Delegation is an essential component of a wide group of leadership skills. Even though you might begin by leading a small team, as the project you work on grows, so do the responsibilities and tasks. Many leaders think that they have to do everything by themselves. Some do this because they need to be in control, while others do not trust other people to do the job as well as they would.
But all these thinking patterns prevent leaders from delegating tasks and focusing on more important ones. Delegation is essential because it doesn’t only reduce the workload of leaders, but also because it provides a great opportunity to share some of your knowledge. These tasks can help other team members learn more about the project and the work behind it. Moreover, they have a nice opportunity to polish their skills, and why not, learn new ones.
But as remote work has become the new normal, communication within teams might be challenging. It is important to adopt an assertive communication style, as it will help you bond with team members and understand and support them better.
But how can you efficiently delegate tasks during remote work? Let’s explore a few tips!
Make Sure You Understand the Tasks
One of the most essential things when delegating is knowing what you delegate. Some leaders fail to see through some nuances of the task, and this might lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, and delays. To prevent all this, as a leader, you need to know how a specific task should be accomplished. Or how a specific issue can be solved.
If you choose to delegate a task, make sure you understand the work before assigning it to your subordinate. It will be challenging to explain the task if you don’t understand it yourself. Moreover, that team member will ask for your help if something doesn’t go right, so it is important to have the know-how and knowledge to monitor his work.
Offer Details
Now that almost every team is working remotely, communication might be hindered. You may know your colleagues as you have worked with them, but when you do not see their faces when communicating, misinterpretations might appear.
According to professional paper writers, many leaders avoid giving the team background details. Many leaders choose to assign a delegated task to a team member without prior discussions, and this creates more room for conflict. Even though you are in a hurry or you need the task done as soon as possible, always offer background details. Help your team understand the background of the task and how they should accomplish it.
Make Sure All The Communication Tools Work
One of the things that are very important when working remotely is communication. As a leader, you are responsible for making it work properly. There are a lot of communication and collaboration tools used by remote teams, such as Slack, Skype or Telegram. Since now the social interaction is limited, many teams can experience communication difficulties. Sometimes, too many messages might become spammy. While too few messages might make your employees feel abandoned.
When delegating tasks, it’s important to make sure that all the communication channels work just right. Of course, they should work properly every time, as effective communication is one of the factors that nurture productivity.
Choose the Right Team Members
One of the challenges of many leaders when delegating tasks is delegating them to the right person. Sometimes, tasks could be too complex for an inexperienced team member, making the process of accomplishing them even more difficult, problematic, and time-consuming. On the other side, delegating a task to someone who has too much experience for it is not effective at all.
Even though that experienced team member will solve the issue immediately, he will not learn anything new. One of the benefits delegation comes with is that it provides a unique opportunity for team members to polish their skills or learn new ones. Aim to delegate tasks to team members that can do them, but still do not have the necessary experience. This will help them gain it and learn more.
However, team members might experience huge workloads, so an inexperienced employee might take the task. You need to trust your team members that they will do anything they can to solve it within the deadline. Even the most inexperienced ones can be successful if you provide them with the training, information, and documents necessary.
Expectations
One of the things that erode a relationship is unmet expectations. This is valid not only for romantic or family relationships but also for leadership and work. The thing is, when you delegate a task, you certainly have some expectations regarding the outcome. You have probably done that task a few times before, so you know how it needs to look at the end.
However, not communicating these expectations can lead to conflicts, misunderstandings, and delays. This is important especially during these times when remote work is the new normal. Make sure you communicate your expectations regarding the outcome of the task. At the same time, it is important to approach the matter of delegation with flexibility and openness. Agree upon the deadline and expectations with the responsible team member and he will not let you down, says a college essay help.
Conclusion
Delegation is important, not only because it creates a development opportunity for the whole team, but because it can reduce the leader’s workload. Trust is at the core of delegation and that’s why micromanagement should be reduced. But make sure to openly communicate and agree upon expectations, the outcome, and the deadline. Communicate openly, share the background story and information necessary, and pay attention to choosing the right team members. Remote work certainly came with it’s challenges and it will likely be the case for this year too. So, adapting to the new normal is essential, especially for leaders that coordinate teams.
Author Bio: Leon Collier is a blogger from Edinburgh, who currently writes for dissertation writing services and https://dissertation-today.com. He loves to write about everything and share his knowledge at an assignment writing service. Some of Leon’s favorite topics are leadership, team dynamics, travel, self-development, education, marketing. When not writing, you can find him behind a book or playing tabletop games with his friends. Follow him on Twitter @LeonCollier12