Print This Page

Principles for Delegating Authority

Delegating authority  is an effective time management tool for managers and entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, authority and delegation is something that many managers and entrepreneurs are hesitant to use. For some the delegation of authorities is hard to do.

This may be from an experience or a sincere reluctance to transfer obligations to another employee. Other's honestly believe the old adage, 'if you want something done right, do it yourself.

However, successful entrepreneurs and effective managers are not successful or effective unless they learn the principles for delegating authority to others in the organization. Managers who are unable to delegate authority to sub-ordinates will never be able to do all of the things necessary to finalize projects on time. Their tasks will drag on and on.

Delegating Authority

Delegating tasks is the assignment of authority to another person to carry out a specific job-related activity. It allows a person relief of time-sucking tasks in order to make decisions or participate in other project-related activities.

Active delegation should not be confused with abdicating authority or the refusal to be responsible for poor decision-making in a particular project. Effective delegation pushes authority vertically through the organization and allows for more productivity and a better bottom line. It allows managers to better evaluate the capabilities of individual members of their staff.

The benefits of delegating tasks to another person is to give others the satisfaction of learning new tasks, rewarding others with responsibility and to empower others to achieve more. A good manager is able to lead others but a great manager is able to allow their employees to outshine them.

Here are some tips to help you learn to delegate well.

1. Trust yourself. Believe in your gut feeling about others and know that given good instructions a good employee with complete the task. Trust what you know and your gut.

2. If delegating is new to you then try delegating smaller tasks first. You must learn how to build trust in both your ability to delegate to the right person and the person to whom you give tasks.

3. When you are delegating it's important to ask the person to repeat their understanding of the task back to you in their own words and that you communicate your expectations. People can't read your mind - be clear and detailed in your communication.

4. Be specific about the timeframe you want the task completed. Most of the time we get very frustrated when people don't complete tasks in the timeframe we want or the way that we want. By communicating specifically when things are due you'll negate this frustration right up front.

5. Give feedback to the person who accepts the tasks and let them know how they performed. You can give feedback during the task or after but be sure that the person understands exactly how you feel about their performance.

6. Most importantly you have to release control over the task or project. You have to recognize that you can't do or control everything in your business or your department. By learning to delegate you'll boost your productivity and will help you focus on more important tasks that will result in an increased bottom line.

These tips are most important when working with virtual assistants who don't work in the same work space as you do. Detailed communication only helps to make the tasks of delegation more successful.

Our previous article is on Setting Goals.

Other wiki resources: set goals; delegating authority; things that rob your time; procrastination; anger control