Leading any group – no matter the business sector – is hard work. When managing the complexities of a large company, HR directors, sales directors, and other leaders quickly discover that it’s too much to take every task on your own shoulders.

As a leader or manager, you need to not only to be available for the most important tasks of running your team but also have the time required to learn new things and take on emerging opportunities.

If you want to be an effective leader, then learn how to let go of certain parts of your daily tasks and delegate more.

Not only will delegation help you to free up the time you need to pursue success in your industry, but it will also empower your team-members to develop new talents and skills that could be essential to your future.

Why We Struggle with Delegation

If delegation is such an obvious answer to our problems, why do managers and business leaders struggle to let go of the tasks that are taking up their valuable time?

Delegation motivates employees and streamlines business practices, but we convince ourselves that it’s quicker to do something ourselves, or that no-one will do the task with the same level of skill.

As a team leader, however, it’s your responsibility to put your concerns aside and invest in the abilities of your team. If you don’t believe that your employees can accomplish the task at hand, then they’re unlikely to believe in their own abilities.

Delegation Saves Time

Why is delegation so important in the first place?

There are many different benefits to delegation, but perhaps the most obvious are that it saves you crucial time that can be spent in a different way that will add even more value to the organisation; do you really need to re write the emails that are going out? Or review the assessment center timings?

Dividing out your tasks among other people simply helps open the time you need for leadership training sessions, new opportunities, and new solutions that will contribute to your organisation’s growth.

Many leaders make the mistake of attempting to accomplish everything themselves, however, this rarely works out well. The truth is that running a business requires a devotion to many evolving tasks and moving parts that’s too much for any one person to deal with; no matter how skilled they are.

If you want your company to thrive, then empower your employees to create a high performing team.

Choosing the Right People to Delegate to

Delegation works best when you have a strategy in place and know how to delegate to the right person.

Choosing a person to delegate to means understanding the abilities of your team members, and selecting individuals who are equipped to support you in your role. When hiring, the chances are that you looked for specific skillsets, or you asked your recruitment agency to track down certain characteristics on your behalf.

Choosing the right staff gives you an opportunity to empower your team. After all, the best CEOs and leaders work alongside their employees and will find multiple ways to motivate them with task delegation. It is a well-documented fact that employees that work at a company with no potential for growth are often unmotivated and unengaged.

Remember that Delegation is Versatile

Finally, remember that delegating tasks isn’t only a solution that’s limited to your direct reports. If you want to be a successful leader, you’ll need to learn how to delegate tasks to your peers too.

A good leader understands when tasks need to be shared out amongst the team, as well as external teams in your organisation. Remember, initially you will need to check in on a team member’s progress after you have delegated a task to them, but it’s important to know the difference between offering support and micro-managing. While support can be greatly appreciated, micro-management can lead to problems with motivation and self-belief.

The Importance of Delegation

Delegating the right tasks could save your organisation money, time, and give you new opportunities to create revenue as you focus directly on strategic tasks that will add more revenue to your organisation’s profit.

However, it’s important to remember that successful delegation is about much more than simply assigning tasks. It takes the time to be successful at delegation, and ultimately build a staff of supporting team members that you can rely on.

Effective delegation skills are one of the elements that we teach within our bespoke management and leadership courses at Excel Communications. To learn more, contact us here, or call us on +44 (0) 1628 488 854.