Tweet

How to Delegate More Effectively

Guest post by: Guy Farmer

Article Overview: Many leaders say they delegate well but don't do anything beyond giving people tasks to complete. Learn practical tips to help your employees shine and improve your leadership skills. The best part is that, when we delegate and let people excel, they make us look better as leaders and they enjoy the workplace more. Create a win/win situation in your workplace by practicing excellent delegation skills.

How to Delegate More Effectively

Do you know what your employees do best and do you let them do it? One of best ways that leaders and managers can make their lives easier is by delegating effectively. When you delegate well you encourage your staff to make decisions for themselves, let go of having to control everything, identify employee strengths, allow employees to make mistakes and make yourself available if needed. It helps you live a happier life because you don’t have to take on unrealistic amounts of work or always worry about what everyone is doing.

A practical definition of delegating is to let people do their jobs without getting in their way. This is a challenging concept for managers who are used to doing everything themselves or being involved in every aspect of their organization’s operations. It requires a move from constantly directing people to letting them generate results on their own. Many well-meaning and highly competent leaders don’t realize that they can get better results and relax more often by letting go of the reins a little bit.

Becoming an expert delegator begins with understanding your personal management style. Once you know what your style is you can add new skills to become an even better manager. On one end of the spectrum is the passive manager: They avoid conflict, don’t communicate out loud with people, don’t interact with staff very much, keep to themselves, let people do whatever they want and try to ignore difficult situations. They tend to be good listeners and think before they act. On the opposite end of the spectrum are controlling managers who have to be involved in everything. They always let you know where they stand, bark orders, watch your every move, micromanage your work and let you know who’s boss. They can be decisive leaders and communicate regularly.

There’s nothing wrong with either style but each has predictable results. The passive manager tends to create a workplace that lacks direction and guidance because there isn’t someone present to let people know what’s expected. The controlling manager promotes an environment of structure and order but may not give people the freedom to demonstrate their talents or do the work on their own. What savvy managers have found is that there is a happy medium where you can keep your organization running well and encourage staff growth; the actively delegating manager.

The actively delegating manager understands that it is her job to help her people grow. She takes the time to understand the skills that each of her staff members brings to the organization and uses them to improve the functioning of the agency. She assigns work based on people’s interests and then lets them run with it. She doesn’t have an overwhelming need to control everything or do things herself. She knows when her staff needs help and when they are fine because they aren’t afraid to talk with her. Managers of this type don’t avoid their employees or monitor their every move. They are fun to work for because employees feel valued and supported. They tend to be balanced and easy to get along with because they aren’t stressed out trying to avoid people or always be in their business.

You can delegate more effectively, reduce your workload and encourage your employees to shine starting today. Begin by identifying your staff members’ strengths and assigning work based on what they are interested in doing. Feel free to give them some of your work as long as it is well suited to their skills and abilities. People tend to be more motivated if they are working on assignments they enjoy doing. Once you assign the work, walk away. Your job is done and you can focus on things other than hovering. Make yourself available should someone have a question or need some help. Trust that people will do a good job just as you would.

As you practice your new delegating skills, remember how it feels to work for someone who recognizes and uses your talents, lets you do your job and is there if you need her. Delegating doesn’t mean giving up responsibility it is simply letting your people perform well so they make themselves and you look good. When you allow your employees to excel based on their talents you create a harmonious workplace where people feel valued and are far more likely to be productive.

Related Articles
  Delegate! Do you know how?
  Management Training for Effective Delegation
  Ten Tips on Delegating
  Delegate to Significantly Increase Your Success
  Delegationg...a Key to Your Success
  Effective Delegation: The Secret Tool for Growth
  How to Effectively Delegate
  C-Level Selling - Handling Purchasing, Committees, and Delegated Subordinates
  Delegation
  Three Amazingly Simple Steps to Delegate Work
  Are You The Bottleneck In Your Business?
  The #1 Reason That Important Things Don't Get Done?
  10 Tips and Best Practices for Effective Delegating
  Learn how to delegate tasks in your business
  Top Ten Ways Delegating Makes Your Business More Successful
  The Critical Skill of Delegation
  Steady – One Thing At A Time In Business
  How to drop the balls
  4 Effective and Efficient Actions that Drive Your Success
  Business Focus – Leading One Thing At A Time

Article Tags: business coach, how to delegate, how to delegate more effectively, improve delegating skills, leadership coach, leadership tips, leadership training, management skills



Related Forum Posts
LEADERS - L- Loyal E- Eager to learn and serve A- Active D- Delegate E- Efficient R- Reliable S- Smart
Essential Leadership skills - Delegate Serve Creativity optimistic smart Focused Reliable honest Good sense of judgment consistent... It all comes from the confidence from within
Re: Social Media Effectively? - Thanks for your feedback. I am currently reevaluating my use of Twitter as I am the other major networks. Seems that while I have focused on social business networks and have a good presence there, I have not been using Social Media Effectively with the big networks. Some of the better site tools include theses networks in evaluating your marketing strategy. While I don't care for the Twitter limits, I can see that just by cleaning up my following's to focus more on business connections will help
Re: The 3 Factors That are Limiting Your Productivity - Hi Evan, Thanks for a great article and video on 'The 3 Factors That are Limiting Your Productivity'. I think that no matter whether you are self employed like myself or a CEO with staff, it is so important to manage your time so as to maximize the benefit to your business. Your expression Eliminate; Automate; Delegate is easy to remember and will certainly stick in my mind. There are many good business ideas out there but they will ultimately run into difficulty without proper planning and execution so these tips will certainly help. I have also left this comment on the article and will place a link to it on my blog. regards, Mal.
Re: The Best Method for Online Marketing - we must choose the most suitable one to use.. there are so many diffrent strategy here.. 1. Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy. 2. Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques. 3. Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively. 4. Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs. 5. Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant. 6. Build a responsive opt-in email list. 7. Publish articles or get listed in news stories. 8. Write and publish online press releases. 9. Facilitate and run contests and giveaways via your web site. 10. Blog and interact with your visitors.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Living on The Edge of Chaos...

Attracting Passionate Employees

Anger Solutions at Work: Why Customers Get Angry

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.