Page 16 - Twenty Four Lessons for Mastering Your New Role

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Do it all yourself

Delegate

Effective managers must have faith—in their people. Your success
depends on your willingness to rely on employees to take initiative,
solve problems, and produce results.
You’ve surely heard the advice: delegate when possible. But it’s
not that simple. If you do it the wrong way, delegation can backfire.
Andrew Carnegie said, “The secret of success is not in doing your
own work but in recognizing the right man to do it.” Delegation thus
takes forethought. Match the right employee with a challenging
assignment.
Consider an individual’s interests, strengths, and expertise—and
hand off tasks to employees who rate highly in at least two of those
three categories. If you want someone to research and respond to
customer complaints, for instance, delegate the project to an
employee who enjoys serving customers, possesses excellent people
skills, and knows how to investigate problems and dig for answers.
By delegating, you improve your efficiency. You can focus on
high-priority issues and not get bogged down in work that depletes
your time and energy. At the same time, you can develop your
employees and make them more valuable contributors.
Don’t confuse delegation with assigning routine work to employ-
ees that falls within their normal job duties. True delegation involves
giving someone the responsibility and authority to do something
that’s normally part of your job.
Delegation is not “dumping.” If employees think you’re tossing
the least desirable assignments on their lap, they’ll resent it.

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