Why do we avoid delegating?
Leadership and delegation go hand in hand. For some people, delegating is easy. For others, leaving even the most trivial task in other people’s hands is practically mission impossible.
Many claim that it’s more efficient if they do the work themselves. People’s instinct is to do everything themselves, which has made “task delegation” one of the most underutilized management skills in companies. The fear of leaving something in the hands of subordinates, organizational culture, fear of being replaceable or a misplaced sense of guilt at handing off our work to others, makes delegation an uphill battle. Now, you are going to discover the importance of delegation.
Why is delegating important?
Accepting that you can’t do everything yourself is the first step towards delegating. It’s not a question of the more delegation, the better—which could lead to loss of control—but rather the challenge of delegating properly and effectively those tasks that we want to and can delegate.
We will have time for doing more important things
Delegating things you don’t need to do personally frees up time that could be valuable for other tasks that require your experience and energy. Delegating increases your work capacity strategically and leaves time for planning, which will improve organizational systems.
You’ll make your team grow
Looking to other people to do tasks helps them develop their capacities and makes them feel valued. You increase the job satisfaction of your team by sharing responsibility. Delegating to someone offers that person the opportunity to excel and be successful, and by extension you’ll make your business prosper.
You foster creativity and efficiency
Delegating promotes teamwork and brings in different points of view on how to approach things, which translates into increased efficiency and productivity.
It’s the best form of training
If you delegate to members of your organization from time to time, this can be a good way of training them for a day when you’re not in the company. You’re making sure that other people know how to do things.
It strengthens the organization
Delegating encourages commitment within the organization. Employees accept your authority and commit themselves to being accountable for the task assigned.
In the next post, we’ll look at the best way of delegating. But before, reply this question: did you already know the importance of delegation?
Continues in The importance of delegation skills in your business (II)
