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How to Effectively Delegate

Written by: Michael Beck

Article Overview: Effective delegation will leverage your time and your efforts. It will work to develop your team and make them more valuable, more productive and more loyal. If you want to boost your production, spend more of your time on efforts that produce and less time on tasks that are administrative.

How to Effectively Delegate

Successful people master delegation, while mediocre performers desperately hang on to tasks which are important but better left to administrative experts. Being clear as to how you’d be more productive if you had the time is key to getting motivated about delegating. You are where you are because of your people skills, your communication skills, your leadership abilities, and your selling abilities. Effective delegating allows you, as a leader, to develop people by expanding their expertise, their independence and their areas of responsibility. The key, of course, to achieving these goals is to delegate effectively.

1. Choose the right tasks to delegate
Clearly not all tasks are good candidates for delegation. A rule of thumb that I’ve used for years is that a task which does not involve judgment is usually a good candidate for delegation. It's not that the other person can't make a decision, but you are in the position you're in because someone trusts your judgment. Ultimately the responsibility falls on your shoulders. Also, don’t delegate production-oriented activities; those stay on your plate, too.

2. Select the right individual(s) for the task
Make sure you choose a delegate whose talents match the skill set needed for the task. If necessary, rearrange delegated tasks to give the right person the time for the new task.

3. Be clear in your communications
Ever give someone a task or report to do and have them do something completely different than what you wanted? Be clear on what you're requesting and have them repeat their understanding of your request. Also, get in the habit of checking in on the progress of important tasks. (See #6 below.)

4. Make certain each person has the right tools and sufficient knowledge to use them properly
Sometimes the right person doesn't have the tools or knowledge required for the task (and they may be reluctant to admit it!). If you suspect that may be the case, make sure they know who to go to or where to go to find the information and/or tools.

5. Create accountability
There are few things worse than delegating a task and finding out it's not finished when you need it. Most of us have experienced this challenge. It's important to be clear on the importance of the deadline associated with the task. Regardless of whether the delegate "should" be on track or not, a missed deadline falls on your shoulders. You're the one who will ultimately feel the stress caused by a missed timeline. Make sure you stay on top of important delegated tasks. In addition, if you state that a task is important but then neglect to give it the attention it deserves, it reflects on your integrity. It demonstrates that you will say one thing but will do another. Do what you say you will do and say what you mean to say.

6. Provide ongoing communication and feedback
In order to ensure that your deadline is met and the work is being done properly, it's important to check in on the progress of the assignment. Course corrections are critical to the successful and timely completion of important tasks.

Effective delegation will leverage your time and your efforts. It will work to develop your team and make them more valuable, more productive and more loyal. If you want to boost your production, spend more of your time on efforts that produce and less time on tasks that are administrative.

And finally, effective delegating allows you, as a leader, to develop people by expanding their expertise, their independence and their areas of responsibility. The key, of course, to achieving these goals is to delegate effectively. There's nothing worse than delegating a task and having it done wrong, done poorly or even worse, not done at all...

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

Article Tags: communication skills, delegation, habit, judgment, leadership abilities, oriented activities, right tools, rule of thumb, shoulders, talents



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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: 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.
Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategy - [quote="jennysmith14":2wxugq3d]Hello Friends.......... Best Internet Marketing Strategy are # Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy. # Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques. # Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively. # Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs. # Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant. # Build a responsive opt-in email list.[/quote:2wxugq3d] Hi Jenny, All good valid advice here to readers. The one thing I might add for clarification to readers is on point number 4 concerning "dominating" search results. I always like to clarify the importance of dominating for a variety of well researched keyword phrases that ideally target your ideal buying audience. Sometimes people misunderstand and think the objective is too dominate all top 10 spots for the same keyword. The reason this is not wise is that anyone successfully dominating all top 10 spots may actually be reported to Google Abuse because the purpose of a search engine is to display a variety of choices. Competitors can become quite upset with a company who is dominating all top 10 spots for the same phrase. I realize you know this already, but just thought I'd throw it in for anyone new to SEO. A better way to "dominate" is for a variety of very well researched phrases to pull in multiple audiences of readers. Great post Jenny. Thanks


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