Delegation - It's Easier Just To Do It Myself

Delegation Skills

委派必须成为新经理发现它的最困难的事情之一。

Actually, a lot more experienced managers also find it difficult to do.

As do project managers, team leaders, colleagues, well, just about everyone, really.

So why is that? Why is asking someone else to do something just so d**n hard?

Here are some reasons we've noticed or heard over the years:

我想我必须知道这一切，能够自己完成这一切
They're never going to do it as well as I do
I'm not good at explaining things
我没有发现很容易放弃控制
When I do explain things 'they' don't seem to get it as quickly as I do
I don't trust 'them' to do it
I don't trust them to do it well
看着别人与我可以做的事情斗争太令人沮丧太令人沮丧了
They're going to make mistakes
What if they actually do it better than I?
What if they really mess up?
What if they refuse?
What if it looks really different from what I had in mind?

Benefits To Delegating

Each one of those reasons is valid in a way, in that any one of them might happen. The problem is when you let your reasons or anxieties get in the way of delegating things to others.

现在,我们确信你知道delegatin的好处g, but just in case you need a reminder, here are a few:

It shares the workload and can free you up for other things
肩膀上的重量越来越少
Other people learn to take on more responsibility
Other people can learn new skills
It can be used to help your team work together more effectively
It can stretch your own management skills
It can build trust
它让别人感到有价值
Mistakes actually help people learn
两个（或三到四个或四个）头比你的好
When it works life becomes a lot easier for everyone
You won't have to run around like a blue-a**ed whatsit trying to get everything done on time (in other words, less stress)

OK, OK, Impact Factory, you've got a point. But if I'm not good at delegating, where do I begin?

They Really Aren't Going to Do It Your Way

Since you know that it (whatever 'it' is) isn't going to be done the way you do it, you are going to have to lower your own standards and get in tune with your colleagues' standards. What might help you here is to set a standard below which no one goes, no matter how differently all of you do things.

Here's an example from Impact Factory: we (Jo Ellen and Robin) no longer handle enquiries that come into the company on a daily basis. We are sometimes brought in after that have initially been dealt with, but we delegated that task to our highly efficient home team. Now, they aren't going to handle those enquiries the way we did; their emails will be worded differently; their telephone conversations won't sound like us either.

我们必须放弃想要看起来像是这样的看起来。对我们的员工说，这是非常诱人的，“当您与客户沟通时，您需要这么做。”但我们没有。

Set Some Guidelines

What we did do, however, was set some guidelines that we expect everyone to follow as much as is humanly possible. For instance, one of them is that every enquiry is responded to the day it comes in. It may not be dealt with as thoroughly as would be desirable, but if there's a lot going on sometimes that just isn't possible. But then the response might be simply to let the enquirer know someone will deal with them in full the following day.

There's nothing complicated about this kind of delegation: letting our colleagues develop their own 'voice' while working within some clear parameters. That way our standards are maintained without our breathing down everyone's necks making sure they do it our way.

The difficulty might actually only be in how we feel about it because it isn't a replica of us.

And that's what you'll have to get over as well: every person has their own 'voice' or approach or perspective on how they tackle work. One of the greatest skills any manager can have is allowing people to have their own 'way' while achieving what needs to be done.

Yes, But It's Quicker If I Just Do It

No question about it; it is definitely quicker if you just do it. That's because whatever 'it' is, you've probably been doing it for a while, or you may simply work at lightning speed to get things done.
That shouldn't stop you taking the time to explain, teach, and coach others to do some of your work.

Here's where patience comes in - a double dose of it, please. First, you have to show someone something new, which means that all that information about it which is in your head eventually has to be in the head of the other person. Not all at once! Give someone the big picture so they understand the why, but don't pile it all on and expect them to take it all in, in one go (or two or even three goes).

Bite-Size, Bite Size!

Second, when someone is being given something new to do, unless they are just a plain layabout, most people want to do well, want to impress and show they're up to the job. That tends to be why they might mess up more in the beginning: their desire to please may make them believe they can take on more than they can chew, and they can't.

在你解释它时似乎如此明确和逻辑的东西，可能听起来像GobbleyGook给你所说的那个人。所以你需要在解释它时不仅仅是一个点头的头。让他们用自己的话重复（“所以你所说的是......）所以你有明确的验证，他们不仅听到了你所说的话，而且他们理解它也是如此。

他们会犯错误

Oh boy, are they going to make mistakes. Everyone does when they learn something new. That's why we made a big deal about being patient.

