How to Delegate
Not too long ago, as I was sitting at my desk working - it was so late that it was actually the regular work day for my team in Asia. This was common. I was working so many hours, that I was working during two shifts (US and Asia). My frustration was rising with the project and with my team. However, the team was bewildered by my reaction. They were doing everything I assigned to them - why would I be upset with that?
I had fallen into a common trap. I thought I was delegating, but really I was just assigning tasks and not relinquishing ownership. It was during one of these marathon work sessions that I realized I needed to make big changes to how I was working. I looked at when projects worked, seemingly without my intervention, and when they didn't. Once I broke it down, the solution jumped out clearly. There are five steps to successful delegation.
1. Clearly define the task. What needs to happen? What's the desired result?
2. Select the team or individual that you want to accomplish this result.
3. Third, inform the individual of what's being delegated. And also let other people in the organization know that this person is now responsible for this task, so they know this is the go-to person and they don't keep coming to you.
4. Fourth, keep in place a monitoring system, so you can ensure that progress is being made and they're not getting off-track.
5. And finally, complete a final review. Look for lessons learned and how things can be improved in the future.
The key is putting these five steps into practice. I began with the project that was causing me to work so many hours then I examined the members of my Asia team to determine who had the ability to best drive the deliverables per the plan. Before assigning the team member the task I set clear objectives and goals so everybody understood what results were expected.
I found that Helen had strong skills and a willingness (as well as bandwidth) to take on additional responsibilities. Now that I had the right person, I had to provide the authority needed so she could actually achieve it. This is a vital point. Trying to retain authority while expecting her to deliver will never work. You may also need to teach her how to do what you want her to do. You can't just delegate and walk away. You must ensure that the rest of the team understands this shift in ownership.
After you've truly delegated, you need to monitor the progress. Look at the plan. Make sure that there's some scheduled goals and meetings to ensure that the tasks are being met. I usually do this with in 1:1 meeting. This is a schedule time for us to talk about anything that may be of concern as well as upcoming due dates and milestones. These informal discussions can provide an excellent framework for feedback. If necessary, provide some direction. Give your team the objectives and the clear goals to keep them on track. Provide encouragement. You want to boost morale and make sure that people are making progress going forward. A good way to do this is by monitoring with milestones. A subtle but effective form of monitoring is using these milestones.
Create small, interim deliverables to serve as checks-and-balances on the forward movement of a larger task. These milestones can provide a self-regulating form of monitoring, and a basis for progress reports (1:1 sessions).
What happens when you run into problems? When it comes to delegating, you need to keep it organized. Solid organization helps make sure employees know and can track their milestones. In my case, Helen started slipping on a key deliverable, so we worked closely until she was back on track. It was difficult for me because I just wanted to fix it, but I also knew Helen needed to retain authority over the Asia team - this required her to find the solution and implement it. How?
The key is developing a structure. If the people you're delegating to are having trouble, help them, train them. Make sure that they understand that if they run into a problem, they can contact you. This extra effort should be short term and the long term benefits are many. They include not only the deliverable at risk, but the entire delegated ownership and who knows - maybe bigger and better projects in the future. With Helen, that was the case. She overcame the short term concern and the project went on to deliver on time. Even better, I was back to just working the US shift!
Ultimately, performance and deliverables are in your control. Are you ready to make it happen? Go to http://www.delegatesuccess.com and take the readiness quiz.
Not too long ago, as I was sitting at my desk working - it was so late that it was actually the regular work day for my team in Asia. This was common. I was working so many hours, that I was working during two shifts (US and Asia). My frustration was rising with the project and with my team. However, the team was bewildered by my reaction. They were doing everything I assigned to them - why would I be upset with that?
I had fallen into a common trap. I thought I was delegating, but really I was just assigning tasks and not relinquishing ownership. It was during one of these marathon work sessions that I realized I needed to make big changes to how I was working. I looked at when projects worked, seemingly without my intervention, and when they didn't. Once I broke it down, the solution jumped out clearly. There are five steps to successful delegation.
1. Clearly define the task. What needs to happen? What's the desired result?
2. Select the team or individual that you want to accomplish this result.
3. Third, inform the individual of what's being delegated. And also let other people in the organization know that this person is now responsible for this task, so they know this is the go-to person and they don't keep coming to you.
4. Fourth, keep in place a monitoring system, so you can ensure that progress is being made and they're not getting off-track.
5. And finally, complete a final review. Look for lessons learned and how things can be improved in the future.
The key is putting these five steps into practice. I began with the project that was causing me to work so many hours then I examined the members of my Asia team to determine who had the ability to best drive the deliverables per the plan. Before assigning the team member the task I set clear objectives and goals so everybody understood what results were expected.
I found that Helen had strong skills and a willingness (as well as bandwidth) to take on additional responsibilities. Now that I had the right person, I had to provide the authority needed so she could actually achieve it. This is a vital point. Trying to retain authority while expecting her to deliver will never work. You may also need to teach her how to do what you want her to do. You can't just delegate and walk away. You must ensure that the rest of the team understands this shift in ownership.
After you've truly delegated, you need to monitor the progress. Look at the plan. Make sure that there's some scheduled goals and meetings to ensure that the tasks are being met. I usually do this with in 1:1 meeting. This is a schedule time for us to talk about anything that may be of concern as well as upcoming due dates and milestones. These informal discussions can provide an excellent framework for feedback. If necessary, provide some direction. Give your team the objectives and the clear goals to keep them on track. Provide encouragement. You want to boost morale and make sure that people are making progress going forward. A good way to do this is by monitoring with milestones. A subtle but effective form of monitoring is using these milestones.
Create small, interim deliverables to serve as checks-and-balances on the forward movement of a larger task. These milestones can provide a self-regulating form of monitoring, and a basis for progress reports (1:1 sessions).
What happens when you run into problems? When it comes to delegating, you need to keep it organized. Solid organization helps make sure employees know and can track their milestones. In my case, Helen started slipping on a key deliverable, so we worked closely until she was back on track. It was difficult for me because I just wanted to fix it, but I also knew Helen needed to retain authority over the Asia team - this required her to find the solution and implement it. How?
The key is developing a structure. If the people you're delegating to are having trouble, help them, train them. Make sure that they understand that if they run into a problem, they can contact you. This extra effort should be short term and the long term benefits are many. They include not only the deliverable at risk, but the entire delegated ownership and who knows - maybe bigger and better projects in the future. With Helen, that was the case. She overcame the short term concern and the project went on to deliver on time. Even better, I was back to just working the US shift!
Ultimately, performance and deliverables are in your control. Are you ready to make it happen? Go to http://www.delegatesuccess.com and take the readiness quiz.
About the Author:
While 90% of managers delegate, only 5% of delegated tasks are completed without steady support from management. Take this quick quiz at delegatesuccess.com to determine what type of delegation style you have. Stop working long hours and get your projects done! Lisa Symons has more than 12 years experience with global IT management.
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