How To Delegate Tasks Effectively And Better: [In-Depth Guide]
How to delegate tasks effectively?
Whether you’re a manager at a large company, an entrepreneur running your own business, or a parent at home, delegation is a crucial skill for increasing your productivity and saving time on other important tasks.
If you are taking on too many tasks and feeling ‘overwhelmed’ by it, you should consider your situation and examine delegating more often.
How To Delegate Tasks Effectively And Better:
Delegating is, in easy terms, outsourcing work to others. It gives someone else the responsibility to do something that was initially our responsibility.
However, delegating can be difficult for some people.
When delegating tasks, you need to know which tasks you can delegate to others and which tasks you should do yourself, and you need to be assertive and able to trust the people to whom you delegate.
Read on to find out how to get rid of delegating worries and how to carry out the delegating process effectively.
The right mental attitude
Put your ego and private ambition aside.
A significant mental barrier to delegating tasks is that many people have the attitude that “if something has to be done well, it has to be done alone”.
You’re not the only person in the world who can do something right.
Who knows, maybe delegating the task will be done better and faster than you can do it yourself. This is something you must learn to accept and even try to do.
Even if you are the only person who can do a particular task right now, consider taking the time to share your knowledge or train someone who can do this in the future, so you can liberate time for other activities.
Of course, many people are afraid of such an approach because they think it has the potential to lose influence.
They prefer to keep their knowledge to themselves rather than share it with others. However, that’s not the right attitude and will not offer you much in the long run.
Think logically and realistically – can you do this work yourself or delegate better?
You must be prepared to delegate some of your work to others. If you’re a manager without delegating tasks to employees, you won’t achieve the goals facing your team.
If you are an entrepreneur, you’ll waste quite a lot of valuable time tackling tasks that you must delegate to others.
Don’t view delegation and requests for help negatively. Many people feel uncomfortable when asking someone for help.
They feel guilty about burdening others with their chores or feel ashamed because they think they should have the ability to handle everything on their own.
Don’t feel ashamed or incompetent for needing help; You are more effective at getting help when you need it.
And stop waiting for people to come to you on assignments. Take the initiative and delegate when necessary.
Learn to trust other people
If you are afraid to delegate because you do not think anyone else can do the job in addition to you, remember two things: first, virtually anyone can do a superb job with enough practice.
Second, you may not be as talented and great as you think.
When you delegate work, you not only save time – you also give the person you delegate the opportunity to develop and master a new skill or take on a new type of work.
If you’re a boss, this is one way to build up your team members.
Be patient – given enough time, your assistant will most likely have the ability to do the delegated work in addition to you.
If the work is actually important and there is no time for mistakes and learning, then maybe you should do it yourself. However, if that’s not the case, then you should delegate the task.
Even if you’re best at doing the work you plan to delegate, realize that delegating will let you do other things that are important to you while someone else does your other tasks.
Focus your attention on complex, challenging and high precedence tasks. But do not feel sorry for delegating easy, repetitive tasks when you have more important things to do.
First of all, take the first step.
The first step is the most difficult, but the most significant.
You must break through and get someone to help you. If you’re the boss, you must tell your employees to do something about it.
Don’t feel guilty – so long as you do it in a friendly and polite way, there’s nothing wrong with you. When making your request, try to be polite while keeping your request sober.
Don’t be afraid to delegate because you think you might be seen as rude or imposing on others.
Look at it this way – how do you feel when people ask you to help and do something? Are you instantly angry and offended at them?
Or, conversely, are you ready to help someone?
Rejection is nothing personal.
Sometimes people can not help you. It’s sad but true.
This may be for a number of reasons – most frequently, the person you are asking is already very busy with work.
Don’t take it personally – simply because someone cannot (or will not) do something for you right now doesn’t suggest they do not like you.
Usually, it just means he is busy or perhaps just too lazy to do it.
Of course, in a situation where the subordinate’s boss refuses to do it, you should also expect it if you overload your current task.
If you are rejected, consider your options – normally, you can politely but firmly insist that you need the person’s help (which works particularly well if you are the boss or manager), otherwise you can try asking someone else for help.
As a last resort, if all else fails, you can do it yourself. But if you need help, do not be afraid to use the delegation option.
You don’t have anything to lose, but you can only gain from it.
Face the target, not the procedure.
Set clear standards and the results you expect.
You can show or tell how you did it, but give a clear signal to the person you are delegating that he can do it however he wants, so long as everything is finished according to your assumptions and prepared by the agreed deadline.
Defining your expectations about the end result is a wise approach as it saves you time and anxiety.
You want to use the time you have freed up through delegating to do something more important without continually worrying about the progress of your helper.
Get ready to practice
You will virtually at all times must spend some time teaching your helper or employee how to do the task you give him, even if it is quite easy.
Remember that processes and activities that may appear easy and apparent to you may not be so easy to someone who has never dealt with them before.
Prepare yourself not only for brief training on how to complete the tasks you are given, but also for patiently answering any questions you may have.
