You're Feeling Overwhelmed at Work, But How Do You Delegate to Get the Best Results?
You need to spread the work around. You can't be doing everything yourself. You need to take the time to train. How do you do it? What are some good things to keep in mind while you're delegating.
First, make sure you take the time to systematically break down the goal, the task, and to make sure that your employee really understands it before moving on. Don't assume anything. And give very strict deadlines.
And after you give the deadline, don't wait until that deadline to check someone's progress. Schedule a follow-up meeting halfway to the deadline to check in with the person about the task.
This is going to make the person get going immediately, which is vital. And once they start getting into the topic, they're probably going to have questions. So better to have the questions as early on as possible in the process. And if you have a meeting set up to go over their progress, they're going to want to try to get everything done before then. And if they didn't, you get to learn something about that employee.
At the very least, regardless of what they've done, by having that meeting on the books, you get to find out how are they doing with this task. What do they need? What do they need to learn? What insights do they need? Then you'll have a much better chance of having that goal be met by the deadline.
Don't micromanage. Don't be micromanaging them as they're going along doing the task. You know what that feels like - it's horrible. Give them some freedom. And by scheduling that meeting halfway through, you can let go of some of your concerns.
Don’t overreact to mistakes that they have made. They're just learning. Just think of all those times that you are learning a new task - you're probably learning a new task right now - and how frustrating that can be. So give your employees the leadership that you would like from your leaders.
If you've scheduled a meeting halfway to the deadline, hopefully the task should be done at the deadline. Hopefully you haven't given a deadline that's a do-or-die deadline. Meaning, if you have to have it by Friday end-of-business, you shouldn't be giving that same deadline to your employee, right? Give yourself enough time for you to be able to check their work, to be able to teach them if they've made a mistake, and have them redo it and have you check it again. That may be a day. That may be a week.
So hopefully you've created a deadline that has a little bit of a wiggle room for you. And if they haven't met the deadline, don't overreact. Again, it's just learning. You're learning about the employee. And it's the perfect opportunity to talk about your expectations. What are the consequences for this person missing this deadline?
Do not do the work for them. Do not finish the task for them. For if you do, not only will they never learn, but you've just lost your credibility. You're basically saying that your word doesn't matter.
When you delegate, don't just delegate to your top performers - spread it around. Otherwise your top performers are going to get resentful, as well as everybody else on the team. Plus, no one will ever grow.
Lastly, though this is so completely obvious that it's ridiculous that I even have to mention it - after the task is done, give feedback. We've already talked about constructive feedback. Give them positive feedback for what they did well. People yearn for that. You yearn for that. We all yearn for that. But don't just say, “Hey, good job. Great job on that.” That doesn't mean anything. Be specific: “Hey, I really liked the way that you did this with this part of the report.” Or, “I really like the determination that you showed by getting this done early.” Be specific.
Look at your plate. Notice how full it is. If it's just too much, Delegate.
Schedule a Complementary Team Audit https://TransformingExecutivePresence.as.me/
Gain unbiased insight during this professional 'listening session' with a 30 year veteran in leadership development, executive presence, and conflict resolution.
Comments