Even though knowing how to delegate effectively comes with time and is not as seamless as it may seem, it can be learned. Just like with any other skill, the more you practice, the easier it will be.

In order to help you start delegating tasks effectively, I’ve created this article where you’ll be able to learn what delegation is, which tasks can be delegated and how to delegate tasks effectively. 

So, let’s dig in.

What Does Delegating Tasks Mean?

Delegating tasks just means transferring an assignment to another person in your team. In other words, it means assigning tasks to your team members.

Now, many people see delegation as passing tasks onto other people, but delegation is far from that. It is a technique that leads to growth, productivity and efficiency of everyone involved.

Why is Delegating Tasks Important?

In addition to decreasing your workload, which is the most obvious and commonly thought of advantage of delegation, there are several additional benefits of delegating tasks which are much more valuable.

Assigning tasks to your team members keeps them engaged at work. In addition to that, it is a good way for them to learn new skills or further develop some existing ones. Finally, when you assign tasks to team members, you’re indirectly telling them that you trust them to do the work, which can be empowering and motivating for some people.

According to a Gallup study, CEOs who excel in delegating generate 33 percent higher revenue. These executives know they can’t accomplish everything alone and position their team to tackle tasks they’re confident they’ll achieve—in turn empowering employees, boosting morale, and increasing productivity.

Lauren Landry

In addition to the benefits that your team members enjoy, delegating tasks can be very beneficial to managers as well. First of all, when you delegate tasks, you’re freeing up your time to focus on the tasks where you can offer the most value. What is more, it allows you to learn new skills and grow as well, thus helping your team move forward and deliver better results.

How to Decide Which Tasks to Delegate?

It goes without saying that not all tasks can or should be delegated. Nevertheless, a great number of them can be passed on to other people. There are several reasons managers tend to avoid delegating, some of them being fear of letting go, thinking they can do it better or just not wanting to seem lazy because they keep passing tasks to other people. But, isn’t assigning tasks what managers do anyway (at least one aspect of their job)?! 

According to the career and business strategist Jenny Blake, you should conduct an audit of your tasks using the six T’s to determine which tasks you can delegate. Here’s what the T’s stand for.

• Tiny: Small tasks that are easy to do but add up with time, such as registering for a conference, scheduling a meeting, etc.

• Tiny: Small tasks that are easy to do but add up with time, such as registering for a conference, scheduling a meeting, etc.
• Tedious: Tasks that are quite straightforward, need to be done manually, are repetitive, etc. can and should be delegated.
• Time-consuming: Tasks that, although they may be important and even somewhat complex, are time-consuming and do not require you to do the initial 80% of research. You can easily step in when the task is 80% complete and give approval, oversight and/or direction on next steps.
• Teachable: Tasks that can be taught – even though it may take more time for you to teach them, in the long run, you should be delegating those and providing enough resources for your team members to learn and execute them.
• Terrible at: No one knows it all. If there’s something you’re not good at, you should delegate those tasks to someone with skills to perform the task at hand.
• Time-sensitive: Tasks that are time-sensitive but compete with other priority tasks. Since you can’t duplicate yourself, you should delegate these tasks to others so that they can be done in parallel. You can always check the outcome and give feedback.

All the task types listed above can and should be delegated. So, take a moment to go through your tasks and do the audit. You’d be surprised at how much time you’ll have left to devote to other important tasks where you, and as a result of it, your team and/or project, will thrive. 

How to Delegate Tasks Effectively?

There are several steps you need to take in order to delegate tasks effectively. Please, keep in mind that this is not an extensive list of steps, but it offers a good starting point. 

Step 1 – Decide on the Tasks to Delegate

You can use Jenny’s six T’s process to decide on which tasks can be delegated. If you think that the audit is too much work for you, just take a look at your tasks and start with those you do on a regular basis but don’t really have to because they’re not a good use of your time or don’t provide any value for your growth and development.

Step 2 – Choose the Right Person for the Task

Think about your team members’ strengths and weaknesses and match tasks to their strengths. Nonetheless, there will be times when you’ll want to assign a task to a team member even though it’s not his or her strength at use if and only if the person will be able to learn and grow from the experience. So, be cautious when you do it, but don’t hesitate to try it because challenges help people grow.

Step 3 – Provide Clear Instructions and Deliverables

This one is quite straightforward, but make sure to provide as much detail as possible when you delegate tasks. Make sure to write down your expectations and deliverables so that the person knows when s/he has completed the task. 

