The Who, What, When, Where and Why on Delegating

At first sight, delegation can feel like more hassle than it's worth, however by delegating effectively, you can hugely expand the amount of work that you can deliver. 

When Should You Delegate?

Delegation is a win-win when done appropriately, however that does not mean that you can delegate just anything. To determine when delegation is most appropriate there are five key questions you need to ask yourself:

• Is there someone else who has (or can be given) the necessary information or expertise to complete the task? Essentially is this a task that someone else can do, or is it critical that you do it yourself?
• Does the task provide an opportunity to grow and develop another person's skills?
• Is this a task that will recur, in a similar form, in the future?
• Do you have enough time to delegate the job effectively? Time must be available for adequate training, for questions and answers, for opportunities to check progress, and for rework if that is necessary.
• Is this a task that I should delegate? Tasks critical for long-term success (for example, recruiting the right people for your team) genuinely do need your attention.

  If you can answer "yes" to at least some of the above questions, then it could well be worth delegating this job.  Get the full story on the best ways to use delegation from the Mind Tools Website!

There you’ll get some “mind blowing” tips on:

• The Who and How of Delegating
• To Whom Should You Delegate
• How You Should Delegate
• Keeping Control
• The Importance of Full Acceptance

When you learn how to arrange your workload so that you are working on the tasks that have the highest priority for you, and allow other people to work on meaningful, challenging and related tasks, you have a recipe for success.

To delegate effectively, choose the right tasks to delegate, identify the right people to delegate to, and delegate in the right way. There's a lot to this, but you'll achieve so much more once you're delegating effectively!

To help pull it all together, use the Delegation Worksheet provided by Mind Tools