Tips for Delegating Successfully at Work

These tips for delegating successfully at work will further your career – especially if you’re in a management position. If you’re drowning in a mountain of paperwork, piddly tasks, and unanswered mail…then it’s time to tune up your employee management skills and achieve your career goals!

“A resistance to delegating can be a reflection of your own securities about being replaceable. If you can train others to do what you do, you’ll no longer be needed,” writes Julie Morgenstern in Making Work Work. “Of course, there are certain responsibilities you should never delegate. The real purpose of delegation is to free you to focus your time on your highest-value tasks, and the first step is to identify which tasks you should never delegate.”

Read Making Work Work: New Strategies for Surviving and Thriving at the Office for more info

And, here are tips on delegating successfully at work…

Tips for Delegating Successfully at Work

If you’re new to delegating at work, it can be difficult to know which tasks to let go of and which to keep – especially if you’re a perfectionist. Note that delegating isn’t about off-loading the stuff you hate and keeping the responsibilities you love.

“Delegating is about making sure that the best person to do a job is doing it,” writes Julie Morgenstern in Making Work Work.

4 Types of Work Tasks You Should Not Delegate

1. Responsibilities that reflect why your company hired you.
2. Tasks in which you’re the only one with the expertise to make tough judgment calls.
3. Tasks that allow your unique talents to shine, and that directly affect what Morgenstern calls the “revenue line.”
4. Responsibilities that bring you joy and define the meaning of your job.

4 Types of Work Tasks You Should Delegate

1. Responsibilities that deplete you of the time or energy you need for more significant activities.
2. Tasks that you honestly aren’t good at doing – not just those work responsibilities that you don’t like.
3. Tasks that you’re doing out of habit, comfort, or routine, but that aren’t the best use of your time.
4. Responsibilities that are in someone else’s job description – not yours.

“And as to being replaced: If you delegate tasks effectively, you will still be viewed as responsible for the increased productivity of your department,” writes Morgenstern in Making Work Work. “When the people under you thrive, it makes you look good, not weak…So let go of tasks that other people can do, and free yourself up for new projects.”

For more career tips, read Workplace Conflict – 6 Tips for Negotiating Conflict at Work.

Do you have any tips for delegating successfully at work – or horror stories of being given responsibilities outside of your job description?

I’ve often been asked to take responsibilities that weren’t in my job description; it would’ve helped me immensely to know what should and should not be delegated! And, how to stand up to my boss….

1. Delegating Tasks at Work – How to Know What to Delegate
2. 7 Communication Tips for Women at Work
3. How to Get a Great Performance Review at Work – 8 Career Tips

Category: Achieving & Setting Goals, Career, Motivation Tips, Workplace Tips