What you need to know about delegating?

Ah, the art of delegation, one of the key arts to any successful business and businessperson. First of all, let's discuss what it means to delegate.

What does it mean to delegate?

When you delegate something you hand over a task that could belong to you to someone else. Notice that word "could." We didn't use the word "should." A delegated task is a task that a boss could do if he or she wanted; perhaps it's a task that they wanted to do. But wisely they decided to hand it over to another trusted employee. This is delegating in a nutshell.

Why is it important to delegate?

Delegating is important for several reasons. For one, if a leader doesn't delegate he or she soon finds him or herself exhausted and bogged down under too many tasks. Positions of leadership are simply too demanding for the leader to perform every task, major or minor, that comes along with his or her calling; and so he or she must pass those tasks over to someone else. Another important thing about delegating is that you're putting more brains to work at a certain task.

What do you mean by more brains working at a certain task?

Well, let's say that you're the leader of a company that's attempting to build a village inside a small ravine near a mining camp. You're building this village for the local miners. You know that miners have gotten a bad deal in the past, so you're anxious to do as good and as fair a job as possible. Just think of all the considerations that would come into play here! Who's going to clear out the ravine? Who's going to expand the ravine so that there will be room for houses, a store, a church, and so on? Who's going to design the houses? Who's going to design the sewage system? Etc.

But of course the boss isn't going to be building the actual buildings; what's he or she delegating in this situation?

Good point, the boss isn't going to be building the houses and clearing the ravine him or herself. You must realize, however, that hiring a building crew to build houses IS exactly delegating, only we don't generally think of it that way. Therefore, to understand delegation as it immediately applies to a leader, keep that example in mind. He or she isn't going to be building houses and latrines, but he or she is certainly going to be involved in picking a company for the job. He or she isn't going to be expanding the ravine, but he or she is certainly going to have a hand in finding the best ravine clearers possible. Now we come to the matter of this particular boss using his or her powers of delegation on this particular job.

Examples, please.
Easy enough. Let's say that the boss really wants to find both the company to build the village houses and the company to widen the ravine. He or she has done his or her homework in this area; and they only feel completely confident that the right companies will be chosen if he or she chooses them. But this boss has so many other things to do besides the two listed above! Therefore, the boss will have to swallow his or her pride, learn to trust in other human beings, and assign B to go after the housing project and C to go after the ravine project. This frees the boss for other pressing assignments. He or she will have the final say about B and C's actions, of course, but that's a lot simpler than starting from scratch and looking for the various skilled laborers him or herself.

Any last words?

Yes. Delegation is important, as we've mentioned, because it sets a leader free for other pressing tasks; delegation is important because it helps the leader retain strength and vision; delegation is important because it helps a job go faster; delegation is important because it allows other people in (for example) a company to shine; and, finally, delegation is important because two (or three, or four) minds are better than one. The leader who delegates will quickly find that the projects he or she is overseeing get done, not only faster, but better, owing to the principle of delegation, and the reason for this is that lots of other creative, intelligent people have had a say in the process.