Great managers serve, lead and delegate to achieve growth

By David Wee | Nov 3, 2008

2 comments

Delicious

Digg

Email

Print

The ability to be clear on delegation is a sign of good management. Managers delegate work not to just relieve their workload, but to allow the employees they supervise to grow professionally.

Effective delegation is a two-way discussion and understanding. Be clear about the delegated task, give employee(s) an opportunity to ask questions, monitor progress and offer assistance as needed. The servant leader has a deep sense of empathy and acceptance of each person. Use effective delegation to benefit both yourself and the person to whom you delegate.

Why you should Delegate?

You free yourself to run your business and see the big picture.

1. You develop your employees and make them more valuable.
2. You spread accountability to encourage a stronger, more resilient team.
3. You can respond faster to changes in your business when you can rely on nimble employees to take charge.

Good delegation saves you time, develops your people, grooms a successor, and motivates. Poor delegation will cause you frustration, demotivates, confuses the other person, and fails to achieve the task or purpose itself.

Delegation is perhaps the single most difficult skill for new managers to develop.  Proper delegation offers the manager the opportunity to grow and develop individuals who can then be recognized as future leaders of the organization.

Delegating is nothing but “Internal Outsourcing”. The main purpose of delegating is “Time Management” . . . so that you can concentrate on big . . . main assignments, assignments which need your attention. But what can you delegate, is an important question. The opinion that “One shall not delegate what they themselves cannot do”. . . means you can delegate only those things . . . assignments which you . . . yourself are comfortable in doing.

A simple delegation rule is the acronym SMART. It's a quick checklist for proper delegation. Delegated tasks must be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Agreed
• Realistic
• Time bound
• What to Delegate?