Treat the time you spend on training as a long-term investment that will pay off.
Spending time, in the start, teaching your helper how to do the job properly, you save time in the future that would otherwise be spent correcting her possible mistakes.
Provide the resources needed to complete the task
You may have the resources needed to complete the task, but the person assigned the task may not have access to those resources.
Things like password protected data, IT system privileges, special equipment and a few tools may be required to complete the task, so ensure your helpers or employees have everything they need to succeed.
Understand that your helper can only do one thing at a time
When your maid is helping you, she is not doing her routine duties.
Don’t forget that, like you, your helper most likely has a busy schedule. Ask yourself – what work should he put off or, like you, delegate someone to do your job for?
Make sure you know the answer to this question when delegating tasks to someone. This is particularly important when you’re a manager, and you are delegating other tasks to an employee.
Sometimes it is important to redefine priorities so employees know what needs to be done first, which work is more important and which can wait.
Be patient
The person you delegate, when she or he is learning how to do a new task, can make mistakes. This is part of the learning process.
Consider this and plan. Don’t delegate tasks assuming that the person will do it right if they have not done it before.
If the result is not what you expected because your assistant could not complete the new task you gave him, it is your fault, not his.
Support your helpers. Delegating work can be a terrific learning experience for him.
When you train someone to do something, you are investing. At first, it will slow you down, but as already mentioned, it will increase both your and his productivity in the long run.
Approach delegates with a positive and realistic attitude.
Prepare yourself for possible difficulties.
Have a contingency plan, and be prepared to step in if things do not turn out the way you thought. Be aware of what will occur if the quality of the work is inadequate or the deadline is missed.
Unexpected obstacles and challenges pop up all the time; whether you are at work or at home, technology sometimes fails too.
Let the people you delegate tasks trust in you that if something comes up that wasn’t planned, you will demonstrate your understanding and help them meet their deadlines, and not instantly draw dire consequences from a possible mistake.
By giving the person you delegate a clear signal that they can count on you if something goes wrong, you can potentially save time and stop them from delaying telling you about the situation for fear of punishment.
Appreciate your helpers for the result
Delegating tasks to others is important if you want to take on more responsibility. Especially if you’re a manager and team leader, you must delegate tasks effectively.
However, if you have delegated a task to someone and that person has worked hard and achieved the desired results, do not take all the credit.
This is bound to hurt morale, commitment and willingness to help in the future. Appreciate good work (1) and praise the efforts of others.
Make sure that every time you get credit for work someone else has done, you name your helper, highlighting her contribution to the result, so that some of the credit goes to her too.
Remember to say, “Thank you.”
When someone does something for you, it is vital to thank them, confirm the legitimacy of their help and let the person who helped you know that they’re appreciated. Otherwise, you may come across as ungrateful, even although you aren’t.
Remember that people cannot read your mind. People offer help more often when they feel valued.
Simple, heartfelt thanks, like: “I couldn’t have done it without you!” or simply “Thanks for your help”. can do quite a lot of work.
If the work you do for you is actually good, you can think of other ways to say thank you, such as having lunch together, movie tickets, or a small gift.
How does the delegation conversation look like in a business environment?
How to formulate goals and tasks in such a way that subordinates can fully understand and read them? How to do a seconding interview in a business environment?
The guidelines outlined above will absolutely help you delegate effectively, but you can even use the delegating interview structure below.
This works particularly well in professional and business settings in a boss-employee relationship.
1. Background
Describe your current situation. Describe what happened, what will affect the work of your subordinates.
2. Set goals and set tasks
Determine the task that will be the solution to the situation. Remember that goals must meet SMART criteria.
Setting achievable goals is half the success. Useful SMART targets not only tell you where you are going, they define what it takes to get there.
Setting goals:
– Specific (concrete)
– Scalable
– Actionable (allows decisions or actions to be taken or acted upon)
– Relevant
– Time-bound (according to needs and expectations, and determined in time).
3. State the benefits
Determine what the person receiving the assignment will must do with the assignment. Address the critical needs of your subordinates.
4. Determine or work out the details of the task
What concrete actions must be taken? Show or discuss how to complete the task.
What will be the precedence? What should occur as a result, and how will this be measured? In connection with the entire task and its stages.
5. Create a contract and determine the next steps
What will you particularly appreciate about this assignment? What will you not tolerate?
Agree on a schedule with your subordinates: What are you going to do? In what situations can subordinates use your help? What should the maid do instantly after the conversation? Summarize in a few points and check if you see an analogous situation.
Delegating tasks is an art (2) that should be mastered by anyone who wants to be more productive and manage their time better.
Without the ability to delegate, it will even be difficult to lead a team or run your own business effectively. If you do not use delegation regularly, start doing it.
See how much it benefits you. Good luck on delegating!
I want to thank you for taking the time to read my article on how to delegate tasks effectively. I actually hope that its content has been of good help to you.
