ALT-3 The Importance of Learning to Delegate
To be effective as a manager, you must learn to delegate tasks, responsibility, and authority to others. Job security is not based on holding onto every task you have ever been assigned. Delegation has a lot of positive outcomes for a variety of people. Most managers who master the art of delegation wonder why they waited so long to learn the skill.
Delegating tasks to others opens up your time.
Many times managers can be chained to a desk because of long detail-oriented tasks. Superiors can look on this negatively because the manager appears unavailable for assuming new responsibilities. When these tasks are given to others suddenly, time becomes free that can be used to prepare for advancement through learning new skills or taking on more responsibility.
When delegation occurs, you help build a career path within the organization.
Most companies require that employees learn to master certain jobs before they can move on to the next level. When you do not delegate, you are limiting not only your ability to rise, but keep others below you in the corporate system from being able to move ahead. Training and delegation go hand in hand. It is impossible to delegate without training someone to do the job. As a manager, training and delegation associated with it should be a priority.
Delegate to improve your performance.
Because those above you will be delegating their tasks to you, it may not take long until your plate becomes too full. When this occurs, your performance level can drop. You will find yourself putting in long hours without increasing output. It is much easier to assign the jobs to someone else and monitor them than to do them all yourself. In fact, if you can give all of your jobs away, you may see your performance skyrocket as your role becomes more advisory and quality checking than performing the day to day tasks.
Use delegation to test the ability of your employees.
It is always possible that if those who work for you are not challenged, you will never see their potential. Additionally, they will probably not realize it themselves. By delegating, you are giving employees a chance to shine. Make sure that the jobs that you give away are important enough to warrant someone’s best effort. This delegating exercise can reveal hidden talents and skills that you may be able to build upon later some employees follow you up the corporate ladder.
Delegating is a form of team building.
Delegate tasks that fit into the area of strength for the employee as often as you can. By using this approach, you will delegate various tasks not based on who has a free minute, but who can bring the best effort to the job. Eventually, if you choose wisely as you delegate, you will have built a strong team beneath you. Delegation will become easy because each new job to be delegated will start to naturally fit into certain employees areas of concentration.
