Archive for the ‘Delegating’ Category

Ask any successful person what helped them to be a success and you will no doubt find them talking about the host of people who helped them along the way.

At some level we all understand that if we are going to achieve to anything like our true potential we are going to have to enlist the help of others and trust them. Despite this level of understanding, we still see managers not delegating effectively or at all.

So what might be stopping you from delegating as a manager?

It Will Be Quicker To Do It Myself

Okay let’s be totally honest, at this precise moment in time you probably could do it quicker yourself and maybe also for the next few times as well. On the other hand, doing the task that could easily be done by someone other than you is eating into your ultimate limiting factor called time.

Remember that showing someone else is a one time investment of time that pays back over and over again.

They Won’t Do It As Well As Me

Again, short term you might be absolutely right. On the other hand they might actually do it even better. Take technology as an example. People of a certain age were brought up with technology and often know more shortcuts than you.

They Will Do It Better Than Me

In this situation you might worry about looking incompetent or not up to the job. Looking at it differently however, the role of the manager is to focus on what they do best and to unlock the potential in others. If they can do it better than you, give it to them. It’s called good management.

They Will Let Me Down

Ask any manager and I bet they will be able to recount a time when they delegated something that all went wrong. On reflection they generally realise that there were a whole host of factors that contributed to the failing. Giving the message, “You will let me down”, is akin to saying to someone, “I don’t trust you”. Hardly a message you want to give or one your people want to hear.

I Will Look Incompetent

It is one of the biggest myths around that to be a successful manager you need to be brilliant at everything. Look at sports as an example. Many mediocre players go on to be great coaches or managers while many who are brilliant players then struggle. The thing to remember is that what you are judged on ultimately is your ability to deliver results through others and that’s what management is all about.


The Bottom Line: The most successful managers focus on their priorities and on being great managers. Don’t let your ego or self-doubt stop you from delegating and get the results you know you can deliver.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professional people to become highly effective managers. He invites you to sign up for his free e-course, Management Mastery, at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk.

Ask managers what their biggest challenges are and the chances are delegation will appear as one of the things on their list. At the same time they also often come up with a whole host of excuses for not delegating. Here are my 4 favourites:

Excuse 1: I Don’t Have The Time
• Now is this illogical or what? If you are drowning because you have too much to do, you need to get rid of some stuff. Sitting down and delegating something is a one time investment of time that pays back over and over again. It’s not that you don’t have the time; you do. It is the choice you make not to delegate that is the issue.

Excuse 2: They Won’t Do It As Well As Me

• Maybe they won’t. At the same time could they do it to an acceptable level? If yes, what’s stopping you?

Excuse 3: They Might Do It Better Than Me

• Perhaps they will and if they do it is conclusive proof that you should not be doing it in the first place. Ask yourself this; would the manager of a soccer team play their top goal scorer as goalkeeper? Of course they wouldn’t. Your job as a manager is to facilitate getting the best from everyone.

Excuse 4: They Might Let Me Down

• They might or might not. Just because someone let you down in the past does not mean that it needs to be that way in the future. The key thing is to learn from the things that did not work out as you hoped.

The Bottom Line: Unless you are willing to delegate you will always be under pressure and struggle to deliver to your potential. So what choice will you make? Be the serial underperformer or be a highly successful manager?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. He invites you to sign up for his Management  e-course

Every good manager and leader knows the results that they achieve are to a large extent influenced by their ability to bring out the best in others.

Despite this, many managers and leaders fail to delegate effectively. Why is this?

Excuse 1: It takes too long

• Let’s be honest, it does require an investment of time. The key thing to remember is that it is a one-off investment of time that pays back over and over again.

Excuse 2: They might mess up

• True, they might not do it perfectly. On the other hand, they are never going to get any better at it if you keep doing it. We can all watch someone else doing something but the real learning comes from having a go.

Excuse 3: They might do it better than me

• Yes, they might and, if this is the case, then it is proof that you should not be doing it in the first place. Take a spreadsheet as an example: the younger generation have been brought up with them. The chances are they can do that spreadsheet report better than you if you are of a certain age. Don’t try to stop them; use the asset at your disposal.

The truth is, delegating can be tough. At the same time, if you want to thrive and prosper as a leader or manager, you want to get highly effective in this area.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

As a manager or leader, trying to do it all alone is a recipe for disaster. So what are some signs to be alert to if you think you might be becoming the lone ranger?

1. A never ending To Do List.
2. Carrying more than your fair share of the workload.
3. Not delegating or empowering others.
4. Not communicating effectively or at all with your team.
5. Trying to do it all by yourself.
6. Not trusting anyone else.

What else would you add to the list?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

If you are a manager, you need to be ready and able to delegate. Why is this so important?

