7 key points on delegating your way to success

For the past 3 years I have been working as a teacher for an exchange program, where I have also been responsible for a leader team consisting of 3 people. I like to think of the job as “expect the unexpected” as I have been in charge of 19–28 students from 5–7 different countries, and many of the work tasks just appear throughout the school year, with no year being the same. It is a hectic job with many areas of responsibility, and various tasks that needs to be done throughout the week. Every person in my leader team have regular ongoing tasks, as well as monthly challenges that we decide together. However, during the day-to-day I would find myself doing more tasks than necessary, as I could have delegated many of them, but it wasn’t something I was conscious about, but rather realized after.

As a leader you should utilize your team in the best possible way, where it becomes a win-win situation for both employer and employee. This includes delegating tasks to reduce your own work load and work hours, simultaneously as you give opportunities for career development and personal growth. By delegating tasks and giving your staff members responsibility, they are more included in the business and it also increases their emotional ownership to the projects going on and the company. A current issue for many businesses today is that an extensive amount of information is only stored in the head of the leader, and not written down or shared. This makes the team and company too dependent on the leader and lack of shared information and involvement within a company can lead to inefficiency as well as reduced motivation for their work.

But why is it so hard to delegate tasks?

There can be many reasons for this, and can depend on the personality of the leader, the type of industry you work in and what is at stake. Some common reasons are;

• You have the information regarding the task, and it would take time to explain to and guide others, therefore it is quicker to just do it yourself.
• You forgot you could have delegated the task, and automatically went and did it.
• Lack of trust in others to do it as well or in the same way as you would.
• You enjoy the task, and don’t want to give it away.
• Bad past experience with delegated tasks.
• Afraid that someone will do it better than you, and affect your status as a leader.
• The task is one that nobody would want, and you feel responsibility as a leader to do it.

Why should you delegate more tasks?

By delegating more tasks, you are not only reducing your work load and lifting weight and stress off of your shoulders, but you also give your staff members a chance to grow and develop by getting new tasks and areas of responsibility. It is important to enable and help your staff members to improve their critical thinking skills, which also means that you should not intervene if something goes wrong (unless it goes very wrong), but rather talk with them and keep guiding, to see if they can find a good solution and learn from the mistake. Additionally, focus on the progress of your work and your employer, rather than on perfection.

What are typical tasks you should delegate?

• Tasks that your teammates can do better or tasks you’re not particularly good at.
• Tasks which are not that crucial, but time consuming.
• Tasks of low priority where your “expertise” is not needed, and other people are perfectly capable of doing the task.
• Tasks involving something you want your team members to learn or get involved in.
• Repetitive and teachable tasks in general.

As mentioned earlier, you should not delegate tasks where your particular knowledge or experience is needed or tasks where stakes are too high. Remember, everything will be your problem in the end anyways, so don’t give away something where the problem that can occur by potential misunderstanding or failure is too critical.

Lately I have started using Tika, which is a productivity software and unified calendar for meetings, tasks and to-do’s. During meetings we have the agenda already in our scheduled meeting in calendar, and we also write the meeting summary there. Since the software uses Natural Language Processing, it is incredibly easy to delegate tasks as we go about with our meeting, since I can write who will do what and it automatically creates it into a task for that person. This way we don’t end the meeting with a bunch of things to do, resulting in me being responsible for all and having to delegate later, but we allocate the tasks and systemize them easily during the meeting. I have noticed that less tasks are forgotten that comes up during meetings, and all participants are more involved.

Some key tips to make sure that the task delegated will have a successful outcome

1. Match the task with the person: When delegating a task, make sure that it fits the person you give it to, both in terms of capacity and willingness to perform the task. Know in which areas your staff members want to grow and be challenged, what keeps them motivated, and have a mutual plan for their career development. That way it is easier to decide which task to delegate to whom, and it becomes a win-win for employer and employee!
2. Give the framework of the task: Give clear instructions of the framework of the task to the person you are delegating it to. Explain where they can be creative and where they have to do it a certain way, in order to make sure that what absolutely needs to be a part of it, will be.
3. Spend time explaining: Have a thorough conversation with room for questions the first time you delegate a repetitive task. It might seem long and tedious, but it ensures that your staff member properly understands and takes ownership of the task and will save you a lot of time in the long run. Make sure at the end of the conversation that you are on the same page in terms of the purpose and goal of the task, and that all is clear and understood — often a delegated task will have a negative outcome if they initially didn’t understand what you wanted them to do.
4. Give trust: Trust is something that is given by one person and received by another. It can have tremendous ripple effects and be a true confidence boost. When delegating a task to someone, especially if it is a big and important one and you have found a person you trust to do it — tell them! Make sure that they know you trust them, believe in them, and have faith in their execution of the task. This will also make them trust their gut feeling and go in 100% on the task.
5. Give tools: Give them the knowledge and tools needed to succeed in their task to begin with, in order for them to work as independent as possible.
6. Be open-minded: As you delegate a task, you need to accept that it very well might not turn out 100% as you pictured or would have done it — and that’s ok. Don’t be too set on your own ideas, but trust others to have good visions as well, and let go of the potential in your own — I’m speaking from experience here. (If you need it a 100% a specific way to begin with, you might as well keep the task and not delegate it.)
7. Delegate what to accomplish: (…) not what to do — that way your staff member will feel responsibility over the task in a different way where there’s room for their input and let them be part of creating the task and make it their own.

At the age of 15 I started my leader training through the Norwegian YMCA-YWCA. They do their youth work through the motto of “Young responsibility, adult presence” which not only helped me grow tremendously as a young leader by getting trust and a lot of responsibility at a young age, but I have also implemented that mentality for my staff members across various industries (however I usually replace young and adult, as sometimes I have been younger than those I have been in charge of, but the message stays the same). Give responsibility with a good dosage of trust and guide your team members instead of monitoring them. And remember — if you get praise for a project or task that your staff members have participated in, share the rewards and credit with them! By acknowledging their work and attributions, you can build your team for further success!

If you have any other tips on how to delegate tasks and how to do it well, comment below or share your thoughts with us by reaching out to hello@tika.ai!