13 benefits and 8 barriers to successful delegation_ Delegation part 1
The ability to delegate tasks is a very important skill for a manager to have. However, delegating is not always easy and, if the delegation process is not carried out effectively, it can cause more harm than good to the team’s morale.
Let´s have a short look at a definition of delegation, taken from Collins dictionary.
To delegate: ‘If you delegate duties, responsibilities, or power to someone, you give them those duties, those responsibilities, or that power so that they can act on your behalf’.
So true delegation gives the authority to decide and take action. Why is delegation so important?
Delegation plays an important role in 3 critical areas
1. Efficiency
By delegating work to others, the individual is transferring work to people whose skills better fit the task(s). Therefore, it improves the efficiency of the individual delegating the work and lessens their stress.
2. Development
In a case where the delegation of work is to someone who is not well versed in doing the task, delegating can play a major role in coaching and teaching others. It is one important way to help them build new skills.
3. Flexibility
Delegation promotes efficiency and promotes flexibility. It allows work to be done by different people in different ways thereby ensuring a high level of success and achievement of objectives.
13 Benefits of Delegating
Delegation of tasks to others offers different benefits when looking at the ecosystem.
5 Benefits of Delegation for Managers
Balance of workloads. Delegation allows a fair sharing of responsibilities and work. Each individual that work is delegated to gets a fair share of work to be completed by the entire team.
Less stress – Looming deadlines can bring on anxiety. Skilled team members with everything well in hand, get you to breathe easier as project milestones approach.
Gives you the time and ability to focus on higher-level tasks– As a manager, your ultimate job is sourcing your projects to keep everything moving. Also, as a manager, there are administrative and other tasks that only you can handle. Set more time for these things by delegating project work.
More skilled and versatile team – A manager is only as strong as their team. Meeting the needs of your staff provides skill-building and personal performance goals that benefit everyone.
Greater productivity from the team – A team with various skills can add tasks seamlessly without a lot of instruction. The more you invest in your team, the more they will produce for you and the company.
3 Benefits of Delegation for Employees
Knowledge and skills development - Delegation presents an opportunity for subordinates to develop themselves as well as acquire new skills as they achieve the outlined objectives set by the leader. These make the subordinates more versatile and also see themselves as important and an integral part of the team.
Confidence - Also, delegation promotes self-esteem as it tends to show that the leader has trust and confidence in the subordinates. Having interesting and challenging work feels good and being trusted to complete a job raises one’s self-esteem.
Motivation - A strong self-esteem goes further to enable subordinates to accomplish their goals. When jobs are delegated, they are usually found to be very interesting and hence make them enjoyable. It goes further to promote innovation and initiative-taking within the teams.
5 Benefits of Delegation for the Organization
Increased Productivity and efficiency – As the manager and the team are more proficient in working as a cohesive unit, more projects can be added to the workload. This offers an opportunity for growth through increased productivity.
Versatile and adaptable workforce – Each member of the team offers strengths in certain areas. By playing to those strengths while dealing constructively with weaknesses, the manager can tap a variety of employees for different tasks.
Talent pool for promotion – No one is trying to take your job, but everyone wants to move forward in their career. Here is the proving ground for cultivating new leaders.
Higher employee morale – Employees who feel respected and trusted work harder and more efficiently.
Higher employee retention – It is an investment in the workforce to train and mentor your team members. The last thing you want is for them to take your instruction and leave. Value them and they will feel vested in the company and look for opportunities within the company instead of elsewhere.
The Difficulty in Delegating Work
Although there are clear benefits to delegating work, many choose not to do so. In fact, many people feel that it is more efficient for them to just do everything by themselves. There are several reasons as to why an individual may not want to delegate work to others:
#1 Delegating does not eliminate accountability
Although you give up the responsibility when you delegate a task, the delegator is ultimately accountable for the success or failure of the task. However, transferring the success to the person who did more of the work is a good strategy for supportive leadership.
#2 Delegating results in a loss of control
Many people believe that they can do the job more effectively than others. The sense of loss of control of the task prevents many from passing off work to others.
Some of these difficulties in delegation arise on the part of the delegator, i.e. the manager who delegates the responsibilities and the authority. Let us see some of the reasons for such non-delegation.
8 Barriers to Delegation
Fear – For example, of being seen as redundant. Some managers try to hide their own incompetence. He keeps all the authority for himself to avoid exposing his lack of knowledge and talent. The reason for no delegation is so that the subordinates do not outshine him and show him up at the company.
Control – Certain managers are autocrats. So, they are very attached to their own authority and pull in the organization. They are fearful that delegating any of their authority will result in a loss of their influence and power in the company. Instead, they prefer when the subordinates have to come to them for approval at all times. It suites their autocratic leadership style. This is one of the difficulties in the delegation.
Lack of trust – You do not trust that other people can do a good job. Then there are managers who do not trust or believe anyone when it comes to their work. They think no one will be able to accomplish the task well enough. And they do not trust the competence of their own subordinates. So, they have difficulties in a delegation of responsibilities. The manager may lack the confidence in his team members and thus avoids delegating any authority.
Risk-averse - Also, managers usually do not want to accept the risk of their subordinates making any mistakes. Because ultimately they are answerable to their superiors. So, they do not delegate the authority to the subordinates for any independent decision-making. An element of risk cannot altogether be ruled out but certain risk will have to be taken.
Poor ability A superior may lack the ability to delegate authority to subordinates. The manager may not be able to identify the areas where delegation is required. Lack of Proper Controls: There may not be proper controls in the organization which help the manager to keep in touch with the performance of subordinates.
Feeling guilty – For example, you think that the employees already have too much to do.
Too busy – Delegating can be time-consuming but it pays off in the long run.
Overconfidence of a superior - The feeling in a superior that only he can do certain work more effectively than others is the main difficulty in delegation. When a manager is of the opinion that his subordinates will not be able to make proper decisions then he will concentrate all powers with him and will not like to delegate his authority.
Getting over these human barriers requires some emotional intelligence and personal development. It requires taking a good look at ourselves and evaluating how we are doing.
Delegation requires leadership and time
Clearly, delegation promotes efficiency and flexibility. It allows work to be done by different people in different ways thereby ensuring a high level of success and achievement of objectives. This also results in a balance of workloads. Delegation promotes effective communication.
Delegating requires training on how to do the task. The delegation of work to someone else requires the manager to mentor and ensure that the person completes the task. The delegator may need to spend as much time teaching the other individual how to do the task as to complete the task himself.
Next week I will talk about how to delegate effectively in more detail.
How to delegate is part of my 90-day program MOVE UP! the first 90 days for leaders (first-time leaders and when changing roles). This program is as well beneficial when you want to prepare yourself for your next leadership transition. Feel free to join the waitlist to learn more about the program. Join my newsletter here for weekly career inspiration or buy me a coffee if you like my work.
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