Every Friday I write about a topic of particular interest to working parents who manage people.
Delegating is one of the most important skills for a working parent who wants to get ahead and still maintain quality of life at home. But for many people delegating is one of the hardest things to do. Not only do you have to loosen your direct control over projects, manager who want things done right have to take the time to teach and mentor employees.
Tom Foster’s great management skills blog talks about why delegating is the most powerful management tool with this anecdote. Not only does delegating save you time, it allows your best employees to learn and grow, creating a brain trust of talent that you can depend on. This means fewer crises, less stress, more ability for you to be out of the office, and better support for your senior managers.
Here are a few of Mama Bee’s best tips for delegating:
1. Hire good people. There’s no getting around it, hiring well is the key to delegating. If you find that you don’t have the right support people around you, transfer them to another department or let them go. You want people who have the right skill set for your job and who are self-motivated. It’s tempting to hire out of the box, looking at candidates from other industries, but it’s much better if you can find someone who has had direct experience in your area. Good hiring tips can be found here and a useful hiring checklist here.
2. Learn to teach and mentor, and take the time to do so. No employee will come in knowing exactly what you want. If you can effectively communicate how you would like the job done delegating will be much more effective. Rather than just making corrections on an employee’s work, call them in and discuss about how you want things done. Allow the employee to ask questions and make sure they understand that next time you expect the project to be completed per your instructions.
3. Set clear priorities and let staff know right away if they change. Often priorities shift based on an organization’s needs, but there’s nothing more frustrating and wasteful to a dedicated employee than putting in hours on a project only to be told that it’s no longer needed. Conversely, if you need a quicker turnaround on something, let your staff know right away so they can redirect their efforts. Not only does this keep your projects on target, it keeps your deadlines credible and staff morale high.
4. Give credit where credit is due. Contrary to what you might think, giving credit to your employees reflects well on you as the manager. It adds to your accomplishments that you’ve hired and mentored successfully. So don’t be afraid to give your staff accolades in front of senior management whenever possible. Unless there’s a very good reason, don’t take credit for their work; however, do take credit for making the good decision to hire someone great.
5. Hire good writers. Some of you are probably thinking “my job doesn’t require writing skills,” and maybe you are right. But I’ve found that many more jobs than we think actually do benefit from good writers. As a manager you have to take the time to write memos, emails and external correspondence; these tasks will be greatly facilitated if you have a few good writers on your team who can draft copy for you to modify.
6. Follow up. In the best of cases you won’t have to do this, but it’s important to let your employees know if they miss a deadline. Take a minute to find out why they are struggling with a project — do they have all the resources they need? Are they overwhelmed with other work? Do they fully understand the task, and do they have the necessary skills to complete it? IToo much follow up is a red flag.
7. Share information. From time to time there’s information that you may not be able to pass on, but by and large you should communicate the organization’s larger goals and strategies to the extent that you can. Keeping staff in the loop only helps you — if you’re out of the office they can jump in with all of the information at hand. It also makes your staff feel like key team players.
8. Know that delegating doesn’t mean it’s not your job, and don’t play the blame game. As the project manager, everything rests on your shoulders. If something goes wrong it won’t look good for you to say that a staffer screwed up. Just as good performance by staff is a positive reflection on your ability as a manger, poor performance also speaks volumes about your abilities. Always take full responsibility when something goes awry, and then go to the employee to figure out what happened off-line.
Some other good delegating resources from around the blogosphere:
2 Comments
February 13, 2009 at 12:48 pm
[...] 7. Delegate. If there ever was a time when you need to think about what projects can be delegated, it’s now. Figure out who in your department can take on extra work, and what kinds of responsibilities are appropriate. This is a great opportunity for the younger employees in your department. Make them critical team players and inspire high morale, loyalty, and support. Check out my previous post on delegating here. [...]
June 6, 2009 at 3:13 pm
[...] Hire the best and delegate. I’ve written before about the critical need for working parents to delegate tasks in the office, but you can only do this if you have a strong team working for you. If you are [...]