Leadership Competency 5: Delegating to Others

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”
-Gen. George S. Patton

“Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too.”
-Robert Half

Many leaders find themselves stressed and overwhelmed because the demands of their jobs are very high. In addition to planning and organizing their workload and the work of their teams, they are involved on a daily basis with training, evaluating, and coaching others; attending meetings; documentation; interacting with upper management, etc. The demands on the time, energy and emotions of leaders in these situations can be quite grueling and can often lead to confusion and poor performance, as well as overall burnout.

One of the best tools you have as a leader is the power to delegate. An effective leader understands that one of their most important responsibilities is to recognize when, what, and how to delegate certain tasks to other members of the team.

Delegating certain tasks to others frees up your time to so you can focus your energy on the most important activities. Delegating effectively could be the key factor in your ability to boost your team’s performance, and thereby enhance the productivity of the organization and ultimately bring your vision to reality.

Objectives:

During this course you will:

• Review Birkman assessment results
• Identify areas for improvement
• Engage in active discussion
• Practice examples in role plays and activities
• Create specific action items to put into practice immediately

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Delegate planning and decision-making activities
• Give assignments that match individual skills and knowledge
• Explain expectations before giving an assignment
• Provide appropriate resources