A word of caution here: do not assume anything! You may think that some information goes without saying but there is no such thing when it comes to delegating tasks efficiently. So, write down anything and everything that comes to your mind and is related to the task.

Step 4 – Provide Learning Resources

If the task requires a team member to learn new skills, make sure to provide enough resources for the team member to be able to learn the task. If you’re the one who’s teaching the task, then make sure to set time aside for teaching and be available for questions.

Step 5 – Give and Ask for Constructive Feedback

Even though you’re not doing the task, you’ll probably have to approve the final version. So, allow yourself time to go over the task and provide constructive feedback. That doesn’t mean fixing everything you feel is wrong or not how you’d like it to be but it does mean explaining what’s good and what needs improvement and why.

On the other hand, seek feedback from your team members in order to improve your delegation skills. Ask them to provide details and reasoning in order for you to understand feedback correctly and act upon it when needed.

Step 6 – Give Credit Where Credit is Due

The more you thank and credit those you’ve delegated work to, the more likely it is they will want to help you on other projects in the future.

Lauren Landry

After you’ve delegated the task and it’s been completed, credit accordingly. Make sure that people know their help is appreciated and they’ve done a good job. Praise goes far and wide and can do wonders for productivity and motivation of your team.

Keep Learning and Growing

As I said at the beginning, the more you practice delegating tasks, the easier it will be. Learning how to delegate effectively will help you not only become a better manager, but also channel your growth in the right direction creating a thriving culture at work for everyone.

Feature image credits: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The post How to Delegate Tasks Effectively & Why It Matters? appeared first on Snowation.

Sadly, there are many people going to work not feeling up to it, but doing it just because they have to make money somehow. Well, to all leads, supervisors and managers out there, I say, “It’s high time we started helping those people feel appreciated“. If you’re one of those already doing it, kudos to you. Just keep up the good work.

Making people feel appreciated is really not a rocket science. In fact, it’s very simple and it takes very little time, but it does require attention and, more than anything else, willingness to do it. In this article, I’ve listed 5 ways I’ve been using as a manager to motivate my team and make them feel appreciated at work.

1. ASK FOR THEIR OPINION

There is a reason you have a team. If you could do it all by yourself, then you wouldn’t need a team, right?! So, if you’ve got a team, make sure to ask them for their opinion on topics and issues at hand. Each of your team members is good at something so why not use that expertise when it’s within your reach (sometimes, literally)?

I know it’s hard to let go and sometimes it’s even easier to do something on your own, but remember that you don’t have to do it that way. In addition to that, asking for someone else’s opinion may result in generating great ideas you wouldn’t think of on your own.

By showing interest in the knowledge and ideas of your team and coworkers, you are showing them that they are valued and appreciated and they will, in return, value you more for it.

2. HEAR THEM OUT

Being interrupted as you speak is so annoying, not to mention rude. Yes, I know some people like to talk more than you have the time to listen to, but let them talk. You can always have a 1-on-1 talk with that person later and explain that s/he needs to be a bit more concise the next time.

Not letting people complete their thought or speak up when they have something to share says that you don’t really care about their opinion, which is not a culture you want to create in your company and/or team. Even if you’re not doing it intentionally, make sure to work on your reactions and change them accordingly because you’ll end up working with people who have nothing to say and that usually means that they’ve stopped trying.

3. TRUST THEIR JUDGEMENT

This is especially important for senior people on your team. Once you’ve been working with someone for quite some time, you’re most definitely at a point where you know what he or she can and cannot do. If that’s the case, then just let them do their job and make sure to check in on them from time to time. Trust them that they know what they’re doing.

It takes time to reach this stage, but I always enjoy it very much. I try really hard to train every person I work with to be responsible and accountable for their work. That way, when they want to do something, they know I trust them to go ahead and get the job done. There are many ways to do it, but my favorite one is definitely through questions.

If you’re often giving advice or telling people how to do something, you could be diminishing their sense of autonomy. But if you are asking questions designed to guide them to finding their own solutions, then you are leaving them in control. – David Burkus

It’s worked for me every single time. You just need to learn how to ask the right questions and guide people accordingly.

4. RECOGNIZE THEIR SUCCESS

People love praise. Hearing a “well done”, “you’ve done a great job”, “that was so good, you did great” makes us feel good about the work we do, the place where we work and about ourselves.

Sometimes, we get so focused on the progress that we forget that it is people who are the ones responsible for that progress. Don’t be shy when it comes to praise. It’s such a small gesture but it means so much to the other person.

