As a higher-ranking member of your company, you need a variety of skills in day-to-day management. One particular skill needed is delegation. Delegating your team or whole company is vital to the business and to keep it running. If your position is in management, then project delegation over multiple important projects or groups running at the same time is a necessity. Learning to improve these skills allows you to manage people and tasks in a more effective way. Improving this skill requires a bit of research and putting it to good use through practice.
What is a Delegation Skill?
Delegation skills are what puts you over the top of your other employees and co-workers. You have the authority to give direction to whatever tasks are needed to be done. Assigning work to certain employees can reduce the stress on others and lighten their workload. Plus, it allows you to ensure everyone has a job and that you have the best person for the task.
Here are some of the most important and most common delegation skills:
- Communication: Having proper communication skills is vital to every business to ensure every transaction and interaction is a positive one. But communication carries through other media. Know how to communicate via email, phone call, and other means. You also need strong written and verbal communication. Plus, know how to listen as well. An active listener makes for a good leader.
- Feedback: When you have employees working on a task, giving feedback in a constructive and positive way is an important part of delegation. An employee who is being told a good job will work more effectively.
- Time Management: While delegation helps even out the workload, it is still very important that tasks are completed at an appropriate time. Especially when there is a deadline involved. Ensure that employees know when deadlines are.
- Training: Another part of delegation is the ability to train others. Like any job, people will come and go. So it is important to train new hires on how things are done. This allows the job to be done with established communication and training from the manager.
- Trust: While not a direct factor, trusting your employees is also crucial to success. You hired them because they do the job well. Allow them the independence to make their own decisions.
Why is Delegation Important?
There are many ways why delegation is an important factor in any job field.
- Empowerment: Employees who recognize a leader who allows independence, trust, and creativity is a way to retain them. Those workers will feel important to the company (which they are!) and it can lead to an increase in morale and job improvement.
- Team Trust: Delegation is important when it comes to a group project. The manager needs everyone in line to ensure the project finishes. Trusting each other in everyone’s own skills will lead to trust in one another as it helps understand everyone’s abilities.
- Reduced Workload: As mentioned earlier in the article, delegating helps with a reduction in the workload. This leads to less stress for the workers and you.
- Learn New Skills: Sometimes, when someone is a part of a project, they may not know how to do everything. That’s okay! Giving them the proper training can help them develop a new skill and that can help the company and their own career.
How to Improve Delegation
Consider the following tips to help you bolster your delegation skills.
- Start getting used to delegating. One challenging obstacle is an inexperienced manager who is not used to delegating. Two things that cause hesitancy in project delegation are being passionate about your own work and not trusting the team.
- Identify your tasks in order of importance and difficulty. Knowing your employees can help you separate the tasks to those who can handle them depending on their skills.
- Delegate by using your team members’ strengths. As stated above, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your team allows you to put everyone in an appropriate place.
- Ensure that you instruct the team on what you expect. Be straightforward with the instructions and help them understand what they are doing.
- Teach your team members any skills they do not know. That way, they can learn a new skill and they can pass on what they know.
- Trust is an important factor in the delegate experience. Some may like their independence while others like when there is a manager there. Find the balance between supervision and trust.
- Like any good boss, motivate your team by offering constructive criticism and positive feedback. This can and will lead to a more effective team.
Conclusion
Delegation is basically just a fancy word for leadership. But regardless of what you call it, having that power is important and can lead to the success or failure of the company.
