During
first season of television reality show, The Apprentice, Donald Trump would give ultimate winner dream job of working for him, running one of his divisions and earning $250,000 per year. On final episode, choice came down to two candidates, Bill Rancic and Kwame Jackson, for “ultimate” job. Both were very qualified. Bill Rancic was owner of a successful Internet cigar business grossing over one million dollars a year, and Kwame Jackson was a graduate of Harvard Business School and most recently worked for prestigious Wall Street investment house, Goldman Sachs, as an Investment Manager.In my opinion, decision on who would receive job came down to one thing…delegation. Both Bill and Kwame delegated tasks to their “team members” and achieved success. However, Kwame was asked several questions by Mr. Trump relating to how Kwame handled one team member, Omarosa Manigult-Stallworth. Mr. Trump wondered why Kwame let Omarosa get away with lying to him and not working with other team members to make project successful. Kwame responded to Mr. Trump that he didn’t know he could fire Omarosa. Mr. Trump stated that Kwame should have asked if he could fire Omarosa.
Bill Rancic got job. This drives home point…learn how to delegate to accelerate success both for you, your organization, and your team.
If we know it is an important key for our success, why don’t we delegate? Here are some of excuses I routinely hear:
* No Time – I have no time to teach a team member tasks. * No Energy – It takes a lot of energy to follow-up and keep team members on task for success. * I Can Do It Better – I know what needs to be done and can do it better and faster so I’ll just do it. * Why Should I? – Why should I train someone to do my job?
Why? If you are in a leadership position, your job is to take time and energy to train others to do more so that you, your team, and your organization are more successful.
Well, what are benefits of quality delegation?
1. You multiply yourself – The more you delegate, more you create team members that can accomplish much more in much less time. You are known as someone who gets things done with self-directed teams.
2. You create a motivated group – The more you delegate, more your team members are motivated because they see you as someone who trusts them and their abilities to get things accomplished. Because your team is motivated, they take more initiative to create solutions, be more creative, and are willing to take on more responsibilities.
3. You master stress and time management skills – You are forced to prioritize your tasks and realize that there are tasks that you do not need to do, yet would be perfect tasks to develop your team members. By learning how to prioritize your tasks for delegation, you will be less stressed during workday and go home at end of day satisfied that you accomplished more.
4. You are known as a person who develops people – The more you delegate, more you will be known within organization as a person who develops people. Remember, even when you think no one is watching, someone is always watching way you achieve success by developing your people. Whether it’s management, other teams, departments or divisions, someone is watching. The word will spread about how well you develop people. The results, management will see you as a developer of people; and other employees, both inside and outside of your organization, will fight to work for you because they know you have a motivated, creative working environment.
5. You create opportunities for yourself and others – By delegating tasks to others, you can then take on more advanced tasks that will prepare you for future opportunities when they become available. This is main reason why excuse “if I delegate my tasks to my employees, then they can take my job” doesn’t fly in my book. Another reason why you delegate tasks is so that you can develop yourself for future promotions, monetary, and career opportunities. For example, if you want to become vice president for your organization and you know that skills B, M, Z are required by all vice presidents, then delegate any management tasks that you have already mastered to your team members so that you can then ask for more “vice presidential” tasks. When that position is available within or outside of organization, who do you think will have inside track? You will! Because you can say you already have skills of a vice president, while developing people behind you to fill void when you are promoted. Also, as a leader, you never want your team members to be with you in same position forever. Thus, delegating tasks continuously prepares them for opportunities that may come their way.
So how do we successfully delegate tasks? Here are my seven steps to delegating tasks to achieve success. These tips can not only be used in your organization for more success, but in every aspect of your life to accomplish more.
1. Understand Task Make sure you understand task so that you can clearly communicate task to person undertaking task. You must also understand what barriers and resources are required to succeed. Also, you must understand what tools you have to make task successful. Along with resources needed, if person isn’t progressing on task, what options do you have as a leader and manager to make it successful? Questions you can ask is, “Can I provide additional training?” or “Can I acquire additional tools?” Or if they are not suited for task, ask these questions, “Can I reassign them?” or if they turn out to be detrimental to project or team, “What actions can I take to alleviate this situation?” Make sure you click on “Delegation Checklist” link at end of this article to receive your f*r*e*e copy of this important tool that will give you tools to make best decisions when delegating tasks.
2. Find Right Person Find person who is motivated to take on task. You may have someone who has skills to do task but is not motivated to do it. This situation will not work. However, if you have someone that doesn’t have skills, but is highly motivated to learn and is excited about opportunity, then this is a good candidate for delegation. The person must also be motivated to take on this task for good of group as well as his/her own motivations. You might ask, “How does this assignment help you achieve your career goals?” It also helps person has good communications skills to express any concerns.
