How To Delegate: What Should You Do And What Should You Delegate?

Finally, A Simple Approach To Employee Management - One That Supervisors and Managers Can Use To Determine Who Does What...

By Anna Johnson

As a supervisor or manager, you're expected to decide what needs to be done, gather the resources to do it, and then decide who does what.

I know, I know - there's a bit more to managing than that... but it certainly does include setting goals, delegating tasks, and providing necessary resources.

However, if you're like many managers, sometimes it isn't obvious what work you should do, and what work your staff should do.

And of course, you may not be a "pure" manager in the sense that you undertake some of the "technical" work as well as supervise and manage people.

You might get behind the counter of your store occasionally... you might go out into the field and sell at times... you might liaise with clients... in fact, you might do a myriad of tasks that match those of your staff.

At the same time, you'll want to make the most of your time - and the time of the people who work for you - in order to generate optimal results from your team as a whole. This is the foundation for good employee management.

So how exactly do you decide who does what? How do you decide what you should do, and what your staff should do? Time to beef up your delegation skills!

Now, you're probably aware that just because someone likes doing a specific task, it doesn't mean they're necessarily good at it... so I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you allocate tasks based solely on what people like to do.

However, what you may not fully grasp, is that it's also a mistake to allocate work on the basis of whoever is "best" at that work.

You see, although a particular individual may be better at a certain task than someone else... they may generate even more value (however you measure it) by doing another task altogether.

I won't bore you with the theory, but according to the economic principle of comparative advantage, when allocating tasks within a group, you should get each person to do not what they're best at, but what they're "most best" at.

In other words, each team member should do the things that generate the most value for or from the group as a whole.

So, now its time to learn how to delegate. Let's say you run a consulting firm, where you do two things very well - you're an excellent manager and an outstanding consultant. In fact, you're better at managing and consulting than everyone you employ.

Now, given that you're the best consultant there is, you may be tempted to forego some of your management duties to spend more time consulting.

But before you do so... ask yourself: what is likely to generate the best overall value (as in revenues, profits or however else you measure value)? Is it focusing wholly on managing, or doing less managing and more consulting?

The answer is, of course, that it depends on what you're "most best" at.

If you're better at employee management than consulting - that is, for every hour you spend on people management you actually generate greater value than that generated from every hour spent consulting - then you should spend all your time managing. Irrespective of how much you enjoy consulting or that you're better at consulting than everyone else in your firm!

The principle of comparative advantage equally applies to allocating and delegating work among your staff members... and in fact, to non-staff members too, such as vendors, freelancers and contractors.

In fact, it applies to allocating every conceivable resource.

So next time you're confronted with the "do or delegate" question, apply this approach to employee management. You might be amazed at how much more time it gives you... as well as how much more productivity and performance it yields from both you and your staff.