How to Delegate Work Effectively: Eight Questions You MUST Answer

December 21, 2014 Employee Performance and Coaching, Project Management

8 Questions To Help You Delegate

Many managers take on too much because they don’t know to delegate work effectively. They are told they should delegate more, but still struggle to do it. I was definitely in this category when I first became a manager, and always struggled to ask for help. Often times, you’ll hear employees say something like this: “Mary is too nice. She tries to do everything, and ends up working 80 hours a week. We could help if we knew how.” However, other times, you’ll hear frustrated employees may say something like: “My boss just delegates everything. He pushes down any action he is assigned and just sits in his office. What is he doing?”

Knowing how to delegate work to your employees strikes a balance between the time investment needed to assign the work, and the continuous need to maximize your team’s productivity. Finding this balance is where many managers struggle, either because they cannot let go of something (or want it done a specific way), or conversely, they are unwilling to roll up the sleeves to contribute and just pass every action onto an employee.

Although as a manager of people you are in a natural position of power, just because you can delegate something doesn’t always mean you should. You are the decider of what is needed now, what is important, and what can wait, and you must always consider all three in your decision. So, when should you delegate? What tasks should you assign an employee, and which should you hold onto yourself? Here are 8 questions that I now ask myself when deciding whether or not I should delegate a given task.

1. Is This Something I Should Do?

Sometimes, it’s just a matter of figuring out a way to find more time to do what you need to do. This is obviously easier said than done. But even though you’re busy, some assignments – like writing employee evaluations, or interviewing a prospective job candidate – are tasks that you must do.

Passing down management-level responsibilities to your employees is generally not good practice. Exceptions to this may include things like:

Having an employee run a department meeting that has a standing agenda.
Calling back a customer to answer questions.
Perform a management task as part of a development opportunity.

But in situations when sensitive personnel information is involved or when critical decisions are expected to be made, it’s important that you find the time.

Key Delegation Variables You Should Consider:
An Employee’s Skillset
An Employee’s Current Activities and Workload
The Commitment Date
The Criticality of the Request
The Amount of Time To Get Someone Up To Speed
If Reassigning Work Can Help Develop a Worker

2. Is This Really a Priority?

Amazingly, this is the question where so many managers make mistakes because they fail to evaluate the true importance of tasks before assigning them. For example, if your team is working around the clock to handle a crisis situation, is asking an employee to update your team’s weekly project report card really important? Or can it wait another week?

In almost every instance, when you delegate a task to an employee it is taking time away from something else. So, when asking someone to help you out, be sure the work passes the sniff test of what’s really important before you disrupt them. Sometimes, it takes a little bit of managerial grit on your part to push back on the request and say “Sorry, this will have to wait” in order to allow your team focus on something of higher priority.

3. Who Has the Necessary Skill Set To Do This?

Delegation only works when the person being asked to perform the task is capable and skilled enough to jump in. For example, if you need to provide an estimate for labor hours in support of a new business opportunity, don’t go ask the newly hired intern to assist in completing the task. Rather, ask a senior employee who has the right experience to go evaluate the risks and challenges, and return with a well-designed plan.

Before asking someone to get involved, be sure to take a moment to consider if their skill set is appropriate for the task. Not all assignments are the same and you need to consider their complexity before reassigning them to an employee.

4. Is This Something an Employee Can Learn Quickly Enough in Order to Get It Done On Time?

When you do have some time to complete a task, it opens up your pool of candidates who can assist. Provided the task is not extremely complex, or specialized in terms of the necessary skill and knowledge set, delegating work that allows an employee time to get involved and do a good job is important. When extra time is available and a little bit of a learning curve can be absorbed, delegation can help save you time.

5. Is This A Good Learning Opportunity for An Employee?

When circumstances allow, transferring work can actually be a great way to develop your employees. Perhaps you can ask an employee to review a customer request and to put a basic proposal together. Maybe you ask the employee to sit in for you on a meeting about the budget plans coming up for next year. In short, delegating specific assignments that both free up your time and help employees learn can be a win-win.

Personally, I look at these opportunities as “Hey, take some time to work through it, and see where you get. I’ll get with you in a couple of days to check on progress and answer any questions you have.” Such activities give the employees a good look at the bigger picture, and can help them do their jobs better in the future.

6. How Much Time Is Needed to Get Someone Involved?

Always treat delegation of work like it’s an investment. How long will it take you to get someone added to the mix? An hour, a day, a week? What will your return on investment be?

If a given assignment will take you only half a day to complete, but will require 3 days of your time to get an employee up to speed, delegating the work is probably not a good investment of time. By contrast, if it takes you 3 days, but the employee’s involvement will end up saving you 3 weeks of time, this would be an example of a high return on investment.

Always remember that there is a learning curve which can outweigh the benefit of delegating the work to someone else.

7. What Will Delegating Do to Current Commitments?

If delegating a task means an employee will miss a key customer milestone, you should look to another staffer for help. In contrast, if an employee’s duties are mostly administrative and do not impact customers and deliverables, delegating work to him or her is likely a good decision.

The point is, before you delegate something, be sure to consider what that employee is currently working on and how their current commitments may be impacted. There is always a trade-off.

8. Who Else Can Help?

Let’s face it. We, as managers, all have our ‘go-to’ players, our A-team. These are the employees we trust most. They are our first line of defense, and are the individuals we go to routinely for help.

There are certainly a number of reasons why we go to these people, but it takes discipline on the part of the manager to pull back and find another individual to help. While we have those key go-to people, they already have assignments that they need to get things done. Unless you need their highly dependable support for a critical situation, share the love.

Who Should I Delegate To? A Quick Way To Narrow it Down:
Identify everyone on your team who has the skills to do the work.
Narrow down that group of people to those who could quickly pick up the task with minimal effort on your part.
Next, reduce the list of names down to who have the capacity to support without impacting their current commitments.
Assign the work to someone who may learn something new in the process.

Delegating Work To Employees Must Be a Calculated Decision

Reassigning work to an employee comes with both benefits and consequences. It can be a time saver for you and allow you to focus on critical tasks, but it can also be highly disruptive if poorly executed. Always be sure to ask yourself if the task is important enough such that you should deprioritize other activities, and make sure you identify the right person to take up the work. Carefully consider the trade-offs before you pass along an assignment.