Delegation

Master the art of delegation

Managing is probably the only job in the world where you will try to help someone replace you. That is part of the manager's job. Delegation is probably the most salient and uncomplicated job for a manager. This skill alone can easily define the growth of you and your team. Before diving into delegation, let us understand what is not delegation.

Consider a scenario where the PM of your product comes with a new case. If you have a tech lead, you will probably discuss with him about to whom you should assign this. If there is no tech lead, you will find the perfect person for this task and allocate it to them. They can take it from there. This is not delegation. What you did here was part of your work. 

Delegation is when you ask some of your team members to do the work that you have already been doing for a considerable time. For example, take the final call on hiring or approving new machine requests for your product or training new hires. It can be anything, but it should have already been on your plate for some time.

Why delegate?

Delegation is crucial for increasing the effectiveness of an individual and growing their career. Ownership and autonomy are the key factors contributing to the job satisfaction of many. The majority spend more than half of their waking time at work, and no one wants to do a job over which they have no ownership. Industry days are long gone. Your team member's career growth is defined by how often they take on new responsibilities. They cannot grow if there is no scope for them to try to explore new and impactful areas.

One mistake all new managers make is that whenever a new responsibility or job comes on their plate, they try to find time to do it. You will be successful at this. You will finish the new work without changing your current schedule. But this is not scalable. 

Management will keep giving managers new responsibilities. You cannot hold everything on your schedule. At the same time, you cannot say no to new responsibilities. If you are not taking on new responsibilities, you cannot grow. But if you keep adding new things to your schedule, you will overwork. You will burn out. That is not a good sign for you, your team, or your organization. You need to pass on some of your work to your team. That is how your managers made you grow. Without delegating, you cannot find time to take on weighty responsibilities.

How to not delegate?

It is straightforward. 

Don't delegate new responsibilities coming to your plate. While you delegate to your team, you should help them along the way. You can do this only if you have already done that for some time.

Don't delegate if they are not interested in taking up the responsibility. If someone is not interested in taking up what you suggest, you better find the reason and solve it first. The reason could be that they are already overworked or afraid of taking on new responsibilities. Once you find the root cause and solve it, they will be ready to take it up. 

You can delegate a tedious or dull job, but avoid only doing that. 

How to delegate?

• Explain why did you choose them?

• Give them a chance to say no.

• Explain the job clearly. 

• Explain what and how(quality) the output should be. 

Once you do this, stay away from them as much as possible. Don't expect them to do everything as you did. But ensure the quality of the work is not diminishing. Making sure of the quality is disparate from micro-managing. Micromanaging might guarantee quality. But micromanagement needs more time than you do it. If you feel the urge to micro-manage after delegating, then please do not delegate. It defeats the purpose of delegation. 

You will often get the urge to do this job yourself because it takes more of your time than if you did it yourself. If you do delegation perfectly, you should not face this problem. 

What are the possible reasons for this?

• Trust issues between you and your team member - This will never work if there is a trust issue between you and your team member.

• You failed to explain clearly.

• You micromanage them.

Whenever delegation fails, do not try to stay away from it. Delegation is one of the crucial tools to grow yourself and everyone around you. By doing it correctly, one can indisputably become an effective manager. I hope some of the above methods will help you master the art of delegation.