“Great Leaders Properly And Easily Delegate, Poor Leaders Make Delegation Harder Than It Is.”

Like most founders I’ve known over the years, when I first started my venture ProofHub, managing people was something that was a whole new experience. I loved doing important tasks myself, to my satisfaction, so the idea of delegating work didn’t go down well with me.

However, I soon realized that trying to get most of the stuff done myself was taking its toll on me (both mentally and physically). I knew I can’t do all the work myself; I have to delegate tasks to the right people to get the job done. But I must add here that delegating work is easier said than done.

When I did start to delegate, I was often left annoyed and frustrated at results that were way below my expectations. Surely, this was not the way my brand could take on the competition. I had to find why delegation wasn’t working for me.

Do you also face the same situation when you delegated something with the expectation to get things done, but it didn’t turn out that way?

You see, you are not alone in this whirlpool! Okay, enough of fretting and frowning over less-than-satisfactory results. Let’s find out some common things that leaders fail to do, which eventually leads to delegation failure. These are the things that I did, which helped me take ProofHub to the position it is today.

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Smart Leaders Don’t Make These Idiotic Delegation Errors

Giving Vague Instructions

Quite simply, your employees don’t know what’s on your mind. I am sure this blunder tops the list — assigning tasks to employees without providing clear expectations.

The assignees are likely to be confused and might make mistakes (unintentionally) many times because they do not have a clear-cut idea of what exactly you want from them.

Failure To Provide Proper Training

Some leaders don’t want to invest time and money in training their employees. No wonder then that delegation turns out to be a failure more often than not.

Well-trained employees can do the task assigned to them more efficiently, with minimal mistakes and high precision. I’m sure you want the same to happen when you delegate work to your employees, so don’t throw them straight out of the nest and expect them to fly without providing training.

Failing To Check Progress Of Delegated Tasks

Once the task is assigned, some leaders fail to check on it while it’s in progress. They wait until a task is completed. The real risk in this approach is that you don’t get a chance to identify errors and rectify them.

Gallup argues that leaders should have a feedback system in place to ensure the predictable quality of work. Although I won’t recommend frequent check-ins by leaders midway through the project’s timeline, assessing things once or twice every couple of weeks would be just fine.

Failing To Support, Encourage, and Appreciate

Human beings crave appreciation, it does their confidence a world of good. Some leaders just like to see get the work done and would never appreciate the good work done.

While the tasks are in progress, they would never care to offer support and say words of encouragement to the workforce to boost their morale. Demotivated workers don’t put their hearts out to work, and unsatisfactory results reflect on this lack of commitment.

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Delegation Is An Art and Science

All leaders should master how and when to allocate responsibility to the right people. This will help improve productivity as well as alleviate your workload. I have compiled a step-by-step guide that will help leaders delegate more effectively. Let’s get started on it!

Step 1: Learn To Let Go

As I mentioned earlier, when I was a budding entrepreneur, I wanted to do most things by myself. I knew it was not an easy task, but I found it difficult to let go of my dedication to complete my work. Yeah, it’s a good habit, but not when you’ve got your plate full of many other things.

“You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them. I tie no weights to my ankles.”
― C. JoyBell C.

Another factor that stops leaders from assigning work is that they think that others do not have the required skills or abilities to complete the job effectively. Whatever may be the case, you first need to learn to let go. You can start by delegating small tasks before moving your way up. Collaborate with your team to build mutual trust and confidence.

Accept that you’ll have to delegate work sooner than later if you want your business to be successful.

Step 2: Identify The Best Person To Do The Job

Merely delegating work alone won’t help you get things done; choosing the best man to do the task will. Hope you got the point. How can you mark the best person to assign work? That’s not rocket science, you just have to play smart here.

“As soon as Jose Mourinho was given the job, I knew that he was the right man for Manchester United.” Diego Forlan

Know about the skills and strengths of your team members, and their working styles and interests. Some employees who prefer working alone and then there employees who prefer collaborating with others.

Inexperienced workers may need training and guidance as compared to experienced veterans. You may also have to consider the work schedule of your employees. Overburdening employees who already have too many responsibilities is the last thing you want to do.

Step 3: Set Expectations (Why You’re Delegating)

When you choose the right people to delegate tasks, some of them might be surprised. It really helps when you explain to the chosen people why you’re delegating work to them specifically, and how you hope this responsibility would help them grow.

“Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations.” — Ralph Charell

Tell them that you have confidence in their ability and skills to do the job as per your high expectations. “Make them see each delegation of the task as a chance to learn new things, build new skills, and take more responsibility”, says Alex Cavoulacos, founder of The Muse.

Step 4: Provide The Right Instructions

The task process may seem as plain as the nose on one’s face to you, but it’s not the same with your employees. Without micromanaging, provide clear instructions with every task you delegate from the onset. Include specific task preferences on how you want the assignment to be executed.

“We are always open to instruction, willing to be wiser every day than we were before, and to change whatever we can change for the better.” — John Wesley

Tell employees if you have strict deadlines or milestones to hit. Great leaders always let their teams tackle the problems in their own way. They will support their employees through their problems, but won’t spoon feed them in finding solutions. Don’t look for perfection because two people look at the same things differently.

As long as you’re getting the results you want, it’s okay.

Step 5: Provide Resources And Training

When you delegate a task to the chosen person, you have to make sure that he/she has the required tools and resources to be successful. For example, assigning a project to a project manager without providing him a feature-rich project management team and team collaboration software can lead to time wastage, confusion regarding job responsibilities, and communication gap.

“You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions.” Gary Ryan Blair

At the same time, if your chosen employee has never used a tool before to complete a task, make sure they get training to learn how to optimally use the tool to yield desired results. It may take more time to make resources available, but the work delegated is likely to be executed correctly.

Step 6: Support Your Employees

While providing resources to your subordinates is crucial to get the expected results, a leader’s encouragement and support at regular intervals hold as much significance. Employees might need help and guidance from a leader to help them see how they’re doing work and tell them how to make improvements in certain aspects.

“Encourage, lift, and strengthen one another. For the positive energy spread to one will be felt by us all. For we are connected, one and all.” — Deborah Day

Giving and receiving feedback is a crucial component of delegation. Leaders can also monitor the delegated tasks and keep track of their progress without micro-managing the employees.

Periodically asking your employees if they need support or clarification can help to build their confidence. Let them know you trust them to do the work, and you are available in case they want to ask questions and offer feedback.

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Step 7: Review The Work And Provide Accurate Feedback

This one’s perhaps the most crucial step in the final process. Check the work you delegated to employees when it’s completed. Don’t hold back from appreciating the good work done by publicly thanking them and showering genuine praise. At the same time, if there are some shortcomings, let them know where they went wrong (and how they can improve) through constructive criticism.

Don’t ever be that leader who puts the entire blame on employees when things go wrong. Encourage your workers to share their thoughts on delegation — whether they have the right resources and training or whether you are delegating tasks to the right people.

The Final Thought

Delegation isn’t always easy. The process isn’t always straightforward, but if you delegate well then you can ensure clear division of responsibilities within your team as well as increase productivity and trust.

Learn to grant autonomy and authority to someone else, alleviate your workload so you can focus on other important things in life. Take small steps in the beginning to reach big goals you have set for yourself, your team, and the organization.

Good luck!

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