• Home
• Business Systems and Processes
• People and Team Development
• Developing Culture
• Jump Clients
• About Jump
• Jump Team
• Jump Values
• Contact Jump

How do I Stop Managers/Supervisors from Doing Everything Themselves? How do I Get them to Delegate?

What is Delegation?

Delegating involves a supervisor/manager working with an employee to establish goals, granting them sufficient authority and responsibility to achieve the goals, often giving them substantial freedom in deciding how the goals will be achieved, remaining available as a resource to help them achieve the goals, assessing their performance (the quality of their effort and attainment of the goals), addressing performance issues and/or rewarding their performance.

The supervisor/manager still retains responsibility for the attainment of the goals, but chooses to achieve the goals by delegating to someone else.

What are the Benefits of Delegation?

Effective delegation can benefit the manager, the employee, and the business.

Personal Benefits

• Frees up their time to do their own job when they assign tasks to others
• Increases their personal power with people
• Increases their personal value to the business
• Develops their leadership skills
• Develops their people enabling them to make more of a contribution to business goals
• Motivates people
• Grooms a successor

Business Benefits:

• Higher quality of work -Delegation can improve quality of work by allowing the employees who have direct knowledge of products and services to make decisions and complete tasks.
• Quality can also improve through enhanced employee motivation - because employees feel personally accountability for the outcome, even though responsibility ultimately rests with the individual who made the delegation.

Why Don't People Delegate?

Although delegation can provide benefits to the business, many managers lack the motivation or knowledge to delegate effectively, and thus delegation (or lack of delegation) may be detrimental to the business.

Managers' lack of motivation to delegate may be associated with a number of fallacies associated with delegations:

• Easier to remain comfortable, making the same decisions they have always made.
• Giving up control even though still accountable for the outcome.
• The belief that "if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself."
• Lack of trust or confidence in others.
• Fear as being seen as lazy.
• Reluctance to take risks.
• Fear of competition from people delegating the work to - "They might do it too well".
• Don't want to risk losing any of their power and stature (ironically, they do lose these if they don't learn to delegate effectively).

Managers may lack the competencies necessary to delegate effectively, they may:

• Choose the wrong tasks to delegate
• Choose the wrong person to trust, or
• Provide inadequate direction when delegating
• Fail to monitor progress

How do I Support my Manager to Delegate?

Use your coaching skills to identify the barriers to performance.

• If motivation is lacking - clarify expectations and provide them with the support to effectively delegate.
• If they do not have the skills - then training is required.

Get in Touch with Jump

If you need help, or you answered yes or unsure to any of the questions in the assessment tool, then Jump Business Solutions can help you. Phone us on +64 6 754 8987 or +64 27 450 5271 or email info@jump4biz.com and Jump will come to you, discover your needs, and develop a solution that will create real, long-term and positive change for you and your business.