Increasing productivity at work is a primary concern for team leaders and managers alike. Luckily, one way to deal with this is to start delegating tasks to employees. However, there is a huge difference between simply assigning tasks to employees and effectively delegating work to particular employees.
To give you a better idea of what effective task delegation is, let’s go through the basic principles of delegating. Aside from that, we’ll also offer some helpful tips on how to delegate tasks properly.
What Is Effective Task Delegation?
Delegating tasks to employees effectively can be challenging, especially if you have no idea of what you’re supposed to do. Effective task delegation is more than just giving out instructions and work to employees. Instead, it aims to maximize efficiency by leveraging the particular knowledge, experience, and skills of specific employees.
But how does this work?
The delegation process consists of several steps. Each of these aims to identify444 the right task, employee, and circumstance for delegating to ensure productivity, efficiency, and quality. Thus, effective task delegation is a complex and tedious process that requires careful consideration and meticulous planning.
3 Basic Principles of Task Delegation
Task delegation follows three basic principles to ensure that work is delegated effectively. Here’s a quick overview to give you an idea.
The Right Task
Identifying the right task to delegate to an employee is an essential part of effective task delegation. Before anything, team leaders need to understand that not all jobs can be delegated to a team member.
Ideally, managerial responsibilities should not be delegated to subordinates. Highly technical or specialized jobs aren’t also simply assigned to just any employee. Aside from that, tasks that involve confidential or sensitive information about other employees or the organization should remain the team leader’s responsibility.
However, that does not mean that team leaders can no longer delegate important tasks. Instead, they just have to be careful in choosing the right task to delegate to their employees.
To do this, here are some factors that they can consider.
Recurring work
One of the best tasks to delegate to an employee is the type of job that recur in the future. The repetitive nature of this task allows employees to be more effective and efficient with it in the long run.
Tasks that align with an employee’s interest
An effective way to increase a team member’s productivity and efficiency is to ask them to work on something that they genuinely like and enjoy. However, another way to look at it is if a particular employee has expressed their interest in learning more about that specific task. Their dedication to learning and developing their skills can make them the best person for the job.
Time-consuming tasks
One of the objectives of task delegation is for team leaders and managers to save time. Considering this, one of the primary tasks that they can delegate is those that take up much of their valuable time. This includes the like of data entry, database management, scheduling, and other administrative tasks.
The Right Person
Aside from choosing the right task to delegate, it is also equally critical to identify the right person for the job. However, the right person is not just who is available but is more focused on
who is capable based on their knowledge, skills, and experience.
More than that, it is also important to consider the person’s character and personality to see if they can handle the responsibility and accountability of working on important tasks. This is to take into account some circumstances that the right person for the job based on skill is not ready to take on the stress and pressure and, thus, wouldn’t be able to perform at their best.
The Right Time
Lastly, it is a critical part of effective task delegation to consider external forces and circumstances surrounding the workplace and work environment. Before delegating work to an employee, see if their workload is manageable enough to handle additional tasks. Look into current organizational matters and check if there is any problem or issue that you need to solve before assigning responsibility to an employee.
Practical Tips On Task Delegation
Now that you have a better understanding of what effective task delegation is, here are some tips that can help you delegate work better as well as develop your delegation skills.
Establish the expected outcomes
One of the first things that good leaders need to do when giving out an assigned task to an employee is to set the expectations for the job. During the delegation process, team leaders need to take time to explain what the task is and establish what the expected results or outcomes are.
More than just introducing their tasks and how it’s done, leaders should also share the purpose, objective, or goal of the project. Doing this provides employees with a clear understanding of their roles and how they can perform to meet the expected outcomes.
Give a deadline
Deadlines are meant to keep work within an ideal timeline. When employees work on a task, having a deadline in place helps them ensure that they consistently progress to finish their job within the set time limit.
Not only that, but deadlines also help ensure efficiency and productivity. Having a set date to finish tasks can highly motivate employees to continue working at a steady and sustainable pace.
Give time for them to adjust
Leaders should not expect their team members to perform at their best once delegated a task instantly. Some employees may need time to settle down and adjust to the demands of their new role. Considering this, it is essential for team leaders to be patient and give their employees some time to adjust accordingly.
Ideally, leaders or managers should be actively involved during this adjustment period. They should be able to give their team member the guidance that they would need to get up to pace and only step back when their employees feel confident and capable enough to handle things on their own.
Acknowledge their work and effort
Task delegation can bring a ton of benefits for the team leader and the team as a whole. Leaders would enjoy a lighter workload and also save time to focus on more important tasks at hand. At the same time, employees would have the opportunity to work on things they are interested in, showcase their talents, and develop their skills.
It is important to emphasize that effective task delegation can significantly increase productivity and even boost employee motivation. Evidence of good leadership is giving credit to and when it is due. Acknowledging your employees’ work and effort can bring a high level of satisfaction and further encourage them to work at their best.
Bottomline
Delegating tasks to employees can greatly benefit leaders. It lightens their workload and gives them more time to focus on their managerial and leadership responsibilities. However, it is critical for them to learn how to delegate tasks properly and effectively. Without the right delegation process, employees assigned a task haphazardly can struggle so much and lead to inefficiency and decreased productivity.
Good leaders develop their delegation skills and learn how to delegate effectively before assigning responsibilities to team members. With this, they can ensure that everyone is ready and prepared to take on added work and continuously perform at their best.
Want to know more about tips on delegating tasks to employees? Sidekicks is an on-demand virtual company, and we’re eager to help visionaries and entrepreneurs like you. Get a free ebook and learn more about how we can help you by signing up for our newsletter. We also offer a free 30-minute consultation if you prefer something more personal.
