How do you delegate effectively?

Learning to delegate effectively is a problem that is often encountered in companies, especially among new managers. This is the reason why, in this Professional Coaching Minute, we have chosen to deal with the theme of delegation.

(transcript below the video)

Delegate: definition

Delegating is the encounter between two opportunities. On the one hand, it is an opportunity for the manager to position himself at the right level of his responsibilities and what is expected of him in his function. It is also an opportunity to stop doing certain tasks that would not be at his level of responsibility.
On the other hand, delegating makes it possible to grow, develop skills and broaden the level of autonomy of your employees.

To delegate effectively: identify the most common delegation pitfalls.

1) Thinking that delegating takes more time than doing it yourself

2) Not clearly identifying areas of responsibility

3) Lack of confidence in your employees in their ability to do as well as you do

4) Not taking enough time to explain, to “mentor”, to train...

Indeed, delegating does not consist in simply getting rid of a task, it is setting a goal for your collaborators and supporting them in achieving their objective.

Delegate effectively in 3 steps

Step 1 to delegate effectively: know your own goals

Tell myself: what is the level of my job, what are all my tasks and projects that have a high added value that only I am likely to be able to create, build. Be clear about what is expected of us and on what indicators our performance will be evaluated at the end of the year.

Step 2 to delegate effectively: determine the responsibilities of your employees

What are the tasks assigned to the members of his team and how do they relate to ours? When you have trouble delegating, you just give your employees the tasks you would have to do yourself. Delegating is not that. Delegating effectively means sharing tasks between yourself and your team. What do I do myself, what do my collaborators do and what do we do together?

Step 3 to delegate effectively: set the rules of autonomy with your team

Define a framework of objectives, follow-up points until the moment when the person, having taken on the full dimension of their function, no longer needs such a framework.

Adapt your delegation technique to the level of autonomy of your employees

Our delegation technique is not the same depending on the autonomy levels of our employees.

There may be people who are still very “junior” in their function, who do not yet know how to do everything independently, they are discovering. It will therefore be necessary to proceed little by little, step by step, with a very close level of follow-up.
Other people already have more autonomy and more comfort in their function. With them, it will be possible to delegate a larger part of tasks, or even part of a project. Set levels of support that are less regular, more spaced out, by giving the person the opportunity to define for themselves how they will go about it. And then finally, there is the level of delegation for very competent and very autonomous people. We define a big project, the person has a decision-making framework and goals to achieve. The manager gives feedback on what is good, what can be developed and what can be improved but is no longer constantly monitored.

Delegating therefore means exercising a lot of discipline and self-awareness.

It's saying to yourself: “What am I doing, that should no longer be done by me and how can I make sure that it is finally learned, understood by my teams.”

It also requires good organization to allow regular and quality follow-up!

Delegation is one of the most complicated elements, especially for young managers or young leaders who are so eager to prove that they know how to do it and who know how to do it well that they tend to have difficulty delegating certain projects and tasks. It is also a major defect of some managers who want to control and verify everything and who confuse delegation and micro management.

However, it is not incompatible to be demanding and to want to control quality at the same time while delegating responsibility to your employees!

Learning to delegate is a great way to grow in your role. By delegating gradually, you can always go further towards more complex, more difficult things and continue to learn constantly.

See you very soon for a new Professional Coaching Minute.

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