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Management delegation is a vital manager skill that, once mastered, frees the manager from stress and pressure and enables them to be more successful.

A great manager knows about effective delegation. They know what tasks to delegate, picks the right delegate, and follows up on the jobs which have been delegated.

Delegation can:

• Increase your own job satisfaction

• Increase your own productivity

• Improve your team’s morale

• Give delegates a chance to develop

• Manage your job instead of letting the job manage you

Here are the 7 steps to effective delegation:

1. Explain exactly what needs to be done and provide, or agree, specific timescales for progress and completion.

2. Explain the background and the larger context. This is crucial for developing pride in high standards of work. Someone who considers themselves to be an essential part of the team effort will have higher self esteem and will perform accordingly.

3. Break down the task to be delegated into small chunks. You could write these down in a coherent order, creating a step-by-step guide which will be useful for everyone who is involved. It’s normally best to do this with the person taking on the task.

4. Check each step to ensure that the person taking on the task has the necessary skills and knowledge to carry out the task successfully and arrange for training if necessary.

5. Give the person taking on the task the opportunity to carry it out with an experienced person, using the step-by-step guide you have created. The experienced person (ideally yourself) needs to check for understanding and answer queries fully and patiently.

6. When you are both confident that the new jobholder is able to take on the task successfully, hand it over fully. Remain available to provide help or reassurance if needed.

7. Assess the progress of the task at agreed stages, these will become less frequent as the new jobholder gains confidence and experience. Use these progress meetings as an opportunity to encourage and reward the new jobholder.

Here are the warning signs of ineffective delegation:

1. Analyse your irritating interruptions. If people are constantly coming back to you with queries after a task has been delegated you may have missed one of the 7 vital stages of delegation.

2. Think about the workloads of yourself and your team. Are you snowed under while they have time on their hands? This is a warning sign, it means that people are under-utilised and probably bored.

3. Are you confident that your team members are fully competent in all areas of their work? If the answer is yes, then they aren’t learning anything new. Delegate to develop and to keep people interested.

4. Do you reel off the answers whenever a technical query arises? Giving them the answer only resolves the immediate problem. Explain how and where to find the information for themselves to enable them to deal with future queries without your help.

5. Consider whether those people that report directly to you are delegating effectively. You are their role model and any problems with your own delegation skills could be mirrored in theirs.

Getting management delegation right is a ‘must-have’ manager skill.

What are your experiences of delegation or being delegated to?

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