Simple Leadership By Delegation

Delegation is an important skill for you to have as a leader. People believe in what they help to create. Sharing responsibilities keeps members interested and enthusiastic about the group. (Not to mention it lightens the workload for you!) Some people are afraid to delegate since it is not as easy to make sure the task gets done well or even gets done at all! This is understandable, but there are several good reasons to delegate.

1. THE GROUP BENEFITS BY HAVING:

• members become more involved and committed.
• more projects and activities undertaken overall.
• a greater chance that projects will be completed.
• increased opportunities for members to develop leadership skills.
• more of a chance to fill leadership roles with experienced people.
• the organization runs more smoothly.

 2. THE LEADER BENEFITS BY:

• not being spread too thin, therefore, being less likely to burn out.
• gaining satisfaction in seeing members grow and develop.
• acquiring more experience in executive and administrative functions.

3. WHEN TO DELEGATE:

• there is a lot of work.
• a member has particular qualifications for, or interest in a task.
• someone can benefit from responsibility.
• details take up too much time and should be divided.

4. WHEN NOT TO DELEGATE:

• just because the task is something you don’t want to do.
• someone is under-qualified or overqualified for the task.
• the work is your own specified responsibility.
• the task is too much for one person or is controversial.

FOUR BASIC DELEGATION STRATEGIES

1. Giving – the leader designs a job and then delegates it to a member.
2. Sharing – the leader identifies a job that two members could do together and then makes sure that works for them.
3. Involving – the leader involves members in developing a project and encourages them to help.
4. Entrusting – the leader gives a member a need, and then trusts them to figure out how to best