1. You have limited time available.
2. There is only one of you.
3. You will burn out if you try to do everything.
4. It helps develop and grow others.
5. You achieve more, faster.
6. You focus on what you do best.
7. You get others to focus on what they do best.
8. It builds trust.
9. You motivate others.
10. You build a great support team.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Delegation can help you to achieve better results as a leader or manager. Yet many managers still often buy into one or more of the following myths about delegation:

Myth 1: It takes a long time to do
• The reality is that it is a one off investment of time that pays back quickly.

Myth 2: People will let you down

• The reality is that if you give people the chance, they will almost always rise to the challenge.

Myth 3: You can do it quicker

• Maybe you can but the question is what are you not doing instead that might stop you from getting results?

Myth 4: People might do it better than you and show you up

• You’re right, they might, which goes to show that you should not be doing it in the first place.

Myth 5: You will delegate yourself out of your job

• Not at all, you will create more time to do what you should really be doing.

The reality is that delegation can be the catalyst to delivering better performance. So what stops you?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Most managers, leaders and staff have one thing in common. They all have a limited amount of time available to them. So what are 3 good reasons for managers to delegate?

Reason 1: You focus on what you should be doing

The alternative is spending lots of time on activities that you should not be doing and may be no-one should be doing.

Reason 2: You are free to take on new challenges

New challenges provide you with the opportunity to grow and develop new skills and gain new experience.

Reason 3: You give your staff the chance to develop

The staff that you manage generally want to grow and develop. By delegating tasks to them, you give them the opportunity to grow and develop.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Ask the vast majority of managers what their biggest challenges are and you can be certain that having enough time will come pretty high up on their list.

At the same time ask them what they are like when it comes to delegating and chances are they may well be avoiding delegating or just not making the time to do it properly.

 

As a manager, I am guessing that you want to be successful and delegating is just part of the process of being successful.  So what are the dangers of not delegating?

 

Danger 1: You become swamped

 

If you are someone who is not willing to delegate you will sooner or later become completely swamped or overwhelmed.  You no doubt are highly capable otherwise you would not be a manager in the first place.  Yet at the same time you cannot be great at everything.  So if you want to avoid being swamped and do what you do best delegate more.

 

Danger 2: You alienate your team

 

Those that you manage probably thrive on having the opportunity to do new things, learn and be challenged.  If you are the manager who just holds on to everything and never gives anyone else the opportunity, sooner or later your team will stop engaging and supporting you.

 

Danger 3: You miss out on the lowest cost development around

 

When you delegate you create space to take on new challenges which help you to grow and develop.  The work that you delegate presents an opportunity to those that you manage to grow and develop.  If you don’t delegate you miss out on this low cost development opportunity for both you and your team.

 

Danger 4: You don’t deliver

 

Whether you like it or not your success as a manager is measured by the results that you deliver.  If you are trying to do it all by yourself you ultimately won’t deliver results.  The non delivery puts pressure on you which can result in your performance deteriorating even more.

 

Bottom Line- Delegating is an important element of your management success toolbox.  So what’s stopping you from delegating and what is it costing you in terms of results?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The number one challenge that many managers face is insufficient time to do all of the things that need to get done.  Yet sometimes there are opportunities for managers to delegate work to others to free up time and grow and develop others. So what are 5 golden rules when it comes to effective delegation?

 

Rule 1: Plan it

 

If you are going to have any chance of effectively delegating you need to plan it.  Delegation is not about passing on something to the fist person who comes over to your desk just to get rid of it.  It is about identifying who would be best equipped to deal with a particular piece of work, ensuring that they have they have the capacity and the skills to do it. A little bit of thought can go a long way towards effective delegation.

                                                                                                   

Rule 2: Invest the time to train

 

I chose the word invest deliberately as a decision to delegate is really an investment decision.  Think about it you assign a period of time once to train someone else to do something and get the benefit over and over again.  Don’t see the time that you take to train as a waste of time but as a real log term investment.

 

Rule 3:  Set the boundaries and get out of the way

 

There is nothing more de-moralising than having a situation where a piece of work is delegated to you but the person delegating is checking up on progress every five minutes.  The answer to this is to set out boundaries or things that need referring back to you and then leave the person to get on with it.

 

Rule 4: Establish review points

 

As the manager you do obviously have to have some form of reviewing progress.  When delegating set some milestones and diarise meetings where you and the person to whom you have delegated since down and discuss progress and problems.

 

Rule 5: Create a buffer

 

Things rarely run perfectly to plan so it is important to recognise this and build in some buffer or contingency so that slippage or delay does not create havoc.  Make a point of leaving some space between the time when you need something and the deadline you set for those that you delegate to.

 

Bottom Line – Effective delegation can help you deliver better results.  So what do you need to start doing to be a more effective delegator?

 

1. It takes too long to train someone else
2. I can do it quicker myself
3. I can’t trust someone else with such an important piece of work
4. Only I can do it
5. I don’t need to

What else would you add to the list?