How to delegate responsibility
If you are like me, a bit of a jill-of-all-trades, there comes a time in your employment when you are wearing too many hats. To make the situation worse, my duties within my employ are very diverse, requiring specialized knowledge in a wide-array of subjects, not to be touched again for many months, even years later. And there is usually a use-case history behind the issues that makes it even more complicated.
In lieu of doing everything yourself, and driving yourself nuts, you need to delegate. I am blessed to have a great team. We have a fantastic synergy with each team member possessing special strengths and being self-driven. (They are also very pleasant people to be around which makes it easy). I have no problem delegating responsibilities and learned to do that a long time ago. But it never hurts to review those principals and see where I can improve myself and my leadership abilities.
Some tips:
- Consider Individual Strengths and Weaknesses
- Match Challenge to Ability Level. The quickest way to turn someone off to a delegated job is to give that person an assignment that is substantially below his or her skill level. Delegate a project to the most junior person capable of successfully completing the job.(This is where I fall short. I tend to give the worst task to myself because I don’t want to annoy my teammates. I shouldn’t always take the drudgery, but I do.)
- Don’t micromanage people. We are all adults. No one likes to be micromanaged. I hate people who micromanage me, so I do not do that to others. It’s really annoying.
- Be Generous With Recognition. I’m very good about this and I’m sure it is appreciated.
- Be available it answer questions or clarify the task
- Never delegate blameI will defend my team to the death, but when pressed, I will take responsibility for any faults found with my team. (Except we are perfect and never make mistakes.)