Often our first thought when we need to delegate a task is: “Who’s done something like this before?” “Who’s good at this?”
But people in my management workshops are sometimes surprised when I point out that when delegating we don’t always want to select the most skilled.
Why? First let me say that if the task is critical and/or you have a short deadline (not much time for training or coaching), it IS probably the person with the expertise that you want to delegate to.
But if this is a less important assignment or you have a longer time frame, you may want to use it for growing one of your people. Ask yourself:
- Who would benefit from learning this?
- How will the individual employee and the team benefit long-term?
You may want to choose development of your team over quickly getting something done.
I’m finding that delegation is often an underdeveloped management competency. A lot of people don’t know how to do it, or don’t do it well. “I’m too busy to delegate. It’s easier to do it myself.”
But we need a team who knows how to delegate and get work done. Provide all of your supervisors and managers with the how’s of delegating successfully. Click here to ask me how.