Delegating: authority skills, tasks and the process of effective delegation

Delegating: authority skills, tasks and the process of effective delegation

Delegation is one of the most important management skills. These logical rules and techniques will help you to delegate well (and will help you to help your manager when you are being delegated a task or new responsibility – it is a two-way process!). Good delegation saves you time, develops your people, grooms a successor, and motivates. Poor delegation will cause you frustration, demotivates and confuses the other person, and fails to achieve the task or purpose itself. So it’s a management skill that’s worth improving. Here are the simple steps to follow if you want to get it right, with different levels of delegation freedom that you can offer.

This delegation skills guide deals with the general principles and processes, which are applicable to individuals and teams , or to specially formed groups of people for individual projects (including ‘virtual teams’ ).

Delegation is a very helpful aid for succession planning, personal development – and seeking and encouraging promotion. It’s how we grow in the job – being appointed more tasks enables us to gain experience to take on higher responsibilities.

Delegation is vital for effective leadership .

Effective delegation is crucial for management and leadership succession. For the successor, and for the manager or leader too: the main task of a manager in a growing thriving organization is ultimately to develop a successor. When this happens everyone can move on to higher things. When it fails to happen the succession and progression becomes dependent on bringing in new people from outside.

Delegation can be used to develop your people and yourself – it is not just a management technique for freeing up the boss’s time. Of course, there is a right way to do it. These tips and techniques are useful for bosses – and for anyone seeking or being given new responsibilities.

As someone appointing tasks, you must ensure this happens properly. Just as significantly, as the recipient of tasks you have the opportunity to ‘manage upwards’ and suggest improvements to the process – especially if your boss could use the help.

Managing the way you receive and agree to do delegated tasks is one of the central skills of ‘managing upwards’. Therefore while this page is essentially written from the manager’s standpoint, the principles are just as useful for people being managed.