Three Key Reasons Why You Need to Delegate

Three Key Reasons Why You Need to Delegate
By Timothy F Bednarz

When many managers are asked, “Do you delegate as much as you should?” the response often is, “Probably not. I can’t take the time to train someone, let alone trust them to complete assignments I am personally responsible for.” Many don’t fully realize why they should delegate.

Managers as leaders understand the importance of effectively utilizing every resource they have at their disposal. This includes the people they direct and lead.

Managers must appreciate the power delegation brings to their individual units as well as to the organization as a whole. When they begin to actively delegate, three things begin to take place that overtake the workplace and personal performance.

When managers as effective leaders delegate, their subordinates begin to increase their knowledge, which better equips them to make decisions, solve problems, and generate more productive end results. These enhancements work to improve overall workplace and organizational performance.

This is why delegation is so powerful: utilizing their subordinate’s abilities and talents as a resource, managers move toward their goals at a much faster pace. Understanding how and why these three elements positively affect personal performance is helpful in creating the desire to delegate.

Increasing in Knowledge

Increasing a subordinate’s knowledge builds an in-depth understanding of information. When subordinates are delegated a task or assignment and complete it effectively, they can transfer this knowledge to other new situations. This builds a broader base of knowledge, which renders new assignments easier to complete.

Past experiences make up a large majority of anyone’s knowledge base. All active responses are based upon previous positive or negative events. When managers delegate effectively, they help build positive experiences for their subordinates, which works to motivate them to achieve at higher levels.

Increasing a subordinate’s experience level helps them create a better base on which to judge situations and circumstances. When a manager delegates, the assignment or task directly alters how the subordinate perceives the realities they encounter. They can better relate to the leader who carries the majority of responsibility and accountability. They also connect more closely with coworkers because a sense of loyalty is built into the total delegated experience.

Problem Solving

Effective and ongoing delegation enhances employees’ problem solving abilities. Managers use the delegation of tasks and assignments to coach their people in how to sift facts from misinformation. This gives them a real tool that provides shortcuts to solving a problem or addressing a major concern faster and more effectively. It also aids in helping employees establish their own goals and priorities.

In this way, they can easily determine which direction is best to take and why. With delegated tasks and assignments, managers need to emphasize that looking at problems from various perspectives helps uncover the root causes of problems rather than their symptoms.

Crafting Unique Solutions

One main reason delegation is so powerful is because it improves effective decision making skills.

Managers understand how formational decision making is in each of their employee’s personal and professional lives. By delegating assignments and tasks, managers help improve decision making skills by introducing previously unconsidered perspectives of how to approach assignments. They also give suggestions and offer shortcuts so that subordinates can immediately arrive at productive determinations and feel successful. Good managers are great role models for proper decision making.

Delegation is an excellent way to teach subordinates how to prioritize their time and associated responsibilities. Prioritizing is indispensable to effective problem solving, which, when mastered, cuts back on frustration and enables employees to think more clearly and arrive at better solutions.

When a manager delegates, their subordinates gain a better understanding of what does and does not work in certain situations. They allow subordinates to use trial and error to accomplish their assignments or tasks, which works to decrease the time and risks associated with solving future problems.

For more information on this topic, refer to Great! What Makes Leaders Great: What They Did, How They Did It and What You Can Learn From It by Timothy F. Bednarz (Majorium Business Press, Stevens Point, WI 2011)

Timothy F. Bednarz, Ph.D. is the author of the 125 books included in Pinpoint Skill Development Training Series. He has also authored “Great! What Makes Leaders Great,” which was selected by “Foreword Review Magazine” as one of the top ten career books published in 2011, as well as a finalist in the “2011 Foreword Review Book of the Year Awards.”