The truth is, you can’t do it all! If you want to begin to live a life of purpose and passion, or simply find time to relax and sip a cup of your favorite tea, you will need to learn to master the art of delegation.

Delegation can be complicated. It’s one of the reasons we tend not to do it. There are ways to successfully delegate and reasons or fears why we don’t delegate.

Let’s start with understanding a few reasons why delegation fails. Think about the last time you asked someone to do something and the results did not meet your standards.
Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Did you get agreement on the specifics of the task?
2. Where performance standards or guidelines set?
3. Was the person properly trained and given the tools necessary to complete the task?
4. Were the objectives clearly stated?
5. Did you believe in the person’s capabilities?
6. Was there interference by another supervisor or subordinate regarding the assigned task?
7. Was time short when you were explaining what needed to be accomplished?

These are only a few areas where delegation can fail. Then there are the reasons or fears that keep us from delegating. See if any of the following are true for you:

1. You are fearful that the other person will perform better than you.
2. You have a fear that there might be punitive action by your superior.
3. You have a strong desire for perfection and no one can meet your standards.
4. You hate criticism, whether you are receiving it or giving it.
5. It is more important that people like you than help you.
6. You have favorite tasks and prefer to keep them for yourself.
7. You don’t really see the benefits in asking someone else to do what you can already do yourself.

To begin to remedy our delegation dilemma we need to better understand what delegation today means. According to Dr.Larry Baker and Dr. Merrill Douglass, authors of the Time Mastery Profile* (a learning assessment we use with our clients), delegation means “work sharing, whether vertical or horizontal. It means sharing responsibility and authority with others and holding them accountable for performance.” According to Baker and Douglass this involves a dilemma.

“We must keep what we want to give up—the responsibility and
we must give up what we want to keep—the authority.”

Our success at delegation depends on how well we handle this dilemma. The following are a few steps, including several that Baker and Douglass recommend, to get you started:

1. Consider the 8 General Levels of Authority:

a. Get the facts, I’ll decide
b. Suggest alternatives, I’ll decide
c. Recommend an alternative, I’ll decide
d. Decide, wait for my approval
e. Decide, act unless I say no
f. Act, report results
g. Act, report if unsuccessful
h. Act, reporting not needed

2. Consider how you will manage the job before you delegate it.

3. Are you selecting the right person based on their strengths?

4. Delegate the right to be wrong. Use mistakes as a learning process.

5. Follow up does not mean micromanage.

6. Write out pertinent details of what is being delegated. Discuss them and be sure the person clearly understands the expectations by repeating them back to you.

7. Insist on results, but not on perfection. There are many paths that will get you to the same destination. Learn to live with differences.

Managing time in order to have more time is an illusion. There are the same 24 hours in every day for every living thing. Self-management, what we do with our 24 hours, is the reality. Effective delegation is one of the many ways we can improve our self-management. For the next 30 days, focus on ways that you can use these effective delegation tips. Your tea kettle is waiting.

* 1993. Minneapolis, MN: Inscape Publishing.