5. REMEMBER THE DETAILS

As a team leader, it is your job to care for the people you work with. Sometimes, that means asking about their day, their family or anything else along those lines. Yes, I know that life is busy and it’s hard to keep up with everything, but when at work, be at work.

You’d be surprised by how much it means to people when their team leader asks about a kid’s play or that doctor’s appointment, or getting that car fixed. It’s minute, I know, and not so relevant in the grand scheme of things, but when it comes to your relationship with the team, it can mean the world on some days. So, whenever you can, try to remember those details. Your team will greatly appreciate you as their leader for it.

Well, there you go. As I said, it’s pretty simple but it does require effort and some will on your part. It really is up to you as a leader to decide whether you want to do it or not, but really, I don’t see the harm in it whereas the benefits are massive, wouldn’t you agree?

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to read them.

Until the next article, keep learning and growing.

Sneza

The post 5 Ways to Make People Feel Appreciated at Work appeared first on Snowation.

Every good leader is part manager and every good manager is part leader. – Condoleezza Rice

This quote is exactly how I feel about leaders and managers. Even though leaders and managers may have a different set of skills, I think that the only way to succeed as a manager is to both lead and manage people and projects. As Marcus Buckingham says:

Great managers know and value the unique abilities and even the eccentricities of their employees, and they learn how best to integrate them into a coordinated plan of attack.

So, here’s a list of qualities I find important in a good manager.

Being Transparent

People tend to assume a lot, which most of the time leads to miscommunication. As a manager, it is your job to make things as clear as possible. Avoid long digressions, try to be as organized as possible when you speak, and make sure to always ask at the end if there are any questions. It often takes time for people to process new information so make sure to encourage them to contact or approach you later if they have nothing to ask at the moment.

Whenever possible, share as much information as possible. Giving your team additional information can help them understand the task or the problem better. Don’t assume someone else will inform them about the issue at hand. It is better to repeat the info than not share it at all. Sharing is caring and the same goes for knowledge and information when it comes to teamwork.

BEING A GOOD LISTENER

Listening well is more than a matter of talking less. – Adam Grant

In his article for Ideas Ted, Adam Grant talks about the art of listening. He says that good listening starts with showing more interest in other people’s interests rather than just waiting on your turn to share your own opinion or prove the other person wrong.

Good managers seek their team’s opinion, especially when the team members have more knowledge on the matter at hand. Even if that’s not the case, you should hear your team out. After all, you are collaborating on a project and the more you invite them to share, the more invested they will be in the project because they will feel they are being heard.

Being a good listener is hard, but it’s an acquired skill. According to Adam Grant, 94% of managers who evaluated themselves as good listeners had been rated as the worst listeners by their employees. So, next time you are anxious to share, take a deep breath and actually try to listen first.

KNOWING HOW TO DELEGATE

More often than not, managers are good problem solvers. They have been working hard to get to the position of a manager and once they are there, they just keep going in the same rhythm. However, once you start being responsible for more people and more projects, following the same pace you had while you were climbing up the ladder is just not doable. The sooner you learn to delegate, the better. Simply put, you’ll be able to do your job better if you know how to delegate.

Knowing how to delegate not only helps you do your job better but it also helps you team. As Amanda Miller states in her article on management, “When a leader swoops in to fix every problem, they’re robbing the members of their team of the chance to learn and grow.” If you’re micromanaging, you’re not allowing your team to improve, make mistakes and learn from them. According to Amanda, you can learn to delegate by giving up some old duties and doing it openly because only when you are completely explicit will the people be encouraged to take action.

Finally, delegating tasks to your team builds trust and the team feels more motivated to do better because they know you depend on them to get the job done.

ASKING FOR FEEDBACK

This is one of the most important things for me as a manager. I tend to seek feedback whenever possible because it is the one safe way to know what you are doing well and what you need to improve. By encouraging the culture of feedback, you are letting your team know that you care about their opinion of you as their manager and that you are willing to learn and grow with their help.

By empowering your subordinates with specific requests, you’ll not only get their honest feedback but you’ll also show that you want to break your bad habits and welcome their assistance to do so. – Amanda Miller

The sooner you start asking for feedback in your career, the better. People are more willing to give you feedback early in your career, when you are not their superior. If you start early enough, you can build a reputation of a person who is genuinely interested in getting feedback and that can be very helpful later on.

As I said before, these are just some of many qualities a good manager should have, but the qualities listed here are the ones that matter the most to me. How about you? What qualities are you looking for in a manager? Which ones matter to you?

Let me know your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.

Keep learning and growing.

Sneza

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The post 4 Qualities a Good Manager Should Have appeared first on Snowation.