The secret to delegating effectively lies in four components, each of which must be fulfilled to have successful outcomes. For today’s leader, delegating is crucial to expanding your reach and meeting the huge demands on your time. Success will remain elusive if you don’t understand the art and science of delegation. This post is more on the science:
You must be a committed speaker. How many times have you thought you delegated well and the message got lost when you dissected the failure? When you spoke to your associate, were you rushing around and running out the door for the next appointment, multi-tasking and checking email, texting or in a meeting? The speaker must be focused on the listener and clear the decks of everything else in order to get the message across effectively. If it is a high risk or high reward issue, you need to stop everything else and FOCUS to be the committed speaker.
You must have a committed listener. Look at the above from the receiver’s point of view. Can they focus on what you’re asking? Are they rushing around and not really hearing what you ask? But another big issue here beyond the ability to focus – are they competent, trustworthy and capable to pull off the task or assignment? Competent: are they qualified for the specified purpose? Trustworthy: are they reliable? Capable: are they open and willing? Think of these three elements when you choose to whom to delegate. How many times have you delegated something to someone who is unreliable or doesn’t have the skill set to pull it off?
Communicate time elements in the request. Assuming you’ve satisfied the above, be sure you communicate time lines and completion dates. My suggestion: if it’s not urgent, then tell the listener so BUT still give them a check in date for progress or the end date for completion. BTW, put it on your calendar to check in and follow up. The follow up introduces accountability – both yours and theirs.
Communicate the conditions of satisfaction. What is the outcome? What are the deliverables? What does success look like? My experience taught me to do your best to paint the picture of the outcome then ask the listener to tell you what it looks like in their words. The complexity of the assignment to be delegated should dictate how much dialogue should occur in this final step. Here too, the higher the risk or reward for the issue delegated, means making sure you thoroughly discuss, then agree upon the expectations for success.