We all know that our business is well…busy and one of the many things we can learn to do better is to delegate and empower people. Effective delegation is a skill that I have observed great business professionals do well. It is a strength that separates good from great.
I have worked hard in my career to be an effective delegator and have learned the hard way how to do it right. It can be challenging at times because we tend to forget that delegation is not telling or ordering.
Delegation Done Right Helps People Grow and Feel Empowered!
Further, effective delegation is asking one to do work that will help them grow and feel empowered – not administration or duties that no one else wants to do! That just serves to devalue people and it has a destructive effect systemically. Delegation underpins a style of management which allows your staff to use and develop their skills and knowledge to their full potential. Without delegation, you lose their full value.
Picking the right time and issue to delegate is crucial to this concept – this is not about being so overwhelmed you need to have others do your work. I have always liked this quote:
“Delegation is a skill of which we have all heard – but which few understand. It can be used either as an excuse for dumping failure onto the shoulders of subordinates, or as a dynamic tool for motivating and training your team to realize their full potential.” (Palsgrave 1530)
An Effective Delegation Acronym: SMARTER
Here is an acronym that might help you with effective delegation: S.M.A.R.T.E.R. This is simply a quick checklist for proper delegation. Delegated tasks must be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Agreed
- Realistic
- Timebound
- Ethical
- Recorded
The key is to delegate gradually. If you present someone with a task which is daunting, one with which your rep does not feel able to cope, then the task will not be done and that person will be severely demotivated. Instead you should build-up gradually; first a small task leading to a little development, then another small task which builds upon the first; when that is achieved, add another stage; and so on. This is the difference between asking people to scale a sheer wall, and providing them with a staircase. Each task delegated should have enough complexity to stretch that member of staff – but only a little.
Effective Delegation Is a Two-Way Street
One of the main fears that leaders have about delegation is that by giving others authority, a manager loses control. This need not be the case. If you train your staff to apply the same criteria as you would yourself (by example and full explanations) then they will be exercising your control on you behalf. And since they will witness many more situations over which control may be exercised (you can’t be in several places at once) then that control is exercised more diversely and more rapidly than you could exercise it by yourself. “In engineering terms: if maintaining control is truly your concern, then you should distribute the control mechanisms to enable parallel and autonomous processing.”
I think that if think about delegation as a two way street – we get more from our people in a way that helps then develop then we become better leaders. This ability to delegate and teach others to delegate raises your game.
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