does not require constant supervision
- well-defined goals and deliverables that are easy to monitor
2. Consider the skill set of team members
Try to match tasks to skills. You can delegate based on which tasks align with the strengths, skills, experience, and career goals of your team members. Consider delegating tasks to help team members develop new skills or competencies. After all, the more competent your team, the more you can confidently delegate.
3. Determine the capacity of team members
It’s possible to over-delegate. Don’t get carried away and put too much on your team or colleagues. Ensure the team member has the capacity to take on that additional task without being overwhelmed.
When possible, delegate tasks to team members who show interest in the new responsibility. You can also align your delegation based on the regular jurisdiction of particular team members, making the additional task easier for them to implement into their routine.
4. Risk and control
Consider the risks! If you delegate high-impact tasks to the wrong people, you could do more harm than good. Try to delegate tasks that have minimal risks, and where errors are easily corrected.
Avoid delegating tasks that require a high level of control of are particularly sensitive, unless you’ve already established the team member is trusted and capable.
Tasks Typically Suitable for Delegation
- Administrative tasks (scheduling, data entry, basic reports)
- Research and information gathering
- Routine customer service inquiries
- Preparing presentations based on provided content
- Basic financial tracking and reporting
Tasks Typically Not Suitable for Delegation
- Strategic planning and high-level decision making
- Performance evaluations and sensitive personnel issues
- Crisis management and high-stakes problem solving
- Tasks requiring specific high-level expertise or confidential information
Shortcut: You could determine which tasks to delegate by sketching up a quick Eisenhower Matrix.
How To Delegate as a Perfectionist
Delegating as a perfectionist can be challenging due to the desire for control and high standards. However, effective delegation is crucial for personal and organizational growth. Here are strategies to help perfectionists delegate more comfortably and successfully.
1. Realize the need for delegation
If you struggle with delegation, the first thing you need to work on is within yourself. Understand that you can’t do everything yourself, and that delegating can lead to better overall outcomes. Identify your key priorities and recognize that delegating less critical tasks allows you to concentrate on these areas. Shallow work can go to your little guys to free you up for deep work.
2. Choose the right people
While the task might be appropriate for delegating, it will go poorly if you give it to the wrong person. Delegate tasks to team members who have demonstrated competence and reliability. Assign tasks that align with team members’ strengths and expertise.
3. Set clear expectations
Clearly communicate your desired outcomes, quality standards, and deadlines. Don’t assume that your team member knows as much as you about the new task you’re handing them. Be thorough in your instructions and expectations from the jump to avoid micromanaging or disappointing results.
4. Gradually increase responsibility
To wean both you and your team members into delegation, start with smaller tasks with low risk. This can build trust and confidence on both sides, plus allow room for trial and error for your team member. Gradually delegate more complex tasks as they prove their capability and increase their confidence in their own abilities.
5. Develop a support system
Set your team up with the training, resources, and tools they’ll need to complete the task effectively. Let them know you’re available to answer questions and provide guidance as needed, especially when you’re starting out.
6. Establish checkpoints
Depending on the task, it might make sense to schedule regular progress check-ins to provide feedback and answer questions. Offer constructive feedback that focuses on improvements and learning rather than criticism, and try to lead with encouraging compliments on what they did well. Positive feedback is just as important as critical feedback.
7. Let go of perfectionism
Have you tried, like, not being a perfectionist? 🤔
Try to remind yourself that perfection is unattainable and mistakes are part of learning. Concentrate on the overall outcomes rather than the minor details of the process. If Greg wants to color coordinate his notes, it really doesn’t matter what that looks like if any client-facing elements are sufficient. Stop looking over his shoulder.
Mistakes with Delegating
Delegating poorly can leave in a worse position than not delegating at all. Here are a few things to keep an eye out for.
1. Failing to clearly define the task
When I began managing my first writing team, I realized that an assignment that was so clear to me wasn’t necessarily clear to them. Instead of just dropping a topic or keyword for them, I had to spell out the intent of the piece.
So if the topic was “publishing with KDP,” I’d provide additional instructions like, “a step-by-step guide; FAQ; structured to lead readers to a pillar post on self-publishing”. Those notes are still fully open to interpretation, so they can do their own spin on it, but now the writer will know the purpose of the post.
