Empower Your Team: Best Practices for Delegating Tasks Successfully

The inability to delegate is one of the biggest problems I see with managers at all levels. – Eli Broad, American Philanthropist and Entrepreneur

While you may feel tempted to get everything done on your own, refusing to delegate tasks isn’t a sign of a strong manager.

What if they fail? What if timelines are missed? Or what if the quality suffers? Regardless of all these fears, you should learn to trust your team to sound less dominating and inaccessible.

Putting the delegation strategy into action can be daunting and overwhelming in the beginning. But with consistent practice, you can surely become a pro of delegation.

In this article, we will dig deeper into defining the best practices you can implement to divide your workload and its significance for the organizational goal.

But before that, let’s find out what delegation means.  

What is Delegation?

Delegation is the process of assigning tasks, duties, or initiatives to particular employees or teams in an organization. The transfer usually occurs from one person (mostly in a leading position) to another person or group.  The motivation behind managers and team leaders redirecting their responsibility is to free up their time for some value-driven work. 

By aligning tasks to team members’ skills and interests, you may achieve several benefits:  

• Even responsibility distribution
• In-time task completion
• Enhanced accountability and authority
• Greater employee engagement
• Get high-quality work done
• Foster the development of new skills
• Promote refinement of their strengths

7 Practices for Effective Task Delegation (700)

Task delegation doesn’t mean letting go of control and overly relying on employees to get things done. But it is a method of empowering individuals to put their best foot forward to achieve goals as a team while you manage other crucial project aspects.

Here are the best practices you can adopt to lighten your workload management for efficiency and elevate your delegation game:

1. Understand Which Tasks To Assign

Before you get to task delegating right away, keep in mind that not all tasks are worth throwing off to someone else’s table. Evaluate the importance and impact of handing off a task. While some strategic and complex criticals require your attention to be taken care of, some tasks can be better off handled independently by employees. Now these tasks can be the ones that are recurring in nature or the ones that align better with some employees’ interests or goals.

2. Know Each Team Members’ Strengths

You cannot succeed in delegating if you are unaware of your team members’ strengths and weaknesses. It is a crucial part of the task delegation process. Allocate some time out of your busy schedule to understand your members’ strengths, interests, and skills. You can shed light on strengths and weaknesses by hosting 1:1 meetings, conducting assessments, and observing performance. Because when you are aware of their capabilities, you have a high chance of capitalizing on their efforts and excellence.

3. Identify The Right Person

Not every task is for everyone. If you think anyone can check off the task from the task list, then you are completely wrong. Aligning the efforts of the right person to the right task is crucial to ensure efficient task delegation. Once you know an employee with the key skills or the one eager to develop skills in the area, assigning tasks to them helps bring their unique perspective into the project and avoid potential setbacks. An effective way to visualize team roles and expertise is by using an organizational chart. You can easily create one with an editable organizational chart maker, offering a clear view of the team’s structure and skill distribution, thus assisting in delegation.

4. Define Priorities

Investing your valuable efforts in the wrong or less important tasks is the last thing you would like to experience. Doing so will make your employees more vulnerable and likely to struggle which is not at all productive. That is why you need to understand the task priority and its impact before assigning tasks to team members. This ensures your team is investing their efforts in the tasks that are going to be more beneficial and will contribute significantly to the organization’s goals. 

5. Communicate Purpose And Context

Now once you have assigned tasks after strategic consideration, do not consider your work done just now. Because the major part is still pending. Make sure to educate your task assignees on the task context, the expectations, and the deadlines. This may also include walking them through the project objectives and the resources (tools, time, and effort) required to complete the job. Also, be open to receiving and answering any questions and doubts that arise.

6. Monitor Progress and Provide Feedback

Task or workload delegation is incomplete without progress monitoring and providing feedback. You can stay on top of your task progress using project management tools like ProofHub and even provide feedback (both positive and negative) right there. If you don’t see things going as planned, do not hesitate to provide constructive criticism right away. Because it will allow them to see a clear line of action and get back on track in no time. Do not confuse it with micromanaging, because that is a whole different concept.

7. Acknowledge Efforts and Wins

Recognizing a job well done is a gesture employees want in return for their loyalty and hard work from their managers. And with 52.5% of employees desiring more recognition from their immediate managers, its significance becomes even stronger. Do not make the mistake of claiming the success credit for yourself. Instead, give credits, deliver words of appreciation, and celebrate achievements after the task is completed to enhance morale. This helps you keep your team satisfied and retain them for longer.  

Why is Delegation Important?

Delegation is not about getting rid of tasks; it’s about empowering others to help you achieve your goals. – Laura Stack

Delegation is a full-fledged concept that benefits both leaders and employees. It facilitates collaborative efforts which helps you move together as a team and not work in silos. Where you can focus on the bigger picture and ensure smooth, streamlined operations by allocating tasks among your peers, your team gains valuable experience and skills.

Since now you have learned the best practices to build your delegation skills, let’s find out why is it even important in the first place.

• Strategic delegation helps prevent overutilization and underutilization of resources.
• Sharing responsibility with others prevents excessive burnout.
• Increasing accountability empowers team members to take ownership of tasks.
• Delegating challenging tasks contributes to employees’ professional development and career growth.
• Trusting employees with important responsibilities increases employee engagement in the workplace.
• Even distribution of workloads leads to increased productivity and successful task completion.

Become an Efficient Leader

Delegation is a common practice that has long been seen with skepticism. It was considered a risk that managers feared, denying employees to take the lead and overpower. However, it has now become a crucial trait to master and there is nothing to get insecure of.

In fact, it expands your personal development bandwidth while giving a boost to your team’s professional development. It defines your efficiency and effectiveness as a manager or a leader. Lastly, be patient while developing your delegation skills. Because it isn’t a quick-fix solution, but a skill that must be honed over time.