6 Easy Ways To Delegate Effectively
Contributed by Chioma Iwunze-Ibiam of Creative Writing News
From time immemorial, women have always sought ways to find work-life balance. They have always wondered if it’s possible to excel at work and on the home front.
As one friend rightly put it, “Can any woman have it all?” To be honest, it is difficult to see how a woman can have it all and at once.
Yet it is also easy to see how a woman can be very productive and creative and fulfilled. So yes, a woman can have it all. Probably not at the same time. But still, she can be successful.
How?
Women can excel at work and stay relevant and true to their loved ones. But for the purpose of this article, I will focus on the most effective hack that has worked for the world’s most influential women. What’s this tip? Delegation of authority and task allocation.
Research has shown that delegation helps to:
- Improve productivity
- Boost efficiency
- Increase the quality of products and services
- Reduces stress
- Helps business owners to maximize resources.
- Boost employee’s self-confidence
- And so on.
The benefits of task allocation and delegation are enormous. At this point, you’re probably wondering, how to delegate successfully. Below is a comprehensive list of tips to help you delegate effectively.
1. Know Your Team Members.
Everyone has different areas of strengths and weaknesses. So if you work in a team, if you have employees, it is important to study each of them. According to business experts, getting to know your team members is the first step in delegating effectively. Therefore, make the most of every opportunity to recognize each individual’s strengths and weaknesses. One good time to get to know your team is during the interview process. If however, you did not do this during the interview process, start immediately to learn about each individual member of your team.
Communication is key in the process of getting to know your team members. Other great ways of knowing your team are during feedback sessions while reviewing past projects and while checking their results.
Your job is made easier when you know your team members as you will be able to select the right persons to whom the right tasks should be allocated.
2. Train your Employees
Very few employees enter their jobs with a full knowledge of what their task is. Some of them lack all the required skills needed for the successful execution of the project. Most workers therefore learn on the job as they become familiar with it. It is therefore important for workers to be trained regularly. Training seminars help employees to grasp the skills required to perform their tasks effectively with little or no supervision.
Investing in your employees in the form of training them may require some extra budget in the short run. However, this shouldn’t deter you from investing in them. You’ll benefit from this when you need to delegate some tasks to your trained employees.
Successful companies such as Time Doctor, Microsoft and Google dedicate a few hours per week to training and retraining employees. This culture is worth emulating by other companies and businesses. When workers are well trained, employers can confidently delegate tasks to team members.
3. Explain Project Expectations
For effective delegation of authority and task allocation, employees need to understand project expectations. Therefore, make sure your employees are aware of what their responsibilities are. Be detailed and clear while setting milestones, due dates, and the quality of deliverables.
This process of clarifying project expectations can be overwhelming and difficult to achieve if you try to do it on your own. Investing in a project management tool is therefore key. The tool is designed to help you to communicate with team members, monitor employees, set expectations, assign tasks, generate reports and submit projects.
4. Appraise the Project
Before delegation, take time to evaluate the entire project with the delegate. At the beginning of the project, discuss the project and encourage the delegates to volunteer ideas, and to ask questions. This process is a good way for you to get feedback. It is also a good opportunity for the delegates to get clarifications before they embark on the project.
Benefits of evaluating the details of the project include:
- Minimizes mistakes on the part of the delegate
- Avoiding confusion
- Ensuring that all the important details of the project have been shared.
5. Monitor Progress
After delegating and assigning projects to workers, you also need to monitor the progress of the job. This is best achieved by providing an avenue for feedback, and also by setting up a time to intermittently review work done.
You can allocate this task to an effective employee monitoring app like Time Doctor. Other task allocation software include: Asana, Dropbox, Google Apps, Trello and so on.
6. Evaluate Performance
It’s true you have trained your employees. You’re quite confident that they can do the job well. Nonetheless, you have to make out time to evaluate their performance. Despite your busy schedule, you have to create time for feedback. If the delegates did a great job, commend them and point out what they did remarkably well. If not, correct them so they will improve on the quality of their work.
Note that perfection is a gradual process, and the evaluation process is a great way for workers to improve their work and raise their standard in future projects.
Task Allocation Apps That You Can Successfully Use In Delegating Authority
There are some tools designed specifically to help you in delegating tasks. Some of the best in the market include, but aren’t limited to;
- Trello
- Asana
- Microsoft Office
- Dropbox
- Slack
- Time doctor
- Google Apps
Final thoughts
Do your best to resist the temptation to play the role of superwoman. Delegate discretionary tasks, and handle the urgent tasks that are within your areas of strength. Give yourself room to utilize your unique skills and expertise.
Finding work-life balance is often about mastering the fine art of delegation and practising task allocation.
Say goodbye to stress. Use task allocation software to simplify your business processes. Running a business and heading a team of workers is no easy feat. You need to delegate to a team of experts.
When you delegate, you improve the quality of your products, boost productivity, enhance employee morale and promote increased efficiency.
Be kinder to yourself. Become a proponent of the delegation of authority and task allocation.
About the Author
Chioma Iwunze-Ibiam writes creative non-fiction and prose fiction. Her works have appeared in Romance Meets Life, Flash Fiction Press, MTLS, Saraba Magazine, Sentinel Magazine and others. Her first novel, Finding Love Again, was published by Ankara Press. She owns and manages Creative Writing News.
