Many leaders I meet and work with tell me that it is more efficient to do most if not everything themselves.  They tell me all the horror stories of the times they delegated and when it came back to them it was all wrong and they had to redo it.  Or when they assigned something it didn’t meet the deadline and they had to deal with the repercussions. They came to the conclusion it was easier to do it themselves, than invest the time to delegate since inevitably they would be handling it themselves anyhow.

The problem with this thinking is that when we do this we fill our schedule with activities that we have no business doing.  They don’t bring us joy, they fill up our days and weeks and prevent us from focusing on what is truly needed for our role, and the organization.

On the other hand, when we do delegate we don’t do it well, and end up with the results we most fear and have kept us from delegating in the first place.

What’s the solution?

When delegating it’s important to consider when to delegate and to whom to delegate.  Let’s take a look.

1. When to Delegate

Delegation has many advantages but it does not mean you can delegate just anything.

Questions to ask yourself before delegating:

• Do I have enough time to delegate the job effectively?
• What are the timelines/deadlines for the task?
• Does the task provide an opportunity to develop other’s skills?
• Is this a task that is critical for you to do or is there someone else that has the expertise to handle?
• How critical is the outcome?  Would a failure be catastrophic?
• Is this a one time task or something that is recurring.
• If you take on this task/project yourself what more critical initiatives are not being addressed or push aside?
• Is this a task that should be delegated?  Something critical to the long-term success of the department or organization maybe shouldn’t be delegated.
• Are you delegating the task/project or responsibility and authority also?

2. The Who of Delegating

To Whom Should You Delegate?

1. Consider the task or project complexity and identify individuals with applicable skills and/or experience.
2. Once you identify those with right skills determine if they will need training or resources or anything else that will take your time.
3. Consider the task/project itself and if it needs someone who can work independently or is best in a team.
4. If the success is critical determine who has performed well under similar circumstances before.
5. The current workload of the person(s) you are considering plays a factor.
6. Other factors to consider are: deadlines, makeup of others on the team, your own confidence level about the individual(s), sensitivity of the project and do you want this to be a development experience for the individual.

Delegating effectively takes time.  You have to be willing to invest time to train and develop others, to offer them support and help when needed and recognize that you could in fact handle the activity in less time than someone else, until they get the skills and experience.

Delegation takes patience.  Others are not always going to learn at the pace you want, and may ask questions and interrupt you often.  Make sure before you delegate you aren’t pressed up against a critical deadline. You won’t have the patience necessary if a deadline is looming.

There isn’t a perfect formula for delegating.  At times you may chose the wrong person or delegate something that you shouldn’t.  And you won’t get more effective at delegating unless you try, find out what worked and what you need to tweak.