How to Delegate Effectively and Achieve Better Results

Introduction

Hello! It’s Kristine here with the Express to Impress podcast. Today, we’ll be talking about the delegation of duties and responsibilities. While delegating is an everyday occurrence in most organizations, it’s often underutilized or done ineffectively. I’ve certainly been guilty of making delegation mistakes! But once we see the error of our ways, we can become better at delegating, and there are huge benefits to improving this skill. So, in this episode, you will learn how to delegate effectively and achieve better results. 

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Now, let’s begin!

Common Mistakes Leaders Make When They Delegate

While all leaders must delegate work to employees, there are many opportunities for mistakes in the process. Let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes leaders make when delegating tasks:

1. Not delegating enough. Why are leaders hesitant to delegate tasks?
   •  Guilt. Most leaders care about the well-being of their employees and would feel guilty delegating more tasks to employees who are already struggling with a large workload. 
   • Leaders underestimate their employees. Some leaders worry that employees will make mistakes, lack the motivation necessary, or won’t produce high-quality work. So, they avoid delegating tasks to others, even if it means they are flooded with work.
   • Time restraints. Sometimes, leaders fail to plan adequately or have many last-minute unexpected tasks on their plate. They don’t feel it would be fair to delegate a task with a short turnaround time or feel they have time to delegate when they’re in a race against the clock. 
2. Unclear expectations. Some leaders don’t take the time to explain the goal, vision, and timeline of the task. Or, they don’t specify how much authority the person has while completing the task. This is more likely to happen when a manager is rushed for time and delegates tasks over email or through a task management system.
3. Micromanaging. Some leaders are inflexible in the way in which tasks are completed and closely monitor how an employee is completing the task. They don’t know how to delegate effectively without losing control, so they overmanage the process.
4. Lack of understanding of employee strengths.  Some leaders don’t delegate or delegate tasks to the wrong people based on a lack of understanding of their employees’ skills.
5. Not reviewing employees’ work carefully. Delegating can be an opportunity for coaching and professional development for employees if their manager reviews their work and gives them feedback. If this step is skipped over, it can cause problems for the team and make the manager or employee look bad. 

 

I imagine you have seen many of these problems in the workplace, and you know the harm it can cause. For example, it can kill an employee’s motivation or hurt teamwork. But as you’ll see in the tip section of this episode, there’s a process for delegating effectively, and it can be a wonderful opportunity to develop staff and give you the time you need for top-level tasks. But first, I’d like to tell you a story about my delegation fails. 

Story About Delegation

I love the idea of delegating. One less item on the “to do” list, right? Well, some time ago, I was the queen of delegating, but I wasn’t delegating successfully.

I delegated tasks through the task management system, Trello. But as soon as I would assign a task to a particular employee, he would share question after question with me. The sense of accomplishment I felt after delegating a task evaporated quickly. When he asked for more about the reason for the task and my ideas and detailed instructions, I have to admit I felt frustrated. I thought, “I don’t know why you’re making this so difficult,” or “Can’t you figure it out on your own?” I was quite creative in crafting excuses. “It’s his fault, not mine. He should be more resourceful. I don’t have enough time to give him all the details he wants.”  Yet, he was producing great results, often better than his peers. 

Other employees didn’t ask so many questions but sometimes executed tasks incorrectly or differently than I had in mind. Sometimes they made executive decisions without running them by me first and made mistakes that I had to fix quickly. 

I grew weary of my excuses to myself and could see my delegation system was broken. I was not only causing frustration for myself but to my employees. Of course, I didn’t feel good about that.  In all honesty, I had been hasty to check off items from my to-do list and had rushed through introducing new tasks and ideas. I didn’t take the time to consider what information would be needed for tasks or explain my expectations. I had to learn how to delegate work to employees more effectively.

Ultimately, I committed to spending the time necessary to plan and share my ideas and assignments more thoughtfully. Fortunately, I discovered tools that made it easier. For example, I started using screen share during meetings to explain how to do something or how something works. Or, I created training videos using Loom that allowed me to share my screen while explaining a process step-by-step. These tools are especially helpful for visual learners.

I hope you can avoid some of my hard-learned lessons about delegating. In the next section, you’ll learn how to delegate effectively and achieve better results. 

Tips on How to Delegate Effectively

To delegate well, you must communicate effectively–that is, with sufficient detail, for the appropriate audience and with as much clarity as possible. Your employee needs to know “why” the task needs to be done, “what” needs to be done, and “how” it should be done. This is a recipe for getting your employee to buy into the task, feel motivated, and do a good job! As you know, I love checklists, so I’m going to give you two. The first is a preparation checklist that you should complete before delegating a task. The second is a checklist for assigning and overseeing a task that you have delegated.

Your checklist for preparing to delegate a task:

1. Define the desired outcome. 
2. Consider what’s involved in completing a task, considering time, effort, and money.
3. Select the best employee for the task. Consider experience, skills, availability, aptitude, and eagerness to learn.
4. Consider the employee’s learning style and plan training accordingly. Aim to communicate in a simple and organized way that is not too complex for the employee.
5.  Set deadlines.

 

Your checklist for delegating and overseeing a task:

1. Meet your employee in person or have a video or phone call, if possible. You can also share information related to the task by email or in a task management system.
2. Introduce the task, outlining the goal, vision,  timeline, and the authority level you are giving the employee, such as what decisions and actions they are allowed to make. Only after providing these big picture items should you dive into the details.
3. Provide training and guidance while encouraging independent thinking. Ask the employee if they have questions about the task and encourage them to reach out with questions during the implementation. 
4. Confirm the employee understands the assignment and is committed to it. While you may feel confident in your communication abilities, communication failures frequently happen during the delegation process, so it’s best to assume there could be misunderstandings. Let the employee know you want to confirm you have communicated what you intend and ask them to tell you what they heard. Then, clear up any misunderstandings!
5. After the meeting, monitor the employee’s progress on the task and provide feedback and coaching.
6. Finally, evaluate the employee’s performance on the task, letting them know what they did well and areas for improvement. If they found a better way to do the task than you had in mind, make sure you come up with a plan to document it and share it with others. 

 

When you delegate tasks effectively, the task will get done on time, and you and your employees will achieve greater work success.

Let’s Work Together!

I love helping talented professionals present themselves to potential employers and get jobs they love.  I help clients in all stages of their job searches, such as finding jobs, preparing their resumes and LinkedIn profiles, and interviewing. One of my recent clients left this kind review:

I’m so grateful that Kristine was able to carve time outside of her calendar to give me a crash course, helping edit my resume, and giving advice on how to best answer interview questions. I can’t thank her enough.

To see pictures and more testimonials from my clients, visit my website at express-to-impress.com. 

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Tune in Next Week

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That’s all for today! I invite you to tune in next time to improve your English skills. You’ll learn definitions of phrases and idioms from this episode. 

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Music By Lucas Knutter