Delegating is important – and not just so that you can pass work on to someone else to do. When individual contributors move into management roles, it is essential that they learn how to effectively delegate work to their team so that you can manage the tasks that must be accomplished to run the department effectively. As you move up in the company ranks, more responsibility comes along with the title changes. You can’t possibly do it all – therefore, you must delegate work to others.
Before we discuss effective delegating – let’s look at what is not effective delegating. Simply throwing work that you don’t want to do or tasks that are menial to team members to handle is not effective delegating. You also don’t want to be a micromanager – someone watching over every task a team member is performing or telling a team member exactly how to perform the task before them.
Rather, take these best practice steps to effectively delegate to your team:
- Delegate meaningful, challenging tasks that will enable your team members to utilize their current skills and develop new skills. You never know what a team member may be capable of until you enable them to take the lead on challenging assignments.
- Align tasks you delegate to specific objectives on the team members’ performance review. For example, maybe they need to improve their presentation skills, why not enable them to develop a presentation for a department meeting and deliver all or part of the presentation.
- Don’t tell the team member exactly how to accomplish the task – rather provide them an end goal to be met. If there are certain steps that must be required, then certainly be sure they know that information.
Certainly monitor progress against the task delegated and evaluate the performance on the task. Check in regularly with the team member – through one-on-one meetings – to ensure they are managing the assignment well and to respond to any questions or concerns. Regular check-ins also help you to keep the team member on track.
