How do I improve my delegation skills?

[MaryMotherOfCheeses]

I'm really crap at it, to the stage where actually its a bit of a problem.

I might be a bit too much of a control freak. I either delegate entirely, ie, here's the job, get on with it, or I don't let the person do anything cos I'm trying to dictate too much.

I need a happy balance.

Any tips?

Make sure you have a good team to delegate to. Do what you can do to influence this.

Sit on your hands from jumping in if you are copied into emails etc.

See it as a coaching thing, the more effort you put into setting them up and developing them, the less effort you need to put in in the long run.

Give and ask for regular feedback from your team.

Best tip I ever had was from my old boss who said every piece of paper that came over his desk, his first thought would be 'do I really have to do this or could someone else do this better than me?'

It is hard

I create systems so everyone does it my way - which is bad

I never give it away entirely I always micro-manage

You need training in how to delegate - but you may need more than one session - I certainly do

I think you have to see it as a positive thing - as Shiregirl says it is training & development for the other person

See, I don't want to micro manage, it doesn't make me happy, cos things are never exactly as I would want them, so I need to let go more [yikes!]

I have trouble identifying chunks of tasks to hand over. I can hand over crappy small stuff, or whole projects. It's managing the in between bits I find tricky.

MMOC are you me?

I really struggle to delgate and then could collapse under the never ending pile of stuff 'to do'.

But it's the old, old story of it being quicker to do it myself than to show someone else how I want it done. I know it'll save time in the long run, but my inner control freakery won't let it go

How does anyone get around this?

Tidybush, I think you might be me. that's so true!

What I try and do is list out everything needed for a particular event or project. To take a non-work specific example, say the project is to organise a work Christmas party. I'd think of all the things that need to be done e.g. arrange venue, arrange catering, arrange entertainer, arrange decorations, guest list and invites. Each then can be split down further e.g. with venue it could be research potential venues, check availability, get costings, potentially negotiate on costings, book venue, arrange for venue to be paid. Then consider which bits you want/need involvement with - here it might be that you don't need to speak to venues yourself but you want to be shown proposals and costings and helping decide which one to book. You can then delegate the rest of the task, being clear on what you're asking them to do and when they need to come back to you. Does that help at all?

I don't think it is as easy as saying as delegation is a coaching tool. As a manager you'll have a range of people with different skills and experiences. Some expert, some beginners. If you delegate something to an expert then they'll resent you if you micro-manage. If you delegate something to someone with limited experience and skills, then you'll need to give them some support/coaching to help them develop and complete the task.

So when delegating, you need to be clear about the task to be completed, then decide on the best person to delegate it to. If you are the only person in the team who can do something, then it would be sensible to develop someone else to do it. If you have an expert in the team already and the task needs to be completed urgently, then you may decide to give it to the expert and give the development opportunity to the non-expert at a later time.

So you need to look at the task/project and the skill levels of your team. At the time of delegating, agree how you'll keep in touch, coach/support whatever using appropriate language for that particular person.