Essential Information For Managers to Make Effective Delegation

Although you work hard if you work by yourself, you can only complete a limited task amount. Because you only have twenty-four hours each day and not many friends are helping you forever. So, your success is limited. However, you have the ability at your job, people will want much more than this from you and you also want to work more. But this can lead to a real sense of pressure and work overload. You will feel disappointed and stressed because of letting people down.

On the positive side, this is a tremendous chance for you to promote. Just find a way around this limitation, you will be remarkably successful. There is a simple way for you to overcome this limitation is learning how to delegate your work to other people. Effective delegation will help you build a strong team as well as improve yourself. This article will help give you tips on how to delegate effectively and focus on things that matter.

What Is Effective Delegation?

Delegation is an important skill that managers need to learn and apply. It is not only simply about handing over a task but also understanding the competence and commitment of the person you want to delegate to.

Effective delegation is when a manager delegate tasks to employees who have an interest and ability to complete tasks in a short time. However, many managers do not delegate effectively, and this leads problems such as managers usually blames their team members, delegation does not happen or managers delegate to the same person all the time. Therefore, managers should take advantage of this skill’s strength not to reduce the working efficiency of the group.

Why People Avoid Delegating?

Before figuring out the benefits of delegation, it’s important to understand why people avoid it. Quite simply, because there is a lot of up-front effort such as spending more time to delegate the job effectively, train and answer questions, to check progress and rework if that is necessary. Many people believed it to be easier to do everything yourself than explain it to someone else. But in practice, by doing the work yourself, you’re failing to make the best use of your time. Maybe you haven’t comprehended clearly but we will show you benefits from the delegation.

Benefits of Effective Delegation In The Workplace

In the past, you might not have used this skill set in your work but after comprehending its benefits, there is no reason for you to deny it.

• It frees you up because others work on tasks that only you can do.
• It develops your team because there are many tasks completed in a short time.
• Members of your team are motivated as each person is being challenged because working on tasks that gives them a sense of responsibility and recognition.
• You are achieving results through your team.
• You have time to think about new plans to develop your team in the future.

5 Levels of Effective Delegation That Managers Should Apply For Each Object

Level #1: Assess and Report

This is a level suiting most new or inexperienced employees. If they were excellent and able to jump to a higher level right away, it would be great. But if not, in this position, they can learn new skills and knowledge as well as steadily gain confidence.

The heart of Level 1 delegation is collecting information and assessing an opportunity or reporting business issues. When delegating a task at Level 1, managers should follow the rules below:

• Set expectations with your employees
• Clearly define the task
• Explain your employee’s role as well as your own
• Discuss deadlines and check-in points
• Make a realistic assessment and then decide on any additional actions when reports have been submitted
• Explain your thought to employees to move them to the decision-making levels

Level #2: Recommend

When employees complete well at Level 1 delegation tasks,  move them up to the next level. While employees are still responsible for Level 1 work but they can also develop and recommend possible solutions. As with Level 1, you should explain your decisions and how you came to those decisions.

Level #3: Develop action plans

The levels of delegation are progressive. When employees reach Level 3 meaning that they mastered the skills required in Levels 1 and 2. Level 3 delegation includes the previous requires and developing action plans to implement the recommended solution. When delegating at this level, managers need:

• Clearly define the task
• Explain their expected role as well as your own
• Determine deadlines and check-in points
• Review, approve as well as oversee the implementation of the plan when the plan has been submitted
• Show your employees what you have decided and how you came to that decision as to the previous level

Level #4: Make the decision

Your employees will be in charge of deciding Level 4. Before moving them up this level, you must be completely satisfied with their results at Level 3. Not to undermine your good work in the delegation, you need to:

• Make sure employees understand that they are still responsible for Level 3 work.
• Give your trust to employees about their decisions.
• Let them know they you are ready to coach and support them, but you expect them to act independently.
• Follow their progress regularly by checking, reviewing the status of the projects, and warning employees when appearing problems.

Level #5: Full delegation

Full delegation means turning the task over to your employees completely. But you only delegate at Level 5 when employee decision-making must be consistently sound. To delegate effectively at this level, you must:

• Let your employees understand that you trust them to decide, act and follow-through.
• Request them to report back to you with exceptions. If they don’t do it, they will fully accountable for their completion.
• Be ready to reward great gifts even promoting to employees who reach Level 5 with multiple tasks.
• Help your employees learn from their mistakes because there is nobody can avoid mistakes.
• For unable employees, you should consider making contributions at lower levels or terminate.

