In 20 years of conducting leadership seminars and one-on-one coaching\nwith executives, what would you guess to be the most common complaint I hear? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It sounds something like this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s just so much on my plate. The amount of work that needs to be\ndone can be overwhelming. There are meetings, conference calls, administrative\nrequirements, not to mention routine emergencies that suck up all my time. It\nseems like there aren\u2019t enough hours in the day to get it all done.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And what advice does our busy leader get? \u201cYou need to delegate more.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Surprisingly, the answer for the \u201cnot\nenough hours in the day\u201d<\/em> boss isn\u2019t to delegate more but to delegate more\neffectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Delegation is not a quality like \u201cdemonstrating integrity.\u201d Honest,\nethical, and legal behavior is always<\/em> appropriate\u2015delegation isn\u2019t.\nInappropriate or poorly executed delegation can do more harm than good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A good place to start is to review the criteria for delegation. Why do\nit? There are 3 good reasons a leader should delegate work: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ideally, you want to include all 3 criteria. So, how do you know what\nto delegate and to whom? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 1:<\/strong> Every job (no matter if it\u2019s the CEO or the\nperson greeting at the front desk) can be broken down into 3 to 5 major\ncomponents. There are no exceptions to this rule! Identify the key 3 to 5 areas\nof your responsibility, and then list several activities you do to achieve\nsuccess in each of these key areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, one area of responsibility for a customer service manager\nmight be: Train new customer service representatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Activities to support that responsibility might be: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 2:<\/strong> Look at each activity and ask yourself, \u201cIs this\ndevelopmental for me? Am I building skills that will be useful in the future?\nAm I learning more about this business or industry? Is this increasing my\nbusiness acumen, building my skills, and expanding my understanding?\u201d If the\nanswers are all \u201cNo,\u201d even if you enjoy doing these activities, it is not\nnecessarily a good use of your time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 3:<\/strong> I can assure you there are people on your team\nwho think your job is more interesting than theirs. Some would like to have\nmore responsibility, earn a larger raise, or maybe get a promotion. Is there\nanyone on your team you could delegate all or some of these tasks to and it\nwould be very developmental for them? If so, this is an appropriate opportunity\nto delegate work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 4:<\/strong> There is a difference between delegating and\ndumping work on people. Effective delegation requires orientation to the new\nassignment. To the person assuming the new responsibilities: <\/p>\n\n\n\nCriteria for Delegation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Steps to Delegation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
No Dumping Allowed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n