Why Do I Need to Delegate Work to My Staff?

As a team leader, there have surely been times when you’ve wondered whether or not it’s better to delegate work to your team or handle it yourself. The delegation of work can be a delicate tightrope to walk. If you are the type to try to work through every task on your own, you risk alienating your employees while running yourself ragged at the same time. If you delegate everything out to others, you may come across as lazy or unwilling to do the work yourself, and you also risk falling out of practice in areas of your work.

The key is moderation. Know what you are capable of, what your employees are capable of, and delegate work appropriately. The delegation of work tasks is a critical part of being a leader in your field of work, but why? Some managers would rather work everything out themselves, either out of a feeling of responsibility, out of fear that their staff may not deliver, or out of concern for their personal image. Here are some key reasons why you should be delegating work to your employees.

Save Time

Time is a valuable commodity in any place of work. Streamlining processes and getting things done in a timely manner (without sacrificing quality) should be a goal of any team leader. Delegating work is one way to save a lot of time. Your staff is there to work, so why not let them handle tasks you know they are capable of?

Accomplish More

Proper delegation of tasks means everyone is working efficiently, making the best use of their time. This includes you! Delegating to others frees managers from the unnecessary stress of completing everything on their own – or worse, having so much to do that nothing gets done! Delegating tasks to other staff members will help cut back on one person sitting around with nothing to do, while others are scrambling to meet goals on time.

Build Team Competence

It should go without saying, but when you begin to delegate work to other members of your team, you are expanding the scope of their abilities and ensuring they develop new skills. This translates to better overall team competence. Perhaps in the future, if you are caught up in a project or have to be out of the office, you’ll be able to breathe easy knowing that your staff is capable of handling themselves without you there.

Boost Employee Confidence

Finally, delegating work to your staff will help build their workplace confidence. Unless you are doing it all the time, for all of your work, then when you give a team member a task, you are showing that person that you trust them to get the work done. Many employees stagnate without new challenges or interesting work to focus on, and the show of confidence will boost their self-esteem. You may even discover one of your staff members has a hidden talent for a certain area of work, leading to better work practice in the future!

The worth of proper delegation is undeniable. Just make sure that you aren’t overloading your employees or giving them work they aren’t equipped to deal with! If done right, however, delegating work will benefit you, your staff, and the team as a whole.