The art of delegation!
Work-life integration has become the new workstyle of the 21st century. People are always working – at home, in office, while traveling and even at the dining table! Generation Z loves to be dynamic and can’t stay without having work to do. However, to stay healthy and manage stress, either as a team-lead in a college society or at work, you can learn to delegate work where necessary. Delegation shares the workload, builds your managerial and leadership skills and gives a sense of responsibility to the team. However most perfectionists and passionate leaders struggle to delegate for fear of the work not getting done properly. Here are some ways you can delegate and ensure your work gets done!
Let’s see how can we delegate certain roles effectively:
- WHAT to delegate: You need to focus on work that plays to your strengths and that is critical for you to show results. Keep in mind that some tasks are easier to explain and hand-over to others. Break down your work into parts and delegate components that you are comfortable giving to someone else. If there is critical work that you feel you cannot afford to make mistakes on, perhaps do that yourself. Think about the roles of different people on your team and if something on your plate should actually belong in a different department or with someone else, make sure that the right person is allocated the work.
- WHOM to delegate to: Observe the strengths and development areas of your team and manager. Learn the traits, values, and characteristics of the people you are working with. Once you have a fair understanding, assign work to people who will get your work done according to your expectations. Assign the tasks to those who have a reputation of delivering quality. Trust the person and their workstyle but guide them to get the work done effectively. For example, you can delegate content work to someone who has a flair for writing. If you feel you don’t know how to do something, you can also delegate upwards to your manager or seniors. Getting support and guidance from them in order to complete the job perfectly is also an art!
- HOW to delegate: Clear instructions is the key to perfect delegation. Provide enough details and ensure there are clear expectations. Establish a specific deadline at the beginning, with milestones. In this way you can check up on progress before the final deadline. Keep some buffer time so that you can clean up any work that is not done to your satisfaction.
That being said, remember to delegate responsibility and not just the task. Ownership of work leads to quality work. If you build a trusting relationship between yourself and your associate, you will see a difference in output. Give them feedback on their performance and applaud them for their effort. It will inspire loyalty, provide real satisfaction for work done, and become the basis for mentoring and positive performance reviews. All in all, giving you more time to have a healthy work-life balance.
Link to the published article: http://bit.ly/2EQ84Qm
