WHEN TO DELEGATE
You should delegate when:
■ You have more work than you can effectively carry out your-
self.
■ You cannot allocate sufficient time to your priority tasks.
■ You want to develop your subordinate.
■ The job can be done adequately by your subordinate.
HOW TO DELEGATE
When you delegate you have to decide:
■ What to delegate.
■ To whom you delegate – choosing who does the work.
■ How to inform or brief your subordinate – giving out the
work.
■ How you will guide and develop your subordinate.
■ How you will monitor his or her performance.
What to delegate
You delegate tasks that you don’t need to do yourself. You are
not just ridding yourself of the difficult, tedious or unrewarding
tasks. Neither are you trying to win for yourself an easier life.
Delegation will, in fact, make your life more difficult, but also
more rewarding.
Clearly, you delegate routine and repetitive tasks which you
cannot reasonably be expected to do yourself – as long as you use
the time you have won productively.
You also delegate specialist tasks to those who have the skills
and know-how to do them. You cannot do it all yourself. Nor can
you be expected to know it all yourself. You have to know how to
select and use expertise. There will be no problem as long as you
make it clear what you want from the experts and ask – if neces-
sary force – them to present it to you in a usable way. As a
manager you must know what specialists can do for you and you
should be knowledgeable enough about the subject to under-
stand whether or not what they produce is worth having.
60 How to be an Even Better Manager