Delegation Strategies for the Control-Freak

Do you have a good team around you who is fully capable of getting things done? However, instead of delegating, you try to do almost everything by yourself? If that sounds like you, there’s a better way.

Delegating tasks can be so tough for some people. They act like micro-managers who ensure that they see, do, and be everything and it is difficult for them to let others share the load or the glory. Is this control-freak you?

You may have tried to delegate tasks in the past. Perhaps the quality of work wasn’t good enough to suit your standards so you ended up redoing everything. There’s no sense in delegating tasks in the first place if you know you’ll end up redoing them, right?

Here are three problems you might be using as excuses for not delegating:

• You feel you can do the job better yourself.
• There’s not enough time to train someone else to do the job.
• You feel like you have to redo someone else’s work.

If you’re facing these challenges, it may be time to look at some strategies you can use to find success in delegating.

Consider using these delegation techniques:

1. Face the truth. If you feel you can do the job better yourself, take time to think things through.

• Other people may not do the job the same way you would, but that doesn’t mean they won’t do a satisfactory job.
• Your team members may be eager to do a great job and need only your encouragement, rather than for you to take over.

2. Train your staff. Your teammates may only need some additional training from you. Train them so you don’t do everything yourself.

• Look at the need for additional training as a means to be better prepared in the future. Short-term training now can have a huge payoff later on. If you take the time to train your staff now, they’ll be better prepared for the next project.

3. There’s no sense in letting pressure for perfection bring you unnecessary stress. Perfection would be great but it is usually not expected.

• Give yourself a break. It is impossible for you to do everything yourself, nor should you want to, so plan on delegating other works to other staff.
• It can be that other people can do the work even if you don’t think they’ll do as good a job as you.

4. Follow a successful plan. If you’re the head of the team and certain tasks are critical for the success of the project, you may want to do the major work on those. However, the more routine tasks could be passed along to other people on the team.

• Delegate the task itself, not the way in which it’s completed.
• Assign tasks based on strengths.  As a good leader, it is your duty to assess every member of your team.  Assign one person to do research, another person to convert raw data into a spreadsheet, designate a good writer to write the rough drafts of the reports, and so on. 

You can still be in control of the final report by pulling all the data together into a solid finished project.

• Require each team member to submit progress reports at specified deadlines over the course of the project. If your team is having problems meeting the deadlines, rather than assuming they’re not going to get the job done, ask them if there’s anything you can do to help them meet the next deadline.
• Expect that your team will do a great job and you won’t be disappointed. People normally rise to our expectations and perform better when being encouraged and praised.
• Finally, give praise and positive feedback when the project is finished. 

Instead of being a control-freak on your next project, decide now to delegate some of the responsibilities. Look for ways to use the talents of your co-workers in the future. Working with a team and delegating tasks to them will certainly make your job much easier and the atmosphere at work much better for everyone.