Time Management: How to Delegate Work

You can reach your goals if you do not overstretch yourself and delegate work to others.

We aspire to do so many things in life and are often overwhelmed by the enormity of the work involved. We then give up prematurely, or very demurely accept that we are not made of sterner stuff that great people are seemingly made of. Great people have one smart strategy up their sleeves: time management. Instead of lamenting why a day is not made of more than 24 hours, they count the seconds in a minute and the minutes in an hour, and make the most of the available time, and most importantly, they learn to delegate or offload some of their work to their family members or team members or subordinates at work, depending on where the work is. Delegation can promote organizational efficiency, multiply productivity and reduce your work load.

If delegation was easy, there would have been no need for an article of this kind. Many people would rather do the work themselves than entrust the work to another one. Why is it so?

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Why is Delegation Difficult?

1. Some people are, by nature, control freaks. They are highly opinionated people who would love to run the world by their own rulebook. People who are extreme controllers suffer from what is called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Such people obsess about minor details, rules, and lists, and are not flexible or open. Control freaks are often critical of themselves, and often brood over past failures, and worry about things not in their control. They are perfectionists, and take undue pride in their way of doing things.
2. Delegation of work means delegation of authority and responsibility, and some people just can’t do this. They just cannot let go and relax.
3. Some people lack communication skills. Since they have problems conveying what they want, they end up doing the work themselves.
4. Delegation needs patience and great managerial skills in the beginning, especially if the team members lack experience. The work done by the team gets streamlined over a period of time, so the payoffs may be only long-term. People who want quick results may overlook the training aspect of delegation.
5. If the information flow is not open, conflicts can result. People who have experienced unresolved conflicts earlier may shy away from delegation.
6. With delegation, the responsibility for things gone awry rests with the manager. Fear of failures keep away people from delegating it to others.
7. There are people with insecurities about themselves and who would want to create a favorable impression of themselves on their own bosses. They are driven by greed to take credit for the work and cannot share glory with others.

Some Tips on Effective Delegation

1. Specify clearly what you want. You can provide instructions, but don’t overdo it. You can point out likely pitfalls. Focus on results than on methods. No finetuning of the processes, because undue criticism can kill initiative.
2. Get the right person with the requisite skills for the right job.
3. Make sure the team members have all the necessary resources.
4. Never leave loose ends on time frame. Fix firm deadlines.
5. Ask for regular feedbacks and status information. Interfere only when the schedule is not adhered to.
6. Resolve conflicts between members as soon as possible without letting matters escalate.
7. While pulling up an erring team member, be understanding, but firm. Listen. Let the final message be one of friendly cooperation.
8. Give due credits for jobs well done and take responsibility for mistakes.

It is critical to a small business. When we try to do everything, it is so easy to lose focus on the bigger picture. Delegation helps a successful leader to motivate the team, build their self worth and train them to work as a team.

The secret to successfully delegating work is to make people feel like the work is their own, so that they remain passionate, interested and dedicated.