When delegating, it’s important to clearly lay out what needs to be done, the expected outcome, deadlines, and other details. It might be worth asking the person to repeat the idea of the project back to you so you can catch any misunderstandings before they waste their time.
2. Micromanaging
Nothing kills the point of delegation like micromanaging. If you constantly check in on the person, not allowing any autonomy or confidence in themselves, you can slow their process, waste your own time you could have saved by delegating, and stifle their creativity and motivation.
Trust in your team! Provide them with the autonomy to complete the task, and focus their results rather than their method.
3. Under-communicating
Not providing regular feedback and check-ins can leave your team members feeling unsupported and unsure.
Establish regular check-in points and provide constructive feedback (including what they’re doing well) to keep them on track.
4. Choosing the wrong person
Delegating a task to someone without the necessary skills or interest in that task can lead to poor performance, frustration, and damaged trust.
Assess team members’ skills, strengths, preferences, and workload before assigning tasks. It can be a good idea to keep a document with notes on such things, including a record of how each member performs for different tasks you’ve attempted to delegate. This can help you have a clearer idea on future decisions and avoid repeat mistakes.
5. Delegating without granting authority
If you don’t give your delegatee the authority to make decisions for the task, you’ll hinder their ability to complete it effectively. Empower team members with the necessary authority to make decisions and solve problems. If they have to check in with you every step of the way, you lose the benefit of delegation.
6. Ignoring the need for training
Assuming a team member can complete tasks without adequate training will be a flop. Make sure they have the necessary skills and resources to perform the task. The Curse of Knowledge is a cognitive bias where we assume everyone else knows what we know. By learning something, we become worse at teaching it. Be aware of where this bias comes up in your profession.
7. Delegating only unwanted tasks
“Dumping” menial or undesirable tasks on team members can be demotivating. Mix it up and delegate a combination of poopy tasks and engaging tasks that offer opportunities for growth.
8. Not following up
Completely abandoning your team member with a new task without checking in occasionally can lead to missed deadlines, poor quality, and confusion. Set up regular check-ins to monitor their progress without hovering or micromanaging.
9. Failing to set deadlines
Without a clear timeframe, your team member might procrastinate. Provide specific deadlines for each task to avoid conflict.
10. Overloading team members
Under-delegating is a problem, but so is over-delegating. Assigning too many tasks to the same person can lead to burnout, disenchantment, and decreased productivity. Be mindful of their existing workload and distribute tasks evenly across your team.
A common pitfall is giving tasks to your Star Pupil. Assigning more work to the best worker can become a perceived punishment quickly, and they’ll stop being your best worker. Then the axe swings the other way and you chop the legs of confidence from under your other team members who feel like you don’t trust them with anything.
11. Neglecting to provide feedback
Not offering feedback, both positive and constructive, can leave your team member feeling undervalued, unmotivated, and unsure if they’re succeeding in their assignments. Provide regular feedback and recognize their accomplishments.
12. Taking back tasks too quickly
Expect problems to occur the first few times you delegate a task to a new person. If something goes wrong, avoid retracting the task immediately. This can undermine their confidence and lead to worse outcomes. Instead of taking the task back, offer more guidance and support to help them problem-solve it themselves.
Best Tips for Delegating Effectively
Here are five crucial tips to keep in mind for successfully delegating tasks.
1. Choose the right person
It’s important to match tasks to the appropriate person, and to evenly distribute assignments. Avoid overloading one person, assigning only boring or annoying tasks, failing to match a particular task to a team member who may be more interested than another, or forgetting to take their current workload into account.
2. Be clear in your instructions and expectations
Some clarity at the beginning of a delegation can save you a lot of work, strife, and annoyance down the line. Be sure to set your expectations and provide adequate instructions, deadlines, support, and resources for your team members.
3. Provide support but don’t micromanage
Make it clear that you’re available for questions (or direct them to someone else capable of answering them), establish regular check-ins, and provide relevant feedback and encouragement. Avoid being a helicopter parent or sweating the details of the process–the end result is what you should assess.
4. Allow for mistakes and correction
Allow for (and expect) imperfection. This could mean keeping a cool head if you have to ask a team member to redo something, or even scheduling buffer time in your deadlines for corrections.
5. Review
Check in afterward. Evaluate the quality and timeliness of the task performance and check in with your team member to see what they struggled with, if they’d like more tasks like this, and how else you can support them in the future.
6 Comments