I can sympathise with the view that if you want a job done properly then you should do it yourself. It can be hard to let go and trust someone else with something that others may judge you upon. Another school of thought says that if you have a dog you don't bark yourself. You wouldn't send your team to the pub and work long into the night just to do everything yourself. So should you do it all yourself or should you give all the work to someone else? Neither! You should learn to properly delegate which is a happy compromise (and our instructors with experience training soft skill courses are here to help with that!). It is impossible to do everything yourself and you may not have the skill set necessary to do so. It is therefore practical to balance your time and workload by finding people to help you. Use well trained, competent staff who can be trusted with tasks. Let them show you how well they can handle things while at the same time keeping some appropriate tasks for yourself and assuming a guidance and overseer role.

Delegating does not mean getting everyone else to do the work while you simply relax and drink coffee. This will only cause resentment among the team and reduce productivity. Instead it means assessing what tasks must be performed, who is best qualified to perform them and what are the realistic time scales involved. As the person who delegates these roles you must continue to manage your team with regular meetings and updates. You must trust your employees to perform the requested tasks. Micro managing will cause resentment since it will appear that you do not trust your employees. Instead, request a simple update email each day or week (as appropriate) which contains a progress report so issues can be addressed as they come up. This should include any problems or likely disruption to the timescales and deadlines.

The first step in successful delegation is to have a group meeting with everyone involved in a particular task set. The purpose of the meeting is to decide exactly what needs to be done to complete a task and who will do what. You must decide what to delegate. Delegating absolutely everything is not effective. Ensure that your employees hear about the tasks you intend not to delegate and complete yourself. Do not overload your workforce with tasks, while seeming to keep less yourself. This will show your staff that your work ethic is fair and you respect them as employees. You will be clear about what you expect them to achieve, while being realistic in those expectations. You must be clear about the tasks you are giving them. Leave no room for interpretation and ensure that they understand the task fully. Encourage them to ask questions and be polite, concise and unambiguous in your response.

Feedback is important part of the process in both directions. They must give feedback to you if they need further training etc or new procedures in order to complete a task. You must give feedback to your staff detailing the positives first along with any constructive criticism. Do not be negative. If your employee had difficulty with a task find out why and attempt to rectify the situation with practical solutions. Was their workload too high? Did they need further training to complete a task? Was the task more complicated than initially thought in which case more analysis of tasks will be necessary in the future? Unless an employee is coming in late, leaving early and smelling of alcohol all day you can be sure that they want to achieve success in their work! Help them do so and do not single them out for blame when things go wrong as they inevitably will at some point. This means that when you next delegate a task to them they will not be afraid to perform it and will feel they have your support. Happy employees tend to work harder!

There is no point delegating tasks to employees who do not have the skill set to perform them. If you want an employee to complete tasks outside their skill set then ensure that they receive appropriate training and get help and supervision while performing the task. Therefore when choosing the appropriate person to delegate to, assess both skill set and workload and priority of workload.

Delegating successfully should allow a task to be completed easily, using resources appropriately and effectively. Delegating a task does not mean delegating the responsibility for it. Ultimately the manager is still responsible for the tasks, but the completion of the task or parts of it are delegated to his employees. It is important to retain control and ultimate authority. It therefore does not mean a manager relinquishes his control over the tasks.

While you retain control you do need to give employees the authority to complete them. If you want them to do something, they must have the authority to do it. Other staff members must understand that they have the authority to complete the task or they may offer resistance for various reasons. I once worked for a company as a report writer. One of the tasks the manager had delegated to me was the collection of various reports so they could be checked and branded etc. One employee resisted all my diplomatic attempts to get the reports until I had the manager confirm via email the task, the reasons for the task and my authority to complete it. Once this was established the employee in question had no choice but to comply.

There is no doubt that in a modern workplace delegating is a necessary tool to get the work done. It is important to fully understand the importance of delegation and the method of delegation to maximise the productivity of your team. Most managers, team leaders and project managers would benefit from a training course in delegation to understand the process thoroughly.