I can see you right now. The thought of delegating your authority and assigning tasks to others leaves you white-knuckling your file folders in fear. Will the job be done correctly? Will the work be done on time? Stop the negative thought process right now. After all – if you really feel this way about delegating your authority you need to assess whether or not you have the right people on your team to start with.

Take a deep breath, relax, and prepare to alleviate part of your workload. Here are three things to keep in mind as you assign work to a team member or employee:

• It’s easier to complete a project if you’re working on, or at least know about, the entire project. Don’t give pieces of the project away unless you’re willing to tell your team member about the scope of the overall project. The lack of communication from not sharing this information may result in a project that doesn’t in with the rest of the puzzle.

• Do you have a vision for the outcome of the project you are giving away? Your vision and his vision may be different based on the description you give. Speak up and tell your employee what your expectations are for the project. If you don’t speak up, don’t complain about the end result not being as you expected.

• Be sure to clearly identify the timeframe within which you expect the project to be completed. Let your employee know how often you want status reports in order to ensure the project stays on track.

Delegating your authority by assigning projects doesn’t mean simply throwing a task on someone’s desk and letting the cards fall where they may. You have the responsibility to clearly communicate your expectations and work with your team member to achieve positive results.

Give it a try – I think you’ll like the results!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

As I’ve mentioned before, learning to practice delegation of authority is one of the most difficult tasks for new managers. Part of the problem is that they don’t understand the main principles of delegation. Today I’m going to outline what they are so that you can think about them and make an assessment about your personal situation.

1. How well do you know your team members, and how well do you know yourself? If you don’t know each other well enough, you may be hesitant to delegate your authority because you have a lack of trust or experience.

2. Have you assessed the strengths and weaknesses of each person on your team? Everyone has strong and weak points. Making a quick assessment will enable you to properly delegate work to the person most suited for each individual task.

3. Does your organisation have written job descriptions? If so, know what they are and determine if there are any legal limitations to whether or not you can go outside of those descriptions when assigning tasks.

4. Understand the requirements of each and every job. If you don’t understand the instructions you shouldn’t expect that anyone else will either.

5. Evaluate your communication skills. Are you constantly working with your employees to make sure they understand the task and to ensure they are making progress?

6. After the project is complete, look back on the process you used and determine if you should make any changes the next time you delegate a task.

You’re almost guaranteed success if you can learn to incorporate the above principles into your day to day delegation interactions. As always, there’s no reason for you to try to do everything on your own. Start the delegation process as soon as you can!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

As a manager, you’re in a unique position. Delegation of authority is often the most difficult concept for most new managers to grasp. I know because I had trouble with the idea myself. I was used to completing all of my tasks on my own and was overly cautious and unsure about passing work to my subordinates.

Part of the problem was that I had a rough time changing my mindset. My coworkers and peers were suddenly lower on the corporate totem pole than I was. I felt odd suddenly passing off work to those I had recently been working with as equals.

Managers and supervisors are not supposed to take on an overabundant amount of work. It is your job, officially, to practice the delegation of authority. You are responsible for making sure that your team members are highly trained so that you do not have to worry about the quality of the work they will return to you.

This doesn’t mean your team members won’t make mistakes. They will – as you have in the past and will inevitably do again in the future. On the bright side, they’ll learn from their mistakes and will not remain dependent on you for constant guidance and supervision.

I firmly believe that every management training program should include a focus on the delegation of authority. In the process of delegation, we learn how to reevaluate our own levels of accountability while sharing our responsibilities with others.

Delegation doesn’t mean that you assign a task to a subordinate and then wash your hands of it. You must carefully prepare the project to be assigned; plan exactly how you want it done; clearly communicate the directions and goals to your team members; check to make sure the project is completed correctly; and let your team know how much you appreciate their work.

That last part – appreciation – is essential. Your team needs to know how much you appreciate each and every task they accomplish on your behalf. Your thanks can range from simple kind words to small treats or even an extra bonus.