Process of Performance to Get Effective Delegation

Delegation is a process including 6 steps that managers need to pay attention to. However, most managers only do one or two steps and tasks aren’t completed to their satisfaction, they tend to complain that their employees aren’t good enough to get the job done. Therefore, if you are a manager, you should understand and perform enough by following 6 steps below when delegating:

Step #1: Prepare

The tasks that managers delegate to their employees must be fully thought out or expectations don’t keep changing. This helps employees to deliver quality results. In addition, managers should take the time and develop the discipline to map out exactly what employees are asked for.

Step #2: Assign

Managers must convey information that they spent the time mapping out exactly to their employees. That information includes time, budget, context and they should set expectations for communication and updates such as frequency, content, and format.

Step #3: Confirm understanding

If you are a manager, you may think that employees understand what you want, rather than making sure that they do. This is a common mistake that is hard to avoid for managers. Confirming understanding only takes longer than one minute but this decides success or failure.

Let’s request your employees to paraphrase the assignment in their words or ask questions to make sure employees understand all aspects of what’s required.

Step #4: Confirm commitment

This an important part of the delegation process but it is usually skipped by managers. Employees not only accepted the tasks they’ve been given, but also commit to the expected results and the process that’s been set out (including the schedule, budget, and tools). A manager must make sure their employees being aware of any probable consequence if they don’t deliver on the desired outcomes.

Step #5: Avoid “reverse delegating”

Many managers must end up tasks which they had delegated to others. Because their employees delegate better than them, this leads managers overworking extremely. 

If this problem occurs meaning managers don’t spend enough time on the preparation stage. So factors, for example, resource and other constraints have led to problems that they did not foresee.

When employees reach an impasse, this is a learning opportunity for them. As a manager role, you should provide resources and knowledge needed to help them complete the task. In that way, you’ll still be free to focus on your work and your employees also are equipped with more knowledge and skill to carry out similar tasks in the future.

Step #6: Ensure accountability

Two-way communication is a key part of delegating. Finding out at the completion date that a deliverable hasn’t been completed or has been done unsatisfactorily is the nightmare scenario of delegating. That’s why you need to make sure your employees are accountable for the task.

If at the completion date, tasks have not finished yet or have been done unsatisfactorily, this will be the nightmare of both managers and employees. So let’s use two-way communication as a main part of the delegation and lay responsibility on your employees. When having pressure, they will communicate with you about the status of the tasks and there will be no surprises at the last minute.

Some Special Attention to Delegate Effectively

#1. Keeping control

After performing steps of delegation, make sure you brief your team members appropriately. Spending the time to explain why they were chosen for the job, what you are expecting from them during the project, the goals must be got, resources are used for the project. Especially, you have to plan a schedule for checking-in with progress updates.

On the other hand, your employees understand that you want to know all if any problems occur and you are ready to clear up any questions or guidance needed in progress.

As managers, we shouldn’t control rigorously but this doesn’t mean we must abdicate control altogether. Effective delegation when there is a balance between giving enough space for people to use their abilities to best effect and monitoring as well as supporting closely enough to ensure that the job is done correctly and effectively.

#2. The Importance of Full Acceptance

When delegated tasks are delivered back to you, spending a period of time being enough to review them thoroughly. You only accept good quality, fully-complete work. If you don’t accept work you are not satisfied, your employees will learn to do the job properly and get more responsibility at work. If you accept easily, this overload you, that is you who always end tasks and don’t have the time to do your job properly.

Of course, when good work is returned to you, make sure to both recognize and reward the effort of your employees. As a leader, complimenting employees is an indispensable job when they have done well. This makes employees feeling confident, respected and they will try their best to respected to contribute to the group.

Conclusion

At first, sight, delegating may be more complicated than its benefits. Being a good manager, you should know how to delegate effectively and can deliver a considerable amount of work to others. Let’s choose the right tasks to delegate to the right people if so you will get effective delegation. This skill is not simple, but practice makes perfect. The more you can delegate effectively, the more you can focus on things that matter.