Let Go of the Reins: The Dead Horse Guide to Delegation

Why delegate?

* It frees up time for you
* It helps you prioritise
* It allows team members to develop skills and confidence

* It motivates them by demonstrating your confidence and putting a value
  on their contribution.
* It helps with cover and succession planning

What are the challenges?

1. Making the time
In order to gain time, you need to invest some. It's always tempting to
go for the short term solution. Do you find yourself saying, ‘It's quicker to do it myself’?

It may take a little longer to see the rewards for your investment but the gains are worth it. Otherwise, you may end up doing nothing effectively because you're trying to do everything.

2. Taking the risk
The risk in delegating is that the job may not be done as you would wish.
Your control is now at arm’s length and that can be scary. But this needs
to be set against the risks of trying to do it all yourself: the risk of
decreasing effectiveness, of diminishing energy and of demotivating your
team. So take off your Superman or Superwoman costume and tackle
these challenges realistically.

Here are 3 Steps to effective delegation:

** Step 1 Think it out first **
Is the delegation a one-off situation or part of an ongoing pattern? Are
you clear about how much responsibility you are giving? People need to
know where they stand.

Identify exactly what's to be done and for what reasons. It's not
enough just to offload a chunk of work. For delegation to be effective, it
must be as far as possible the right task for the right person.

Decide whether the person should:
* take a decision without reference to you
* take a decision and then report to you
* take some decisions but not others (financial ones for example)

Delegate an entire task or activity where possible. This gives greater
job satisfaction and guards against the danger of confusion over who's
doing what.

Allocate enough time and resources for the task.

One of the reasons for delegating is to free up your own time, so it's
unreasonable to expect others to do extra work in the same time.
Support them to manage the available time and resources.

Explore how they can delegate in their turn. Can they get anyone to do
part of their task?

** Step 2 Communicate the delegation plan **

* Take time to explain exactly what's wanted and why
* Make clear the benefits and assure people of your support.
* Schedule in time to talk and to listen to them about how it's going.
* Be honest about whether or not they have a choice.
* If there is no alternative, offer staff a choice from a range of
  possible tasks.
*  Listen to their suggestions. They may be happy to swap roles with
   each other or rotate particular activities. They may come up with
   solutions you haven't thought of.

** Step 3 The Task **
This can be summed up simply - let them get on with it!
There's nothing worse than trying to work with someone breathing
down your neck all the time. Trust them and don't interfere.

After all if you're so busy, how come you've time to be checking up
on them every five minutes?

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