Learn how to delegate tasks and responsibilities effectively and get high performance from your team, while optimizing your time utilization at work. New managers must watch this video right now. This video goes over the process of delegation using a step by step approach to ensure it is practical enough to be applied today at your workplace.
Hello and welcome to my video on effective delegation my name is Edward Shehab and in this video i’m going to discuss how to clearly identify how delegation fits into your job and how it can make you more successful we’ll also discuss how to identify different ways of delegating tasks use an eight step process for effective delegation be able to give better instructions for better delegation results and recognize some common delegation pitfalls and how to avoid them as well as how to monitor delegation results you may know that effective delegation is probably one of the most valuable skills you can master it reduces your workload it develops employee skills delegating prepares employees who work for you to be able to handle your responsibilities and simultaneously allows you to advance to other career opportunities within your organization delegation itself is often one of the hardest skills for a manager to master however the skill can be learned have you ever looked at the final product of a task that you assigned someone else to do and realize you didn’t get what you wanted and that you’re gonna have to redo it yourself initially it may seem like the person who was assigned the task has failed but that’s not really the case as you know more about delegation you start to realize it was you the delegator who failed let’s start with why you should delegate and to do so let’s discuss the advantages and disadvantages of delegation some of the advantage that you would get when you delegate is that it allows you as a manager to achieve more people are doing some of your work that means you can have more time for managerial duties it increases your own promotion potential as you are getting more work done develops the skill of your team members gets them more involved gets better output out of the whole team gets faster and more effective decisions and increases flexibility of operations there are disadvantages to delegation or reasons why you wouldn’t want to delegate or you may not feel comfortable in delegation number one you’re not sure enough of your position and you feel like this is going to diminish your authority you’re afraid of the risk involved if you have somebody else do the task you don’t want to seem bossy or you’re afraid others may do this job better therefore take your position later on sometimes you’re worried that it takes too much time when somebody else does it maybe they’re not as experienced or skilled or you feel that maybe you’re losing control when somebody else is doing the work Oh worse you feel that you can always do it better so what do you think delegation is it’s delegation to assign someone the work that you don’t want to do is the delegation to assign work to someone when you’re busy and then go and reclaim that again when you have more time the common definition of delegation is to entrust power and authority to a person acting as your representative now that seems a little bit abstract but it really captures the meaning well another way to define delegation is getting your work done through other people it’s more than simply assigning work delegation involves making an investment in a person for the future and helping them to increase their own skills there’s four basic steps to the delegation first you prepare the delegate you delegate the task to the team members you monitor the delegated work and then you evaluate the delegation part of preparing to delegate is deciding what tasks you can or can’t delegate tasks and generally be placed in one of five categories there are things that you must do that’s one there are things you should do but someone else could help you there are things you could do but others could do it if given an opportunity there are things that others should do but you can help out in any emergency and there are things that others must do now a delegation doesn’t have to be all or nothing in fact you should consider what level a delegation is appropriate for the task or the employee or the situation there are five levels you may want to consider if and and these are going to go from a low level of Independence by the employee all the way to a very high level of Independence meaning they can do a lot on their own so starting from the low level of Independence you could start with performing the task exactly as instructed with no independence from their sides as an example you give them a report template the data that goes along with it and you give them a similar report and then you ask them to complete the report and submit it to you by a certain date the second level of delegation is to allow the employee to do some research if necessary and then give you the options for the tasks you make the decision in the employee completes the task according to your instruction in this case the employee will probably research different formats give you different options they could even draft a list of items that they want to include in a report then you will outline the format and contents for them they will complete the report and submit it by a certain date the third level of delegation is similar to the second except that an employee makes a recommendation they don’t just give you all for you to decide they make a recommendation and a format and even possibly prepare an outline all you have to do is approve it and ask the employee to complete and submit the report the fourth level of delegation is where the independence really comes into play this is the level that you’ll use most often once team members get up to speed when our report example that I’m talking about you’d simply ask the employee to complete the report and submit it by certain date they they may use the existing procedures a template but the bulk of decisions are up to them you would then review the report approve it and send it to the executive team the fifth and Phi is level of delegation gives the employee complete freedom but our report example that we were discussing you’d ask the employee to complete the report and submit it directly to the executive team you may ask the employee to send you a copy of the report but you would not have any active role in it here’s some guidelines for success in delegation the question that people have most of the time is when should I delegate some of my work well the answer would be after you’ve been on the job long enough to understand what it entails when you’ve completed a skills abilities and interest inventory of your team members formally informally and you know what they can or can’t do when you understand the value of delegating so these will be times when you should delegate some of the work another question that people have is what are some of the ways to prepare for delegation well draw up a list of the current job responsibilities that you would leave behind if you were to suddenly leave your job or maybe have to leave on an emergency list the team members qualified to take over each of these responsibilities if there is no one to take over responsibilities leave a blank space that’s fine when the list is complete and of the blank spaces to see what kind of appointment you would leave if you were suddenly out of the picture is it gonna be all empty are people gonna be ready are you satisfied with the results what tasks should you delegate tasks that can be handled adequately by your team members tasks for which team members have all the information for decision making tasks that don’t require skills unique to you or your position tasks for which an individual other than you can have direct control over the task tasks or projects that will contribute to growth and development of the individual who is gonna carry out the assignment what tasks should you not delegate and hit these you gotta pay you gotta pay attention to these the delegation process itself cannot be delegated any work to be delegated should be delegated and explained by you don’t assign it’s somebody else to do performance evaluations and disciplinary actions these are magic managerial responsibilities and should not be delegated coaching counseling and morale problems should be handled by you planning and forecasting you know some of the detail work can be done by others such as calculations and research however you alone in a position to decide how