The Do’s and Don’ts of Delegation

Spooky season is officially here, but is there anything scarier than delegating tasks across your team? If you find delegation downright daunting, now’s the time to come out from hiding behind the desk and learn how to master this critical management skill.

During our recent Supervisors Community of Practice virtual networking discussion, Sharon Swabb, Career Consultant at Swabb Career Consulting, LLC, joined us to offer advice on what delegation is, common mistakes to avoid when implementing delegation practices, and how to track, measure, and communicate tasks and projects across your team.

Explore a few key takeaways and watch the full session recording below:

1. What is delegation? Swabb explained that when it comes to delegation, “the way that I would define it is the intentional process of handing over a task, a responsibility, and even potentially authority, to other members of your group, for the purpose of reaching a shared goal. Now, the reason I like to define it this way is mainly for the beginning part, as the intentionality piece is critical. For delegation to be effective, you have to give it thought.”
2. What are some common barriers to delegation and common mistakes that we want to avoid, particularly for folks who are just kind of stepping into supervisory or management roles? She addressed her top barriers, including “first and foremost, trust.” She added that “it’s really difficult, especially if you are the person accountable for a particular project, or if you are the person where, essentially, the buck stops with you, and the project means a lot to you, to trust that someone’s going to do a certain aspect of the project to the standard that you hope that they would do it.”
3. Thinking back to a time when poor delegation led to issues or problems on your team, what are your takeaways or lessons learned from that experience? Swabb said a really humbling experience for her was “realizing that not everyone essentially knows what I know, and I was making the assumption that they did.” In the midst of reviewing candidates on a committee, she realized she “hadn’t set effective standards of how we’re going to judge these candidates,” for her fellow judges and, ultimately, “we lost time. It took us longer to review the particular applications, to deliberate back and forth, and I felt very guilty about that. That was something that I fixed moving forward whenever I was in charge of a review committee, sharing the vision of what we’re looking for in terms of the candidates.”

Want more advice on becoming a more effective supervisor? Join us next month on Monday, Nov. 17 at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT for “Communicating With Confidence,” where you’ll get tips on communicating effectively, no matter your leadership style.