Delegate or Fail?

Does it sound radical?  Well, if you are a manager, or going to be one, this is a secret to value: delegation. 

There can be many reasons for a manager's failure; behind most of them lies the lack of delegation.  What should a manager do to become successful?  It's easy ... Manage.  Manage people, manage the work, manage budgets, manage the environment, manage customers, manage the firm's politics.  Assuming that a manager has the basic skills required, the stone most of them stumble upon is TIME.  The most common trap to fall into is doing much but not doing the things that matter. 

What are the important components of a successful business?  Competent employees, efficient use of resources, attractive products or services, effective marketing, synergies between the firm's various departments, effective use of technology, returning customers.  But how can ONE person manage all these successfully?  The keywords here are "ONE PERSON".  If you are a manager who believes that you can do it all on your own then you are just walking down the Failure Avenue.  If, on the other hand, have built a team of competent people around you who can help perform the several tasks required from you, then you have signed the book of SUCCESS.

Why don't managers delegate?  There are many reasons for this, the most important being that delegation does not come naturally.  It needs knowhow and exercise.  It is natural for a competent person, and we presume that somebody to become a manager must be competent, to feel that he can do things better and quicker than others.  Why delegate work when you must spend time training the other person to do it,  then check the work he submits, probably give it back for corrections (usually more than once) before it becomes what you would have done yourself right away?  Can this be effective time management?  Although at the face of it the answer is NO, further scrutiny will prove that the only way towards effective time management IS delegation.

So, what are the steps of successful delegation?  First you must persuade yourself that others can do a task as well as yourself.  This is not easy - most of us, especially if we are successful in what we do, believe that we can do things better than others (and we are probably right!).  The challenge here is to choose the right person for the right task.  Someone can argue "What if there is noone around capable of doing it?".  Well, if there is noone capable of doing it, you must choose that somebody who has the POTENTIAL to be trained to do it.  Training is time-consuming; however, it is the best investment for both the manager's and the subordinate's future career.  A successful manager must be surrounded by successfully developed subordinates.  Subordinates' development ensures that they perform their work correctly and efficiently; while at the same time the manager's time is being freed so that he can perform the tasks he is expected to.

Secondly, you must remember that by delegating the work you do not also delegate the responsibility.  The responsibility lies with the delegator who must make sure that the delegatee completes the work correctly and on time.  The keyword here is "Monitoring".  Technology nowadays facilitates monitoring in an effective and non-time-consuming way.  While it is wrong for a manager to concentrate work around himself, it is equally wrong to delegate and "forget".

Thirdly, you must persuade delegatees that this is for their own benefit as well, since it will ensure their development towards career advancement.  Doing the "Manager's work" prepares subordinates to some day become managers themselves.  They are trained to do what a manager does, think like a manager thinks, broadens their outlook beyond their everyday work.  They will have to find ways themselves to manage their time so that they can perform their work as well as they usually do and at the same time do the "manager's work" as well as he would have done it himself.  What better training can there be for becoming a manager?

Lastly, you must remember to give encouragement to delegatees at all times, even when the work they submit is "poor".  If you are confident that you have chosen the right person for the specific task, then you must be patient until this person acquires the knowhow and the confidence to do it as it should be done.  And do not forget: successful investment rarely pays out right away; you need to be patient and persistent in order to enjoy the benefits of your investment in a long-term way.

Well, can you do it?  If you think you can, then try it .. it really pays out!