- Decide whether you want to delegate.
- Decide to whom you want to delegate responsibility. Does this person have the requisite skills and background knowledge? How quickly will this person learn?
- Brief the person on the task: Define exactly what the person is responsible for. Explain how the task fits into the larger project. Clarify objectives and decide on deadlines.
- Encourage your delegate to act independently and to make his or her own decisions by emphasizing the end results. Say, "I want to see such-and-such. Don't tell me the details."
- Allow the person to perform the task. Offer help as needed, but don't be too intrusive - if the person has a different way of doing things than you do, be flexible and open-minded about it.
- Periodically check the standard of work. Provide helpful feedback.
- Recognize the person who does the job - give him or her credit for it. Public recognition for a job well done will encourage effort in the future.
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- Delegate tasks at times when productivity is likely to be high - try earlier in the week as opposed to Friday.
- Be available to answer questions and discuss progress.
- Be generous with praise for well-executed jobs.
Warnings:
- Avoid thinking that it is too much trouble to delegate responsibility - that it would be faster and simpler if you did the job yourself. Training a subordinate for a task might require more time initially, but will pay off over time if the task needs to be done again and again.
- Problems often arise over conflicts of responsibility, so make sure the person to whom you're delegating tasks knows exactly what he or she is responsible for.
- Delegating a task doesn't mean you are no longer responsible for seeing that it's completed.
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