Effective Delegation

Delegation is an essential management skill that when done effectively, gets the job done, develops the staff and frees up management time to focus on more strategic issues. BUT there is a “catch 22” with delegation which is that in the short term it is often easier and quicker to do it yourself. Managers just have to bite the bullet and accept the short term loss for the longer term gain.

When delegating the SMART acronym is a helpful technique. You do not need to cover the SMART elements in order but you cannot afford to leave out any element. When delegating:

• Tasks should be Realistic – there is no point setting unachievable tasks.
• The end result must be Specific i.e. there must be a common understanding of what a successful completion of the task will look like.
• You need to agree with the person how you are going to Monitor the task.
• There must be a Timescale.
• The person must Agree they are going to complete the task and take ownership.

One of the common mistakes when delegating is that managers and staff do not have a common understanding on what it will look like if the job is done properly. This causes no end of frustrations and issues.

How you choose to monitor a task depends on the task and the person. The monitoring style determines how you make sure you get the results you want and how much coaching you give the person.

It is vital that managers get people to take ownership for tasks and then hold them accountable for doing what they have agreed to do. Failure to do this means that managers have no comeback when staff do not do the task or they choose to do something else instead.

Always, always set a timescale – even when there isn’t one, otherwise don’t expect to get things done when you need them.  As Soon As Possible is not a timescale.

If you can, find something in it for the person and there is no need to always be too forceful, sometimes “asking” is more effective than “telling”.