Effective time management and productivity are important skills for a leader. In my blog post ‘5 Ways to Increase Your Personal Productivity,’ I introduced you to some techniques to help you improve your productivity. The reality is though that even with increased productivity levels sometimes the work or tasks are just too much for you to handle by yourself.
Another important skill for a leader is effective delegation, and probably one of the most overlooked or underutilized skills. As I have mentioned in my blog post ‘Trust-The Core of Leadership,’ trust is at the center of everything we do as leaders. If you have not built the trust with your team and have solid relationships, you will not be able to delegate effectively.
Proper delegation is a skill and it requires you to be in the right mindset. You don’t want to have a scowl on your face, arms crossed or pointing your finger barking, “You will do this.” You need to be positive and honest, and explain the “why” something needs to get done.
There are seven key steps to effective delegation, and you need to complete every step to get to the result you need.
- Set clear expectations: This is where a lot of leaders fail actually so their delegation method starts off doomed. You can’t expect the employee to perform how you want unless they are crystal clear on what you need. You need to clearly tell them the objective, target and/or expected outcome.
- Confirm understanding: You have communicated your expectation as specific as possible and now you need to utilize your active listening skills, and have them summarize back what you said. This will ensure they understood and confirm alignment to the end goal. Avoid putting someone in defensive mode or feeling you are talking down to them by saying something like, “Do you understand?” Try taking this approach instead, “I want to make sure I explained this in a way that made sense so could you please tell me what I asked of you?”
- Establish a deadline: This may be driven by the urgency of the project or it could be negotiable. Deadlines are important to set because they will establish accountability to the employee. When possible, ask them for the deadline they can commit to because this will increase their buy-in. If there is disagreement between what you thought and what you need, then you can talk it through and negotiate a deadline that works for both. If their deadline seems unreasonable, it is worth exploring and not just telling them no. There could be some barriers or lack of resources they will face, and may need your help in dealing with them.
- Let go: This may be a really hard one for some of us to do, but you need to let them own it and that means letting them try it their way. They could possibly have a better approach, process or just different thoughts than you that could end up being very successful.
- Inspect what you expect: The task’s importance and timeline will dictate how often and how detailed this step is, but it is necessary. You don’t want them to feel you don’t trust them, but you also want them to be successful at completing the project or task the right way and on time. You inspect not because you want to come down on them, but because you care.
- Debrief (also referred to as a post-mortem): Whether the project or task was completed successfully or not, you should have a debrief meeting. This will allow for reflection and growth as you explore what went well, what didn’t go well and what could be done better or different next time.
- Give credit: You should always give credit where credit is due. This seems simple enough, but it is pretty amazing the number of times I hear someone trying to take credit for something they didn’t do. This will build your employee’s confidence and engagement levels which will benefit both you and the employee.
Proper delegation is a key time management skill that will allow you to be more effective while also helping your employees to develop and grow. And as with any skill, you must practice it to become good at it.
The key point to effective delegation is you must do all seven steps every time.
Be Great…Today!!!
Brandon Brazeel, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
