Ever heard the expression: "If you want something done right, do it yourself?"The "harsh" truth is that this is just an excuse for managers who do not know how to inspire people to produce great work, as I explain below:

It’s true that managers are often:

  • More motivated
  • Better Skilled and
  • More experienced

But managers are not the experts at everything and they do not have the time necessary to give everything the due care and attention that it needs.

Tip: What’s Your Delegation Score? Take the Work Delegation Checkup to find out.

Effective Managers Delegate to Get Results

Effective managers use delegation to get better work than they could do themselves by:

  • Using people who have skills the boss doesn't have,
  • Using people who have more time to do a great job,
  • Using people who have more availability so they can do the job immediately and
  • Using people who have more desire to do the job because they prefer that type of work

This is how effective managers use employees to get better results than they could do on their own.

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And what is low priority for you is higher priority for your employees. This means that when you don’t delegate you’re the bottleneck. And tasks languish on your to do list. Delegating to an employee is an effective way to do work fast. Delegating to employees is an effective way to clear your to-do list.

And how do you know that this is true? Just ask yourself about all the jobs that you are better at than your own boss because of precisely the same reasons.

Delegation is an Essential Manager Skill

The true manager skill isn't the ability to be the best at everything your employees do. A manager skill is the ability to delegate work to your employees in such a way that you get better results than you could've done yourself. As you advance in your career and go higher up the organisation chart, your individual technical skills will matter less. More senior managers also get put in charge of employees doing work that those managers have no technical skills in.

Instead of trying to do everything right yourself, develop your management skills.

Next Steps

Delegation is an essential manager skill. But it’s one of those important life skills they don’t teach you in university. The first step to becoming a delegation pro is following a proven delegation process. That’s why I made the short, online delegation training course: Delegation Essentials. This course will provide you with proven, easy-to-implement and practical actions steps for:

  • Identifying what to delegate,
  • Identifying who to delegate to,
  • Top delegation mistakes to avoid, and,
  • How to make the delegation - right down to the right words to use

And you can even earn a certificate for your resume.