As a manager, you’ve probably made this statement before. There’s a time crunch and you feel overwhelmed. Here are some ideas to help re-frame your thinking:
“It will be worth it in the long term.”
Think of the time and effort it takes to delegate work as a long-term strategy to improve the workflow of your department. While it may be true in the short-term, managers need to safeguard against taking on too much execution at the risk of not having time to manage a staff and exert leadership for the team.
“It may not come out the way I would do it, but it will be okay.”
When delegation efforts fail, it’s often because managers struggle to believe that anyone else can do something as competently as they can. They may struggle to accept that even if the job is not done as well as they themselves might have done it, the work may still be perfectly acceptable.
“I can practice project management skills if I delegate.”
Delegating is not just about taking something from one’s in box and putting it in someone else’s. Deciding who within the organization has the necessary skills, what training is required to get those skills, what information is needed, and what time the owner must invest to hand a project off, is all critical to the process of good, sound delegation.
“I will have time to work on more strategic issues if I delegate.”
Good delegators delegate projects, not tasks, and they use delegation to develop their employees. When delegation is a tool for facilitating an employee’s growth, a leader has more time to lead. Delegation becomes a win-win situation.
“I am rewarding others by developing their skills.”
Think of delegation as building the next set of leaders in your department. That makes delegation another way to retain and reward your best people. Staff members typically want to contribute, to be challenged, to give opinions. Without delegation, an organization cannot grow.
What’s on your desk that could be delegated?
