This is the next part in my current series on Team Building, please check my blog to read the other articles about Team Purpose and Goals, Leadership and Getting the Right People

So you have got the right leader and the right people so what comes next?

Delegation

Delegation is to entrust a task or responsibility to another, typically someone less senior, typically while it is a kind of top down order it should be phrased using good soft skills practice that sounds like asking in a certain way with an explicit explanation, guidelines and clear expectations and agreement. Of course if there is resistance language will need to be escalated. In terms of professionalism the delegatee is a subordinate and not your friend after all.

Tasks must be shared and allocated to people whose skill sets match up.   Good delegation comes down to matching task to person while maintaining clear command structures that encompass both personal responsibility and accountability.  In fact it could be argued this is the true nature of synergy, when each of the component parts of the team are fully playing their roles to create something greater than the members can create individually.

Good delegation has many benefits for both the Senior and the delegated. It enables the Senior to concentrate on their tasks and bigger picture things such as vision and strategy while it motivates and builds trust in team members. Spreading the workload also reduces stress and other working pressures such as meeting deadlines and further more it is an ideal training and development mechanism for team members and ultimately that means they need less supervision which again in turn means that people management can move into the more progressive task management model rather than the regressive time management model.

Difficulties with Delegation

However some people have problems with delegation and there are a number of reasons why leaders do not delegate.  Some common reasons are listed below

I can do better myself = I do not trust my team

I might get into trouble if it goes wrong = I do not trust my team

I need to keep control = I do not trust my team

Good delegation fundamentally comes down to trust.  So in most cases where delegation fails it is because of leader insecurity; let this go and delegate wisely and fairly, remember the team’s purpose, goals and task completion are at the core of everything you are looking to achieve.

As always stay safe and stay well my friends.