While managing affairs of an organisation it becomes impossible many times to do every thing of your own and you feel delegating essential activities to some one, which means handing over some of your authority and control to someone else and making sure things move as you desire. Most managers admit that delegation is good thing but when it actually comes to the point they find all sorts of excuses why they cannot do so. The reluctance you may have about delegating any task means that subordinates never get a chance to prove that they can do. Many of the reasons given for not delegating are not genuine. It may be because you feel that you are irreplaceable, not having trust in your people and not accepting the differences.

There are those managers who think they are really good at delegating because they give so many tasks away but they may not have understood that there is a difference between delegation and abdication. If you give too many tasks, it may mean that your subordinates may have responsibility but not authority but not authority, so they have little influence in getting things done should others don’t extend cooperation. They can be asked to carry out tasks, which are outside their skills and abilities, so they are unlikely to be able to complete in time satisfactorily. The consequence is that when subordinates do not achieve result they may become unresponsive and unwilling to take up other  

·        Do I believe that I am the only one who can do the job?

·        Do I avoid delegating because I think it is going to take up too much time?

·        Am I reluctant to delegate because I dread losing control?

·        Do I have too much to do?

·        Do I find it difficult to trust other people to do a job properly?

If you find answers of these questions in affirmative, it is not a good sign. Please have a re-look at your attitude. In fact you will be more effective if you concede and acknowledge that delegating is a vital part of managing effectively and could allow you do more.  

1.   DECIDE WHAT TO DELEGATE  

 
    It will be a wrong assumption that you can delegate any task to anybody only because you do not feel like doing it or you have to keep some one busy. Make a list of tasks you must delegate, tasks you should delegate, tasks you can delegate and tasks you may retain. This analysis useful because it prompts you to realize that you may still be carrying out some tasks which you should have delegated much earlier. Once you decide what to delegate the next step is to make certain you know precisely what it involves. Identify the mental process needed to carry out the tasks, the activities perform and equipment to be used, the relationships with other people necessary to complete the tasks. The purpose of identifying is to consider the skills and abilities necessary to carry out the work.        
Delegating requires you to pass on some of your responsibility and authority for carrying out tasks while still being accountable. So before delegating assess how much risk  is involve, how  much authority and responsibility you will be given up. By analyzing these factors you are able make a wise choice about which jobs would be most suitable and delegating.

     2. DECIDE WHO CAN DO IT      

    Consider the level of ability that your people possess. You are likely to find while assessing the abilities that some are aces (experienced people,
need no support), Kings and queens (fairly experienced but need support from time to time) jacks (need to learn, ought to be told how to carry out) and at last fill in blanks (to be called upon when need arises, can provide specific skills).
Recognizing the various levels of ability which subordinates possess means you will need to provide assistance for those who require it and can leave those who are able to do of their own by tailoring the amount of assistance you provide the capabilities of different people, you will improve those who need improving and encourage those who are already competent. For subordinate to be capable of carrying the tasks delegated to them, they need to know the facts and feel supported.
To know exactly what is required of them they should be made fully aware of area of responsibility being delegated, amount of authority delegated and standards required and the time scale involve so that they know precisely what is expected of them and within how much time tasks is to be completed. TO be effective, assess the capabilities of different people, no which tasks would be given to whom, identify the facts people need to know, understand the importance of giving encouragement and support and try to suit the right tasks to the right people.  

  3. BRIEFING      

    After deciding what to delegate and to whom, you need to guide the person who will be completing the tasks and this requires you to introduce the task, telling details, define standards and setup a system for reporting on progress. Tell what you want, what it needs to be done an how it fit into overall job responsibilities.
Telling about components of tasks with responsibilities and authority being given to him. Describe the background as to why it needs to be delegated, set the standards of quality. Check whether some one needs coaching in some aspect of the task. Encourage and instructs when needed and brief enough to hand over the tasks and let a person move on with it.

 4. MONITORING PROGRESS  

    The real challenge facing you is to monitor progress without interfering in the work that your subordinate is doing. If you keep popping up demanding, enthusiasm of subordinate will vanish. You need to decide with whom how to monitor. With certain people you may only need to check the work on completion while with others you need to keep a silent watch on what is going on so as to spot to any wrong, which might be appearing. You should always be able to monitor as what is happening and what should happen. Monitor progress without interfering. Occasionally check and make gap analysis between actual happenings and should be happening.
Help people to overcome any difficulties they experience. Encourage people to find their own solutions. Review how the task was performed. Congratulate subordinate for his good work and give credit to him with open mind when and where it is due.
   

5. YOUR ATTITUDE

    Delegating is a two way process. If you are prepared to take a risk by deciding to let someone else do a task that you would normally do, while still accepting full responsibilities for a result, trust subordinates and support their mistakes, I am sure they will commit themselves and give their best. It is only by having the right attitude that you are likely to generate the right attitude in others. You need to mind yourself that you are not the only person who is capable of doing the thing you do. You will not loose control of your work overall if you let go a part of it. You should have faith that if you choose wisely and delegate well enough, you will get good results. 

Show that you trust people to do the task properly. Trust is built up gradually and can be initiated by asking people to carry out less important tasks before to delegate anything of greater importance. Always do what you have promised you will do. Regularly indicate that you value the effort others have made towards achieving results. Never letting those who are doing delegated tasks takes the blame for anything that goes wrong. If problems occur your subordinates need to be certain that you will stand up for them and be loyal to them. If you do not, they will learn not to trust you.       You should believe that subordinates or any other person in the organisation don’t commit mistakes intentionally but inevitably mistakes will happen. The important thing is to let it be known that if some thing goes wrong people should not be afraid to admit it. This gives them confidence that you will support them and that your attitude will always be helpful no matter what the circumstances.

If you have not conveyed your willingness to support mistakes, your subordinates will not bring you their problems. If they are confident that you have their interests at heart, it is reciprocated. I am confident that they will work hard to ensure not to let you down. Since you will be handling over a certain amount of authority and responsibility, you need to feel that this will be properly used. Whatever the size of the task, any thing that is delegated will always be the better for a degree of commitment. In fact, the more commitment you can obtain from those to whom you delegate, the greater the chance that they will be successful.    
To take on the task and its attendant responsibilities, people need to be interested, willing and able. Ability without a willingness to take on a task generally means that it will not be satisfactorily completed.

To obtain commitment, you need to convince people that they are carrying out tasks which are necessary, have certain degree of autonomy within which he has to operate provided the objectives are met and they have been entrusted with the task because they are considered capable of doing it. In this way you help subordinates to become committed to the job and encourage them to treat the tasks as their own.  

6. BENEFITS

·        Gain time to devote to strategic activities like thinking and planning.

·        Help other people to develop and to increase their self-confidence.

·        Get to know people better and so enhance relationships.

·        Learn to let go.

·        Get more done, including many of the things you always wanted to do.               

   Remember that attitude is an essential consequent of successful delegating.