Facts and Fallacies of Task Delegation

Our corporate world is full of maxims when it comes to collective performance and teamwork. There are many sayings such as “teamwork is the best work”, “alone we can do so little, together we can do so much” etc. These wise ‘corporate hymns’ are deeply resonating and meaningful. However, the question is, how can we achieve teamwork? It can’t be done by one person, right? Then how? Well, it can be attained with the help of effective job delegation. It’s not the only way, but undoubtedly, it’s a very effective and useful method.

Job delegation can be very helpful when you are overburdened with heaps of in-hand tasks and you don’t have enough time to undertake all of them. It is a great way to test and develop the skill sets of your employees as well as judge their abilities and aptitudes for handling certain types of tasks. Additionally, it gives you an opportunity to test your leadership and team handling skills.

Effective job delegation does not mean providing the task instructions and then asking your team to work on it in a diligent yet confined manner. When there is no room for creativity and ingenuity, the output may be erroneous. Job delegation, if not done properly, would require you to micromanage your tasks, putting you under intense and enormous pressure. It may also affect the dynamic instincts and forward thinking of your team, dampening down the spark of creativity within them.

I have witnessed many incidences throughout my corporate career wherein impulsive and stringent approach of employers or task assignees made their efforts counterproductive. It often resulted in the termination of the business contracts between them and their employees.

Most of the times, unknowingly or unwantedly, we perform our own tasks despite hiring someone else to do that. The biggest and most common reason is the lack of trust and fear of possible errors. Consequently, we don’t discuss our work with our team, thereby, we stick to our rigid conventions and tragically fall into the vicious trap of micromanagement. We do our best to get our tasks accomplished, but our over-involvement and trust deficit, make us feel frustrated and exhausted at the end. Ultimately, we give up! We feel that it was not our cup of tea…which is not true!

The proper way of task delegation is sharing job responsibilities and decision making rights/authorities with your team.

Don’t doubt your team’s ability

Job delegation may drive undesired and unsatisfactory results at times. But that doesn’t mean we can’t trust our team members. People learn from their mistakes. Team effort would enrich their experience, which will prove beneficial for us in the long run. So, consider mistakes as an investment, not a loss.

Don’t consider it as a waste of time

Many times, we believe that we should perform our tasks instead of delegating it to someone else. Maybe, it’s helpful to a certain extent or in the initial stage, but as any project or business grows, the job delegation becomes mandatory.

Don’t overlook your staff development

The best way to motivate our team is to give them a sense of achievement. That’s why we must work out on our task delegation skill. It allows our team members to feel as a part of our company’s success and happiness. They get involved in the business activities and add more values to our business.

Don’t fall for zero participation

Kicking back and relaxing while the team members are busy doing all the work is certainly not a good practice. It can have a negative impact on our business. To ensure success, we should supervise the work while letting others work on it.

The success of any project depends on joint efforts. To-and-fro communication, knowledge sharing, direct involvement and support are essential factors that determine fruitful completion of a project and organizational success.