There is no organization, large or small, that can operate without delegation. When done right, delegation can improve productivity, help organizations achieve goals, and even boost employee morale. Delegation is an art that all managers need to learn to be able to develop an efficient management process of functional departments or establishments. Whether you are a CEO or a department head, your ability to delegate can affect the efficiency of your team as well as your goals. How so, you may ask. Let’s break it down.
What is Delegation
In organizations, managers are appointed tasks to achieve SMART goals (specific, measurable, relevant, time-bound). To help them, human resources are hired and appointed to ensure tasks are completed faster and on time. This is where delegation comes into play–when managers are smart and understand how to effectively utilize the resources they have been assigned.
Delegation is the act of assigning specific tasks to the rightful and skilled people to achieve common goals. Without delegation, organizations can’t thrive, or succeed in achieving their goals, completing projects, and remaining productive.
Understanding the core relationship between productivity and delegation is imperative for managers who are responsible for the management of the entire organization and its development.
Relationship Between Delegation and Productivity
Effective delegation is sometimes a gifted skill, while in others, learned during courses at business management schools. Not everyone can delegate effectively, but everyone can learn it, provided that they understand the relationship between delegation, productivity, and people management.
It’s worth knowing that delegation impacts the people who have been delegated the tasks and also the delegators as well. The relationships between people and productivity involving delegation include:
- Managers need to identify the right people for the right job.
- A systematic process needs to be established before tasks are delegated.
- The chain of command, deliverables, and feedback are communicated to the team members.
- There should be clarity, accountability, and agreement about the tasks assigned.
- Training and skill development on the job or over the course of the project.
- The team to have confidence in their manager and know that they will get support from them.
While there are more elements involved in the process of delegation, these are the factors that impact the output, in other words, productivity which delegators need to learn about.
Why Learn the Art of Delegation?
Learning about the relationship between delegation and productivity helps managers devise effective strategies. Every manager has their own way of developing a delegation strategy but there are some commonalities between these strategies which is why they are often taught in management schools and courses.
If you are a newly promoted manager, figuring out how to make plans to delegate tasks to your new team members, you may want to take these courses to help you on your journey.
Effective Delegation for New Managers
Effectively Directing and Delegating as a Manager
Effective Delegation Skills Training Course
These courses, as you can see from their titles are not only for new managers but seasoned managers can benefit from them too. This is because as you progress in your career as part of management you’ll learn that you need to delegate more so that you have time to concentrate on what you do best—management. These courses will help you learn about:
- Identifying the types of tasks that can be delegated, including repetitive, tabulation, research, etc.
- Tasks that can be integrated into defined processes with measurable deliverables.
- Type of people who are best at receiving orders, training, and producing results when given the right direction.
- Strategy to achieve measurable and time-bound organizational objectives.
Learning Delegation for Increased Productivity
Part of learning about delegation is the understanding of your own roles as a delegator and manager. Instead of getting lost in the strategies, you need to also learn how to manage your team’s needs like training and development, communication, team building, and troubleshooting. Without these elements, your team may not achieve the optimal results that you desire.
Moreover, you need to also learn, grow, and develop as a leader to manage your project, department, and business. Some of the aspects that you need to concentrate on to increase productivity are:
- Learning how to plan processes, tasks, and deliverables.
- Learning how to identify uncertainties and opportunities, and what to do about them.
- Learning how to manage critical tasks such as financials, assessments, performance appraisals, business objectives, strategy, etc.
- Learning how to mitigate risks and failures in the course of workflow.
- Learning how to implement involved delegation to benefit from having enthusiastic team members.
Wrapping Up
Learning the art of delegation has long-term benefits and more importantly, affects your own productivity as a manager. If you are a business owner then delegation directly impacts your business’ profitability and survival. Investing your time and effort in learning about this art has manifold returns. We recommend that you start learning sooner rather than later.
