Posted by

Barry Siskind

Community Manager

If you are like me you may run into situations where you believe that nobody can do the job as well as you can and so you end up doing it yourself. This is one area of management that I am constantly trying to improve – delegation.

Delegation of duties and responsibilities is an age old problem. The simple truth is that we can’t do everything. We have to delegate to staff and contractors or the job doesn’t get done.

Blogger Susan Sobbott recently posted on the American Express Open Forum listing six tips to smooth the road to delegating. Her six are:

1. Pick the things to delegate

Her recommendation is to do a self-audit of the time you spend on all the things you do now and then ask yourself if time can be saved by having others assume the responsibility for certain things you do.

2. Pick the things to delegate up

Delegation isn’t just about off-loading the meaningless jobs. Some things you may be doing now will require specialized skills before someone can assume the responsibility.

3, Provide clear instructions

Delegating responsibilities requires a clear set of instructions including the job’s outcomes.

4. Empower staff and contractors

Very few jobs are cut-and dry. Often staff and your contractors will run up against situations they (or you) had not considered. Deciding on the scope of their decision making is an important ingredient to your delegation recipe.

5. Learn to let go

This is the one that is hardest for me. People will make mistakes and so will you. The trick is to set up systems where you both learn from things that don’t go as anticipated.

6. Invest the time for long term success

Delegation like any other acquired skill requires an investment in your time. But if you approach it wisely the long term results will free you from many tasks that can be completed by others leaving you time to do what you do best.

https://www.openforum.com/articles/6-tips-to-master-the-art-of-delegation/

The posting is a good refresher for all of us.