How can you help employees delegate more effectively?

You must create an environment where your team know it’s OK to try and fail. They need to know that you trust them to do their best. That you are available to when they need something, but are expecting them to take that initiative to come to you. This is needed in addition to all the good suggestions about clear intent and expectations. People need the safety of knowing they are trusted and will not be punished for attempting new things.

In my experience, effective delegation occurs when a employee feels confident that although he was found as with the potential to perform the appointed task, he may commit some mistake which is normal as longer as he learns out from it. The superior who is delegating must also give some space for that mistake to happen and be there to help to solve or overcome these challenges that the employee as faced that leads to commit such mistakes.

Set clear expectations and objectives. Define the task, its purpose, and the desired outcome. Provide any necessary resources, tools, or information. Establish a timeline and milestones to track progress. One common mistake leaders make is not providing a clear timeline and milestones to track progress and efficiency.

One thing that I have found helpful for leaders when delegating tasks is to be specific in what success looks like, timeframe to completion, and availability to answer questions along the way. All too often a leader might have felt they communicated their expectations clearly although they failed to be specific with their team members which can cause confusion, lack of clarity, and an unsuccessful conclusion. Ensure you are clear on the expectations when you delegate, prepare in advance so that you can gather your thoughts and make sure to be clear in order to have a successful result.

If you took the time to identify deliverables and deadlines, why not include check-ins as part of the plan? If you want to find that balance between trust, accountability, and support, you are going to need to have consistent and anticipated lines of communication. Consistency is a key component of great delegation. If you establish mutually agreed upon check-in dates, you won’t be creating stress or a perception of micro-management. When you check-in ask for updates and ideas as opposed to making suggestions and telling them how you want the task to be done. Remember, you want self-directed employees who anticipate the business needs. Delegation is how you develop these skills.

Do not just delegate and forget. Keep a close watch and be available for any Gyan session that might be needed for the individual to think with a different thinking hat or to make course corrections in due time.

Micro-managers should be improved or removed because they are to an organization what cancer is to the body: toxic. Micro-managers believe delegating is simply telling people what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. You can lead an unlimited number of people. However, you can only micro-manage a small number of people. High impact leaders leverage delegation to grow and develop people. They don’t use delegation as a quick and easy way to hand off work they don’t want to do as micro-managers do. High impact delegation means others are recommending to the leader what they should do next. They don’t wait to be told, and they don’t ask. They take responsibility. They think. When they recommend, the leader learns how they think.

Managers need to learn to trust their employees. Trust your employees to take ownership of their delegated tasks. Resist the urge to micromanage, but also be available for support if needed. Empower them to make decisions and solve problems on their own, fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility. This is crucial to employee development.

I found that ensuring the team to know when to ask for help is crucial to any delegation project. One of the repeated issues is needing to know when to ask for help and when to dig for the solution ourselves; especially if the team is very motivated to complete the project, they can easily get carried away into the rabbit hole. Leaders must keep checking the progress and ensure the team is aware of the support they can count on from the leader and the rest of the group. Educating the team is one of the quick solutions leaders can use by simply being the example, asking for help, and making it the norm in the group to do so.

Need to build a safe environment for the team. Aware that failure is a possibility where we could use it for learning. After that, try to understand the failure reason and define the next actions needed.

Reviewing results is crucial in delegation, involving evaluation of outcomes, acknowledging successes, and pinpointing areas for improvement. Offering feedback, recognition, and rewards boosts the employee's morale and confidence, fostering a sense of value and motivation. Additionally, take time to self-reflect on your delegating abilities for future improvement.

It said that "an unexamined life is not worth leaving". In view of this, it is imperative to review results of the deligated task. Depending on the enormity of the task, the review could be done intermittently/progressively. However, care should taken not to micromanage in the process. The review will help measure performance and give the appropriate feedback. The sandwich approach of giving feedback can be used; talk about both the good and the downsides of the outcome by putting things in proper perspective. Give praise where necessary and admonition where appropriate. It is much better where there exist predetermined success criteria/performance indicators to which the outcome of the task can be compared.

[1] Use delegation as a strategy to ensure all team members are working towards the same strategic goals. [2] Create a company-specific delegation playbook that provides practical frameworks for assessing tasks for delegation, matching tasks with employee growth paths, and guidelines for support and accountability. [3] Shift the focus from tasks to development. Each task delegated should be viewed as a chance to expand the employee’s capabilities and a step toward their professional advancement.

This may be counterintuitive, but one way to show the proof of if the need of delegation is to give the mentee a bit more than they can chew. What this does is to allow them see execution of the task is more important than one person getting to do everything. This culture must value feedback and teamwork for a good system of delegation to be effective and sustainable