Overcoming Barriers to Delegation

A good manager sets goals and continually strives to reach them. But sometimes, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to complete everything you set out to achieve. The prospect of failing to finish tasks can leave you feeling guilty about letting people down. It can also lead to undue pressure, work overload and eventually burnout.

Sound familiar?

It’s possible to overcome these difficulties through effective delegation. Mindtools’ Building Better Managers report revealed that delegation is one of 12 key capabilities essential for managers. These capabilities enable positive outcomes for  managers, team members , and their organizations. Good delegators can build strong, successful teams capable of meeting heavy workload demands. [1]

In this short article, we look at why managers opt not to delegate, and how to overcome common obstacles to sharing your workload.

Beating the Obstacles to Delegation

Effective delegation enhances your performance and contributes to the growth of your team and organization. However, not everyone finds it easy to delegate tasks.

Here are some common excuses for why managers choose not to delegate, and ways to overcome them:

“I don’t want to dump my work on other people.”

Delegation is not about trying to make more work for your team, but distributing it more efficiently, so tasks are allocated according to skills and workloads. Trusting your team with new responsibilities provides learning and development opportunities, which can boost their motivation and engagement.

So long as you’re not offloading boring or mundane jobs, or tasks requiring a particular level of authority, you can delegate items from your to-do list. What matters is that the work gets done, not who does it.

“I’d feel threatened if my team members do my job.”

You’re not handing over your entire job – you decide which tasks you delegate. Appropriate delegation will not make your role redundant. If someone does complete a task better than you, then well done for picking the right person for the job. Your objective should be to make your team more efficient and provide them with development opportunities.

“They won’t do it right or as well as me.”

This concern is understandable, but you can avoid it by giving your team members enough guidance and support. Transparent communication about the task will set their expectations, and yours, accordingly.

“I don’t want to lose control.”

If this strikes a chord, you might have a problem with micromanagement. Micromanagers struggle with delegating because they don’t trust others to do a job correctly or without constant supervision.

It’s not a valuable use of your time, and the long-term impacts of micromanagement can lead to significant costs for your team and your organization.

“It’s quicker to do it myself.”

Of course, it takes time to learn something new, and your team members will need a chance to learn how to do a job as well as you. You might resent taking time out of your schedule to show someone how to do something that would take you only a short while to complete.

Delegation does require an up-front investment of time. But that investment will pay off because your team members will know what to do next time.

The Benefits of Effective Delegation

By confronting any fears you may have about sharing your workload with your team, you'll start to see the benefits of effective delegation. Done well, it can:

• Make your team more efficient. Delegating tasks to team members with the right skills or potential means tasks are completed more efficiently. Delegation uses the team’s strengths, reduces completion times, and can lead to higher-quality outcomes.
• Develop team skills. Delegation allows your team members to develop new skills and gain experience in areas outside their usual remit.
• Increase team motivation and engagement. Delegating meaningful tasks shows you trust your team members. This can increase their motivation, engagement, and commitment to the organization.
• Enable you to focus on high-value tasks. Handing over “operational” jobs allows you to devote more time to strategic planning and higher-level projects.
• Enhance time management. Effective delegation lets you manage your own time more efficiently, leading to better work-life balance and reducing burnout. By distributing any jobs others can do, you can concentrate on tasks requiring your unique expertise or position. See our article The Power of Successful Delegation for more tips on what to delegate.
• Strengthen team cohesion and build a succession pipeline. Delegation can provide insight to your team members about different roles and their challenges. It can also help you identify and develop potential future managers.

Let's Act

The first step in developing your delegation skills is to recognize and understand your own behavior.

Here are some questions to ask yourself, to get you started:

• What excuses have you made in the past to avoid delegating?
• Why did you make them?
• What were you worried about?
• What one obstacle to delegation is the most difficult for you to overcome, and what action could you take to address it?

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do managers struggle with delegation? The thought of relinquishing control, burdening others, or failing a task can be daunting and stressful. In fact, good delegation skills improve your efficiency and can boost the growth of your team and organization.

When should I delegate? If you’re overloaded, pass some of your to-dos to your team to free you up to work on tasks and projects with greater strategic impact. Look for opportunities to make your team more efficient, and provide learning and development opportunities to keep team members motivated and engaged.

How do I know what to delegate? Pick low-level/low-priority tasks, but don’t load individual team members with boring or repetitive work. Add things that will challenge and help to develop them.

Who do I delegate to? The team member with the most appropriate skill set for the task or someone interested in taking on more responsibility.

What if none of my team have the right experience? Remember, sometimes it’s worth taking time out to train a team member now so you can enjoy the benefits long-term.