How to delegate

All managers talk about delegation as the miracle solution, yet few actually do it, and even fewer know how to delegate in the right way. Here are a few pitfalls to delegation, but also some practical solutions.

Barriers to delegation

Many managers complain about working too much, being exhausted, working overtime, having to replace incompetent employees, yet they are responsible for their own misfortunes. There are many obstacles to delegation:

• Insecurity about quality: “If I do it myself, it will be done better, I’m afraid it will be done badly”. In fact, when managers complain that they don’t trust their employees, they are often expressing their own insecurity. And then, has he taken the time to train and coach his employee? “No, I don’t have the time” he’ll say, in short, it’s the snake biting its own tail.
• Time: “It’ll take too long. If I do it myself, it’ll be done faster and I’ll save time”. It’s possible, but you have to ask yourself whether the task is repetitive or not. If it is, it’s better to delegate, as the time lost at the outset will be saved later on.
• The overworked employee: “My employee is already overworked”. Maybe, but if it’s not him, who’s doing the work? it’s him, and the line manager, like everyone else, only has 24 hours in the day.
• Loss of control: “If I give this to my employee, I won’t be able to control it”. Delegating does not mean losing control. The real reason is that the manager doesn’t know how to delegate, and is also expressing his own insecurity.
• Loss of purpose: “If I delegate, people will think I’m doing nothing”. On the contrary, it gives him the opportunity to do more important tasks.

The wrong kind of delegation

Other managers delegate, but only because they’ve been asked to, even though they hate management tasks such as planning, monitoring, organizing meetings, coaching and evaluating their employees.
More difficult still, they feel that their way of achieving fulfillment in their profession is to perform well the technical tasks they used to do, in which they excel, and which enabled them to get promoted.
For example, a former salesman turned sales manager will always want to prove himself by being a better salesman than his sales reps, while a computer systems designer turned manager will want to continue designing at the expense of his managerial duties. Their way of delegating is simple: they make a list of tasks to be carried out, then leave their team free to choose them according to their desires, their work speed, but also their courage, which means that some will work hard and others will do the minimum.
The fact of not assigning tasks allows them to avoid reprimanding those who are late, but also to congratulate the best. All this leads to team frustration, production delays, frustrated customers, financial loss at the end of projects, and it’s not clear that the manager will keep his responsibilities!

How to delegate

Delegation does not mean loss of responsibility. Here are the key actions the manager must take:

• List and plan the tasks to be carried out.
• Assign tasks and choose your management style according to the skills and motivation of your employees.
• Follow-up, more or less closely depending on the type of operator.
• Evaluate results at the end of the project, congratulate your team or take corrective action.

There are several similar models:
PODC: Plan, Organize, Direct, Control
PDSE: Prepare, Direct, Monitor, Evaluate
And then of course, for effective delegation you have to develop your employees, i.e. plan:

• Training
• Coaching
• Mobilization activities.

In short, it might be a good idea to plan a management training course for the director if he wants to improve the quality of his work, that of his employees, but also that of his managers.
Effective delegation is the best way of managing your time!

Jean-Pierre Mercier