Evaluate the current state of your desk and determine which projects you’re holding on to because you’re afraid to give them to someone else. It’s time to let go of your insecurities - choose a team member and practice delegating your authority.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

One of the most difficult things I had to learn as a young business person was effective management delegation. I was afraid to delegate tasks to those beneath me; partially because I was used to doing so much on my own and partially because I was afraid the job wouldn’t be completed to my own personal standards. Rather than take the risk, I tried to finish projects by myself and rarely asked for help.

What a mistake! I soon had more work than I could handle and the quality of my completed tasks was suffering; not because I didn’t care but because I simply didn’t have enough time. I quickly realized that delegating tasks is not only integral to the successful completion of projects, but it is also an effective method of time management!

When your superiors give you a task, you automatically become responsible for the project and can be held accountable for the outcome. You’ll then delegate the task to an individual or group, thus transferring responsibility to those who are going to do the physical work. In the end, however, your superiors are going to look to you for the end product and you will always be held accountable for the quality of the work.

Your team should be properly trained and prepared for any task you hand them. You have, after all, spent countless hours working with them so there should be no question in your mind as to whether or not they can handle any given situation. Some managers are afraid of giving up power or control, but this is also an unreasonable excuse for avoiding delegation.

Delegation can be a scary concept for both new and seasoned managers, but it is one you have to learn to deal with rather quickly. There is not a single person in the world that can do everything, and you’ve been given the authority to hire a team for a reason. As long as you have taken the time to properly train your new hires, there should be no reason to hold back when it comes to delegating tasks.

Take a close look at the members of your team. Are they properly prepared for anything you may have to throw at them? If not, you haven’t done your job and you need to make a plan to remedy the situation as soon as possible!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Here is a very quick and simple, yet extremely powerful delegating tip.  This method of delegating certain tasks also helps in team building and cohesiveness, training, management and leadership within the team. 

Sooner or late you will have a situation where you have many staff that have been around a long time; which of course is a good thing.  When you are fortunate enough to have those long time experienced pros who stay current and continue to improve; you have nothing less than a treasure.  But, as with everything, there is the 80/20 rule with the more experienced, long-time team members and sometimes some of these ‘old pros’ become a little lethargic and comfortable in the fact that they ‘know it all.’ 

This causes many problems:

1. More experienced team members sometimes fail to keep up with new and emerging trends and industry advancements
2. More experienced members sometimes begin to take the “basics” for granted or forget them entirely
3. More experienced members sometimes feel they do not have to do their ‘homework’ anymore.
4. The above begins to cause dissension in the team as newer staff begin to feel a sense of favoritism toward certain employees by management
5. Communication begins to break down as the newer members begin to shun the old pros and a lack of mutual disrespect develops
6. And more

Well, this delegating tip can help: Simply delegate those tasks that involve the newer, more advanced topics, training topics or even the old basic topics and assign them to the old pros to teach.  When faced with the job to give a report on the new trend or the new product, the team member must him or herself become an expert.  When the long-time employee has the task to teach the new member the basics, they themselves must re-learn those basics.  Take those tasks that you usually do, and delegate them to the people who need to learn them the most. 

When the long-time member is successful and does a good job:

1. He or she has re-learned or learned the topic or training
2. He or she has had to do some real homework
3. They realize that they do not know everything and must keep up to date
4. They begin to empathize with the newer members as they remember what starting out was like
5. Newer members begin to respect the old pros more as they see that they really are experts and practice what they preach. 
6. Newer members begin to lose the feeling that management is playing favorites

Now, in the event that the long-term member screws it up, it actually solves a lot of problems as well:

1. They now realize that they are not as sharp as they thought
2. They are brought back “down to earth”
3. You now have a tangible situation to point to, to suggest improvement
4. A sense of camaraderie ensues as the newer members feel that those long time pros are just as human as they
5. The pro realizes that he or she must stay up to date and do the homework

The common way of thinking is to delegate a task to the person most qualified to compete it.  However, for some things do the opposite: delegate the task to the person who most needs to LEARN it, and watch what happens!

I hope this tip is useful?

Sean

Sean McPheat

MTD Management Training

0800 849 6732