As a manager, it’s mostly your duty to delegate tasks to your subordinates. A good manager however needs to have skills that allow them to go beyond instruction and inspire employees to work better but also, become better individuals in their respective roles. Delegation is the transmission of responsibility from one person, usually in a leadership position to another person, in a lesser position. This transfer of responsibility also comes with a transfer of authority with anticipated expectation. Delegation of tasks suitably requires strategy for it to be effective. A manager must be able to know their employees and determine whether or not they have the skill set to perform or execute specific tasks with desired outcome. Richard Adefemi, a businessman says that delegating tasks to an employee who doesn’t have the right skills and ability to accomplish a task will be a total waste of time and effort. “You don’t want a scenario where a two-hour based task is still ongoing on day two, this amounts to time wasting, and ineffectiveness of the manager.” For him, delegating certain tasks requires specific interest to an employee. Employees with lack of interest would not put their best foot forward to achieve their desires. A manager must know and comprehend the level of interest in their employees in certain areas. He also notes that an employee who desires to move into a management role would appreciate a delegated task of being asked to, for example supervise new interns as compared to an employee who prefers to be led rather than lead others. When interest is lacking, a task cannot be performed properly. This will lead to a complete waste of time and probably a total rework of the task. To delegate a task to an employee, a manager must make sure that there is clarity of purpose and a good understanding of the task by the employee. The manager needs to ensure that the employee knows how to accomplish the task, must provide access to resources to accomplish the task and also offer the employee with the expected desired outcome for the tasks once completed. “Managers must always leave room for the employee to ask questions pertaining the task for their understanding, and the manager must be approachable if for any reason, the employee requires further clarification when in doubt,” the businessman states. He also carries on that sometimes, employees are capable of performing certain tasks but are scared of failure. It is the duty of the manager to recognise such employees and hearten them into executing given tasks through mentoring. Part of the inspiration is also to appreciate such employees even when they make mistakes and then correct them to perform better in other tasks. This helps to empower and boost the confidence of employees to partake in more delegated tasks. The obligation to effectively delegate tasks or duties to an employee rests on the ability of the manager to know their employee in terms of strengths and weaknesses, interests exhibited and the skills possessed by such an employee, Adefemi says. He also carries on that delegation supports managers to focus more on growth, and allows them to explore other areas in which the organisation or business can experience other opportunities. On the other hand, the employees themselves become empowered, gain more experience and inadvertently help to increase productivity in the organisation. It ends up becoming a win-win situation for both the manager and the employee. Experts say that successful delegation does not mean that you release every aspect of the project and start depending on the team members. It is rather you empower your team and build their confidence by making them responsible for a small part of the project. It can be a repetitive task or something you feel a particular member is better at. However, delegating too much can make your final product jumbled so you must know where to draw the line to maintain control.
