Delegation is one of the key responsibilities of any manager. Managers are put in their positions not, necessarily, because they have the greatest level of technical skill, but because they are seen as people who can lead, organize, and leverage the skills of those in their departments and teams. This necessarily requires delegation—the act of giving work to others.
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Why Some Managers Are Hesitant to Delegate
While there are obvious benefits to delegation, including the ability to accomplish more work with less personal time invested, some managers are hesitant to delegate—especially to delegate very complex, or very important, tasks. Why?
It can be that they’re hesitant to delegate challenging tasks to subordinates because they underestimate their abilities, or they don’t feel they have to time to “teach them.”
“Inexperienced leaders commonly take control of projects that they feel are too complex for their team to manage,” says one expert. “While understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the people on your team is important, it is also important to give your employees an opportunity to grow by assigning them projects outside of their comfort zone.”
Delegating to Provide Challenge
If employees aren’t challenged or trusted with important assignments, they may become bored, demoralized, and disengaged. Their managers’ perceptions will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Lack of opportunity for challenge and growth will hinder the competencies of the very employees you should be developing!
Failing to delegate tough assignments not only stunts the growth of subordinates. It also prevents managers from growing into their own full potential. After all, if managers are bogged down by doing tasks that others could do as well, or better, nobody benefits.
Delegation can be scary for some managers. They may feel that a failure of a subordinate will reflect poorly on them. Or, they may feel that giving an employee a task that is too challenging will require too much investment of their own time when they have to step in and provide guidance. It’s a slippery slope, but one that must be avoided. Delegation leads to development—for employees and managers.
In a follow-up post, we’ll provide some tips on how to effectively delegate tough assignments.