Successful Project Delegation In Five Steps

How to Delegate

Not long ago I was working at my desk and realized that it was so late that it was actually the regular work day for my team in Asia. Unfortunately, this was common. I had begun working so many hours, that I was actually working two shifts (US and Asia). I was growing increasingly frustrated with the project and with my team. The team however was bewildered by my reaction. They were doing everything I assigned to them. What could I be upset about?

Why indeed. I had fallen into a common trap. I thought I was delegating, but instead, I was simply assigning tasks and retaining ownership of everything. It was during one of these marathon work sessions that I realized I needed to make big changes - and fast. I began to look at when projects worked, seemingly without my intervention and when they didn't. Breaking it down, the solution jumped out clearly. There are five steps to successful delegation.

1. First, clearly define the task. What is it that needs to happen? What's the desired result?

2. Select the team or individual that you want to accomplish this result.

3. Third, inform the individual of what's being delegated. And also let other people in the organization know that this person is now responsible for this task, so they know this is the go-to person and they don't keep coming to you.

4. Keep in place a monitoring system, so you can ensure that progress is being made.

5. And finally, complete a final review. Look for lessons learned and how things can be improved in the future.

These five steps are logical enough - the key is putting them into practice. I started with the project that caused the most work hours for me. I looked at my Asia team to determine who had the ability to lead the team on-site, then, before assigning the team member the task, I set clear objectives and goals. Successful delegation requires a clear end result.

I selected Helen for the role. She had the skills necessary as well a willingness to take on more responsibilities. After I determined the right person, I knew I had to give her the authority she needed to meet her objective. This is an important point since you can't expect success without a willingness to give up some authority. You also can't just delegate it and walk away. You may need to teach new skills and also ensure that the rest of the team understands this shift in ownership.

Once you've delegated, you'll need to monitor progress. Look at the plan and make sure there are some scheduled goals and meetings to ensure that the tasks are done. I usually do this in a one on one meeting. This is a scheduled time for us to talk about anything that may be of concern: upcoming due dates, milestones, etc. These discussions provide an excellent framework for feedback and to provide direction. Give your team the objectives and the clear goals needed to keep them on track. Provide encouragement. High morale helps make sure that people are making forward progress. A good way to do this is by monitoring with milestones.

Often, it helps to create a series of small, interim deliverables that will serve as checks-and-balances on the progress of a larger task. These milestones can then be used as a basis for progress reports (1:1 sessions).

What happens when there are problems? The key is organization and follow up. Make sure you know where they are in the process and that they know and can track their milestones. In this case, Helen got behind on a key deliverable. To head off the problem we worked together until she was back on track. It was difficult for me personally, because I just wanted to fix it. In the short term, it would have been much faster. However, I needed Helen to maintain her authority over the Asia team - this required her to find the solution and implement it. But how?

The key is developing a structure. If the people you're delegating to are having trouble, help them, train them. Make sure that they understand that if they run into a problem, they can contact you. This extra effort should be short term and the long term benefits are many. They include not only the deliverable at risk, but the entire delegated ownership and who knows - maybe bigger and better projects in the future. With Helen, that was the case. She overcame the short term concern and the project went on to deliver on time. Even better, I was back to just working the US shift!

Performance and deliverables are, ultimately, in your control. Are you ready to make it happen? Go to http://www.delegatesuccess.com and take the readiness quiz.

Article Source: http://www.search4allinfo.com

90% of managers delegate, but only 5% of these delegated tasks are completed without hands-on support from management. Take this quick quiz at delegatesuccess.com to determine what type of delegation style you have. Get your projects done without working long hours! Lisa Symons has over twelve years experience in global IT management.

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