departmental goals fit in with the overall organization’s goals confidential tasks obviously that have been specifically assigned to you by your manager should never be delegated and complex situations don’t ask people to do what you cannot understand yourself how do you know whether you’re delegating well or not here’s some guidelines if you’re delegating well you are satisfied with the way staff members complete the work assignments and team members feel committed and involved and morale is high if you’re not delegating well you may see these symptoms you’re too busy with work and under constant pressure you’re spending too much time on organizational details team members leave because they don’t feel challenged or that they’re learning or that they’re learning anything new or they feel that you’re difficult to work for or you’ve been bypassed for promotion because you have difficulty handling your current responsibilities if you feel you aren’t delegating well confirm or put your suspicions to rest by seeking feedback from your team if your suspicions are confirmed then formulate a plan to improve one of the most common questions that we hear out there is like how do I know that I’m picking the right person a lot of times you have confidence in people you assign them to tasks and then things fall apart and you don’t really know if what is them or you so how do you pick the right person for the job well here’s a few things that you may want to consider number one the person needs to have demonstrated skill right they have to be capable of completing the assignment they must have a record on similar assignments if you have new employees you should have a sense of their skills you may even have completed a skills inventory about that team right the second thing is motivation employee motivation this isn’t it this is as important as the ability to get the job done do they have do they want to do the task can you help motivate them remember this is a good opportunity to involve team members and give them a chance to try something different how about employee workload decide if the team member has the time available how much are they currently doing how well are they handling the workload they have how does their work look compared to others in the department the other thing is match their skills with them right the person’s skills their workload their potential for success all needs to be looked at when you delegate and that can be very tricky sometimes when people are given a chance they can do very well at active they even haven’t done before the person with enough time is not always the best option and sometimes the busiest person is the best because they do things more efficiently now let’s discuss how to assign or delegate the tasks so you’re gonna have a meeting with this employee and you’re going to be delegating a chance to them the delegation meeting has eight specific steps to it and you we recommend that you review these steps before your meeting so that nothing is left out this is gonna help you provide a thorough orientation to what is being delegated so step number one clearly communicates to the team member or members what they are being asked to do this includes information such as what specifically needs to be done what should the when should the task be completed what are the consequences if it’s not done what level of accuracy you need how does the task fit into the overall scheme how many parts are there to the entire project who’s working on other parts of the task just give them very clear details and be very clear as to what they’re being asked to do step number two provide context and relevance to the assignment why are we doing this why is it important and complications they can expect focus on the results to be achieved not the process a method of achieving it right step number three confirm understanding by asking them what they understand don’t just say do you understand and expect it yes and ask them what they understand step number four clearly communicate the performance standards that they’re going to be many measured on or evaluated on this way they know what good performance is so you can tell them what is considered minimal or acceptable or as or outstanding be very specific on the results that you’re expecting to see step number five make sure the employee has enough authority to complete the task don’t leave them out in the empty asana and Mehta’s without given then the appropriate level of authority is just going to make it very hard for them to actually succeed and you just said and you’re just setting them up for failure step number six communicate the level of support for the delegated task right what resources are available what assistance can you provide give notice to other people to inform them that this for has been assigned distance so they can support them step number seven obtain obligation commitment from the employee for the delegated task don’t leave an assignment with an employee unless you get a solid commitment for completion of the task by the agreed-upon date make it clear the assignment belongs to the employee and that he or she must resolve any problems that arise or at the very least bring options for a solution when he or she comes to you with the problem final step number eight establish rewards and recognition process be sure to notice the employees performance if recognition is not coming they will decide that good performance doesn’t make any difference and others will not be motivated to accept delegation either there are four types of consequences you can use praise them if they do a good job redirect them if you have to renegotiate goals and standards or reprimand worst case right so how do you ask people to do work how do you give them instructions well there are three basic types of instructions number one there are orders orders tend to be autocratic and they use for things that need to be completed immediately right and you use these when a quick response is required or the other person already knows exactly what needs to be done things you need to know about orders is that they have an immediate effect they’re followed exactly but almost never exceeded they require previous knowledge about the task they usually go unquestioned we assume them to be right we don’t you know allow for any feedback or initiative and such the other way to ask for work to be done would be a request requests are used in everyday operation on a daily basis team development would be encouraged through opportunity to use initiative and express the views and opinions it’s it’s different from the autocratic way of ordering requests the open to further suggestions even though the manager remains in control example of a request would be would you pass the files please can you complete this report by 5:00 p.m. would you make sure you’re in your office and ready just by 8:00 a.m. every day so that’s a request some things to know about requests they take longer to be implemented they allow for feedback they promote individual development can be exceeded can attract criticism can expose weaknesses the third type of instructions will be suggestions suggestions are used when the team is allowed to develop on their own with guidance from their manager suggestions aren’t recommended for newly appointed or inexperienced supervisors but they useful to develop a self-motivated team and to assess individual potential example of a suggestion would be something like this we need to reorganize the filing cabinet so the files are compatible with the finding system on the computer things you want to know about suggestions is that they produce a slow response there a risk no response at all can’t be specific they promote self-motivation but they and they also inspire initiative I think this is all we have about delegation we’ve talked about different types we’ve talked about different levels talked about how to select the different people and how to delegate it the step by step and the different ways that you can ask for work I hope you enjoyed this video and I hope it proves to be beneficial if you have any questions on delegation or you have some feedback please let me know put your comments down below I’d be happy to hear from you I would also like you to subscribe if you enjoy these videos and you’d like to know or you’d like to be notified about additional videos when they come out you can press the notification button to be notified and if you think this is useful somebody else please share with your friends or colleagues would we look forward to seeing you on the next video thank you for watching
