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9 Steps to Successful Delegation

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The 9 steps towards successful task delegation. Enabling you to develop your own delegative capabilities.

9 Steps to Successful Delegation

1. Define the task

    • Confirm in your mind that the task is suitable to be delegated. 
    • Does it meet the criteria for delegating?

2. Select the individual or team

    • What are your reasons for delegating to this person or team? 
    • What are they going to get out of it? 
    • What are you going to get out of it?

3. Assess ability and training needs

    • Is the other person or team of people capable of doing the task? 
    • Do they understand what needs to be done? If not, you can't delegate.

4. Explain the reasons

    • You must explain why the job or responsibility is being appointed to someone else. Why is the task being delegated specifically to that person/this group of people? 
    • What are its importance and relevance? 
    • Where does it fit in the overall scheme of things?

5. State required results

    • What must be achieved? Clarify understanding by getting feedback from the other person. 
    • How will the task be measured? Make sure they know how you intend to decide that the job is being successfully done.

6. Consider the resources required

    • Discuss and agree on what is required to get the job done. 
    • Consider people, location, premises, equipment, money, materials, and other related activities and services.

7. Agree on deadlines

    • When must the job be finished? Or if it is an ongoing duty, when are the review dates? 
    • When are the reports due? 
    • If the task is complex and has parts or stages, what are the priorities?

Important: At this point you may need to confirm understanding with the other person of the previous points, and get ideas and interpretation. As well as showing you that the job can be done, this helps to reinforce commitment.  Methods of checking and controlling must be agreed upon with the other person. Failing to agree on this in advance will cause this monitoring to seem like interference or lack of trust.

8. Support and communicate

  • Think about who else on the team needs to know what's going on, and inform them. Do not leave the person to inform other managers of their new responsibility. 
  • If you have been delegated an important, potentially urgent task inform your immediate supervisor/own boss that you will focus on this task for the time being.

9. Feedback on results

    • It is essential to let the person know how they are doing, and whether they have achieved their aims. 
    • If the aim has not been achieved, it is beneficial to review why things did not go to plan and deal with the problems together.