It's a fact that many managers find it difficult to delegate. Delegation is a key leadership and management skill but nobody tells managers how to do it well. So managers ask their staff to do a job, and then spend almost as much time redoing the work as it would have taken them to do it from scratch themselves. They 'learn' from experience that delegating isn't worth the effort. But if you can learn to delegate it will bring huge advantages. Not only will it save you time but it will create a workforce that is more innovative, more engaged and more productive. So how do you delegate effectively? What do you need to take into account? What rules do you need to follow? Here are some basics to get you started

1. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
Raising performance – delivering results
How to delegate effectively
Fiona Cohn
Excel:arate
fiona@excelarate.co.uk

2. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
Delegation
Delegating well is a skill. And it’s a skill that most
managers find challenging to master. Their
experience usually goes something like this. They
delegate a piece of work that comes back with
mistakes or was nothing like what they expected.
They end up doing it again themselves and the self
fulfilling prophesy that ‘if you want something done
well do it yourself’ is fuelled once again.
Sound familiar? We’ve all had that experience. So how
can you delegate effectively time and time again?
Raising performance, delivering results

3. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
Why bother delegating?
Being able to delegate well has lots of business advantages.
• It’ll save you time
• Actually it’ll give you time to do more important work
• It’ll make your staff more skilled
• It’ll keep your staff motivated
• It’ll encourage staff to take more responsibility
• It’ll reduce accidents
• It’ll help with succession planning
• It’ll give your customers a better experience
Raising performance, delivering results

4. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
Delegation v abdication
• The main reason delegation fails is because most
managers don’t do it. They abdicate.
• Delegation is more than giving someone
responsibility for doing a piece of work or project.
• Delegation can only take place after you as the
manager, has spent time making sure the people you
are delegating to have the necessary information to
do what you are asking them to.
• Before you delegate, you need to invest time
preparing them, explaining and where necessary, up
skilling your staff.
Raising performance, delivering results

5. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
1st and 2nd levels of delegation
The two lowest levels of delegation are:
• Intensive delegation - telling someone what to do at each
stage. You may as well do it yourself. It does not promote
ownership of the task or initiative and they’ll never learn
to do it themselves.
• Ask – telling someone when they don’t know what to do
or if they think something is wrong with the task, to ask
you what to do. This is little better than intensive
delegation. Again it does not promote any initiative and
the person being delegated to is unlikely to gain the
knowledge to do the task again.
Both of these are very time intensive
Raising performance, delivering results

6. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
3rd level of delegation
• This is the lowest level of delegation you should
consider if you want staff to learn, take initiative and
develop their problem solving skills.
• Recommend – when you delegate a job, ask the
person you’re delegating to, to recommend how they
will tackle it. Ask them open questions, for example,
what are the reasons for them suggesting a particular
method.
• Use this level when making a mistake won’t be too
costly or when the person has a lower level of skill or
expertise.
Raising performance, delivering results

7. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
4th level of delegation
Reserve this for staff who already have the ability or
transferable skill but who may not be confident.
• Do the job and report back immediately.
This shows you trust the staff member to do the
work but are there to support them and help
them get it right.
Even if someone is skilled, you may want to use
this kind of delegation if the job is very
important or if making a mistake would be very
costly.
Raising performance, delivering results

8. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
5th level of delegation
This is ideally where you’d like to be.
It means you have high performing staff who you
believe can do the work and get it right.
• Do it and report back periodically (you will
agree when you expect updates).
Levels four and five demonstrate you trust your
staff which will motivate them to do the best
possible job.
The advantage to you is that your time is freed
to do more important management tasks.
Raising performance, delivering results

9. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
The rules of delegation
Irrespective of what level of delegation you choose to use, there
are some rules.
1. Give a clear description of the desired result or objective. Be
as visual as you can. It’s what the end result looks like – not
how to achieve it.
2. Tell people what the ‘rules’ are and point out things that they
should not do to achieve the result.
3. Identify what ‘resources’ are available to help them.
Resources will be relevant to the job.
4. Identify the accountability arrangements, when they need to
give updates, and the criteria against which the result will be
measured
5. Tell them the consequences of doing the job – good and bad.
These are based on the accountability arrangements.
Raising performance, delivering results

10. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
Final thoughts about delegation
• The main reason why people do not delegate is because
they don’t believe the other person will succeed. You
solve this by delegating at the appropriate level.
• At first delegation takes longer than doing it yourself. Later
on, the time you invested in delegating will repay you
several times over.
• You will delegate to the same person at different levels
depending on the task.
• People will make mistakes – use these as learning
opportunities.
• Delegation indicates trust, and trust is the highest level of
human motivation.
Raising performance, delivering results

11. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
If you want to know more about how we can
help you to massively improve your
business results, please get in touch:
Fiona Cohn
Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
Email: fiona@excelarate.co.uk
Web: www.excelarate.co.uk
Raising performance, delivering results