When And How To Delegate Tasks

Agile and Scrum / By

Today with tremendous work pressure on every individual, the demand of proper work management is all the more important. The best way to come out of it is delegate tasks which can be delegated. There are managers who expects you to work 15 hours a day. They needed your comments on one document. And you have not even finished it, you are asked for another document completed in 2 days. Next day your manager already sent you two emails asking the status of the new document. Such managers only knows how to bark orders at the team, not realizing that the project team was chosen for their expertise. One must know the art to handle this kind.

Below is the list of signs of a need to delegate

  1. If you are working late and working long hours at office or taking work home.
  2. Your mind is unstable even at lunch hours or tea breaks.
  3. Rarely able to think beyond day-to-day operations.
  4. Spending most of your time on no value add activities, or repeated task which can actually be automated or done by other members.
  5. You are not aware of the utility or business interest of the tasks in your to do list.
  6. Rework due to lack of proper communication among the team members.
  7. Your team, not willing to work like a team, prefers to work in silos.
  8. Certain task which can be done in relatively very less time by experts, are taking longer due to absence of required talent and skills in your team.
  9. Unreasonable boss, no room for work not in time.
  10. Your team request you to intervene even for small matters.

Once you are clear what and whom to delegate, try to implement it as much as you can. But make sure that you are not “under delegating” it. Some managers don’t rely on their team and feel they are best for certain tasks.

How to Delegate Tasks

If you are a project manager, you have a good control on your team, your plans and decisions may affect the outcome of the project directly or indirectly. So it is important that you are clear in your expectations when delegating tasks and ensure that proper knowledge transfer is provided to them. Make them feel that you are accessible all the time for any kind of support they require. Entertain new ideas given by your team. Try by delegating a small portion of work to the best team member and then decide if you want to proceed further or not. There are two possibilities either you are convinced with the work, this is a good news for you. But if you are not satisfied with his approach, then if possible try to give him another chance with proper guidance this time. You are more experienced person and when reviewing the work of another team member, you find that the deliverable is not very good quality. Next time a similar task rolls around, you decide to save time and complete the deliverable yourself.  This is not the correct approach, yes it is shorter and time saving but not correct from long term perspective. Undoubtedly you can probably do the task better and faster, but then you are not a good project manager if you try to do all the tasks yourself. Rarely are projects successful as a one-person team.  More importantly, if you want to be a strong project manager, you must guide and mentor your team and help them to grow professionally.

Delegating tasks is an exercise of trust and you would feel contented once you succeed in building a successful and a happy team as a result of it.

About Aditi Malhotra

Aditi Malhotra is the Content Marketing Manager at Whizlabs. Having a Master in Journalism and Mass Communication, she helps businesses stop playing around with Content Marketing and start seeing tangible ROI. A writer by day and a reader by night, she is a fine blend of both reality and fantasy. Apart from her professional commitments, she is also endearing to publish a book authored by her very soon.

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