Why You Should Delegate

Domain: Managing others - Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

We've previously addressed popular excuses that people use to avoid delegating tasks. Today, we'll shift our focus towards the benefits of delegating.

While most people agree delegation is important, many act reluctant to actually do it. I've seen so much reluctance to embrace delegation in professional settings that I've intentionally chosen to cover the topic over the course of multiple newsletters so that recommendations are easier to digest and implement. I've found that this leads to a more successful adoption rate than throwing all the information at leaders all at once.

Effective delegation is a core concept of effective management and leadership. If done right, it simultaneously allows you to improve your teams efficiency, development and engagement all at once. Here are just some of the benefits you can expect when you embrace the art of delegation…

Efficiency

To put it simply, effective delegation ensures the right activities are being done at the right levels within an organization.

From an economics standpoint, we want to each task to be completed as cost-effectively as possible without suffering long-term quality. If we have a task that we can delegate to our team without suffering long-term quality, it is our obligation to do so.

Notice I specify long-term quality. The people you delegate to will likely not execute the task at the same level you do…at first. However, over time…they will match your quality and quite possibly exceed it.

Innovation

Whenever possible, our recommendation is to delegate the "what" but not the "how". The reason for this is that delegating to others allows that individual to bring their own perspective and abilities to the task. The person you delegate to is going to think differently about the task and bring new ideas and innovations that you hadn't considered. Adding different perspectives and ideas to tasks is a large part of how you achieve a competitive advantage as a team.

Employee development

With the assignment of new responsibilities and tasks comes the opportunity to practice new skills and competencies. These opportunities help to build bench strength within the organization. I'm not just talking about the task itself. The more important development here is the employee's understanding of how to leverage their abilities to address new tasks and challenges.

Eventually, they'll take what they've learned from these new assignments and begin applying them to other aspects of their roles. As you delegate consistently over time, you are expanding the knowledge, skills and capabilities of a broader group of employees.

Long-term, you are able to develop an entire team of individuals who have the self-awareness to understand how to creatively approach a broader range of tasks. This inherently improves the strength of your entire team.

A culture of trust

Our philosophy is that a foundation of trust is one of the most important things a leader can do to drive a healthy workplace culture. Delegating helps here as it demonstrates a certain level of trust in your team. It shows you have faith in their ability to complete tasks that you have historically handled yourself and allows them to put their own spin on how they do that. Allowing people to leverage their own strengths to drive results will pay dividends for you and the team.

Thank you for reading. My hope is always that you've found something helpful and easy to implement.

This week’s action items:

1. Based on the benefits above, ask yourself how your team would most benefit from more consistent and proactive delegation?

2. If you are having doubts, see our guidance on debunking delegation myths.

3. Make a commitment to delegate one of your tasks within the next month. The newsletter topics over the next couple weeks will help you along the way.