We all know how easy it is for busy managers to become overwhelmed with their workloads and responsibilities. With deadlines looming on multiple projects, you may want to find ways to delegate some of that work so you can focus on the tasks that only a manager can do. But delegating effectively is easier said than done; there are many key steps involved in building an effective delegation strategy. In this blog post, we’ll explore some simple tips for developing a successful delegation plan.

You may have tried to delegate tasks in the past. Perhaps the quality of work wasn’t good enough to suit you, so you ended up redoing everything. There’s no sense in delegating tasks in the first place if you know you’ll end up redoing them, right?

Here are three problems you might be using as excuses for not delegating:

• You feel you can do the job better yourself.
• There’s not enough time to train someone else to do the job.
• You feel like you have to redo someone else’s work.

If you’re facing these challenges, perhaps it’s time to look at some strategies you can use to find success in delegating.

Consider using these delegation techniques:

1. Face the truth. If you feel you can do the job better yourself, take time to think things through.

• Other people may not do the job the same way you would, but that doesn’t mean they won’t do an adequate job.
• The people on your team may be eager to do a great job and need only your encouragement, rather than for you to take over.

2.Train your staff. Perhaps those working with you do need some additional training. This shouldn’t be a reason to do everything yourself.

Short-term training now can have a huge pay off later on. Training your staff now will prepare them for the next project

3. Relax. There’s no sense in letting pressure for perfection bring you undue stress.

• Give yourself a break. It’s just not possible for you to do everything yourself, nor should you want to.
• Other people can do the work even if you don’t think they’ll do as good a job as you.

4. Follow a successful plan. If you’re the head of the team and certain tasks are critical for the success of the project, you may want to do the major work on those. You can pass routine tasks along to other people on the team.

• Delegate the task itself, not the way in which it’s completed.
• Assign tasks based on strengths. Perhaps you could let one person do research, assign converting raw data into a spreadsheet to another person and designate a good writer to write the rough drafts of the reports.You can still be in control of the final report by pulling all the data together into a solid finished project.
• Require progress reports at specified deadlines over the course of the project. Ask them if there’s anything you can do to help them meet the next deadline.
• Give praise and positive feedback when the project is finished.

As a busy manager, it’s important to be able to delegate tasks effectively. Allocating the right responsibilities and ensuring that all of your team members are engaged in their work is key for success – but sometimes it can feel like finding the balance between delegation and micromanagement is impossible. Learning effective delegation strategies doesn’t need to be hard, however; with a little bit of knowledge, you can start giving other people responsibility while keeping your finger on the pulse of your business.

Best of luck and lets us know how it goes. Share with us in the comment section.