Hopefully by now you’re a little more comfortable delegating your authority and giving more work to your team members. As a manager, you should be free to not only focus on your own projects but on your human resource and training responsibilities as well.

Delegating your authority means giving your employees and team members a sense of empowerment. Some managers try to stifle and employee’s feeling of empowerment because they don’t want their subordinates feeling as though they have too much control. I couldn’t disagree with this more.

There are several benefits to giving your employees a sense of empowerment. They include:

• A decreased aversion to risk and the fears associated with taking a risk;
• An increase in innovation, flexibility, and creativity;
• Increased employee morale as team members build stronger rapport with each other and with their customers; and
• Time for you, as the manager, to complete your other tasks instead of hand-holding your team as they work on each project.

A little bit of empowerment can go a long way in the workplace. You aren’t training people to replace you – you’re training them to be responsible, think on their feet, and not depend on you all the time.

Seems like a fair trade off to me.

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

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”