You can deal with mistakes in any number of ways.

Try this: "You idiot! That's not what I told you to do. Weren't you listening to a word I said?"

非常有效，没有？

好的，我们夸大了，但通常这就是当有人僵尸的东西时，你可能正在思考和感觉。

And often, even if you don't say those words, you're body language might convey a similar message.

Dealing With Mistakes

It is a cliché, but mistakes really do help people learn. Earlier this year one of our Associates in Training went along to a potential client meeting that we all felt he was up to. It was a disaster! They were unhappy with him, he was unhappy with them, we didn't get the work - it was a mistake.

我们是否落在呻吟和哀号上？不，我们没有（好吧，我们的可怜的助理做了一件非常好的殴打自己的工作） - 我们参加了一个会议，我们看着发生了什么，给了未来会议的指导，负责没有给他更多的备份，而且盖伊现在正在飞行。他不仅达到合作伙伴状态，他现在可能是我们最好的客户端开发者。

If we hadn't let him loose, and we hadn't been OK about his 'mistake' we could have knocked his confidence even more than he himself had already knocked it. Instead, we showed our utter confidence in him and his abilities and we were proved right.

重复错误

What you do have to pay attention to is someone who makes repeated mistakes in the same way. Then you have to see what the bigger issue might be.

Do they really and truly just don't get it?

Are they not capable?

Do they simply not like what they've been asked to do and are consciously or unconsciously sabotaging their ability to get it done?

你需要找到吗a completely different way to teach them?

Do you need to get someone else to help explain it?

Monitoring

Just giving someone something new to do and leaving them to do it might work for some people, but not usually. At the same time, you don't want to be hovering too much, checking up on how they're doing. Achieving a good balance is essential.

When you initially give somebody something new, you probably need to agree what would be helpful to them but also reassuring for you. It's silly being worried and anxious about how they're getting on by trying to be too hands-off. You can even say to the other person: "I get pretty anxious about involving someone new in this work, so it would be helpful if you gave me an update on a regular basis." And then decide what that regular basis would look like.

Monitoring also means keep other people informed from your end on a regular basis: what you expect, how things are shaping up within the big picture if any of the goalposts have changed (they inevitably will).

称赞

Oddly enough, this bit often gets left off.

我们记得一个与我们合作的人，他们从未称赞他的员工。当这对他指出时，他说，“他们正在做他们付出的代价，为什么他们需要赞美？薪水很赞美。如果他们在以上，那么，我可能会给他们一些。”

Well, that's certainly one attitude. Not one we endorse however. We believe that people need to be acknowledged even if what they do is all part of their job description. In order to get people to want to go above and beyond, it's got to be worth their while and we're not talking money here. We're talking about letting others know that you notice their work, that you think they're doing a good job, that even the day-to-day stuff is important and you appreciate how they're handling it.

When you give someone something new to do, it's doubly important to let him or her know that you appreciate the effort they're making. This is one of the ways you build trust; the more you trust their work, the more they will develop and delegating will be that much easier for you.

For us, success is not just when you delegate something to someone and they do it well. Success is when they start coming to you asking for new things to be given.

德国议员

到目前为止,我们已经讨论过abo血型ut the 'delegator'

Those that are delegated to - the 'delegatee' if you will - should have a few words of wisdom as well (well, we think they're words of wisdom!).

If you see something you'd like to get involved in, ask. Don't wait to be invited because you might wait forever and then feel resentful you weren't included. Sometimes other people just don't know you're interested or even that you already have or are willing to learn the expertise needed.

If it looks as though you have a boss who's reluctant to let go, think about what you'd need to do to reassure him/her that you're up to the task. It's no good just saying "I can do that" if you work with someone who thinks no one can do it as well.

Don't Pretend

When you are given something new to do, don't pretend you're up to the job if a million and one questions are dancing in your head and you have a slight feeling of panic (or even a big feeling of panic). Ask questions! As many as you need to be able to do the job well.

Remember this if you can: often people will give instructions that they can understand and they make the assumption that you'll be able to understand them as well. If you don't, and you sit there nodding your head as though you do, you'll soon be out of your depth. This is true whether someone has explained something to you once or five times. If you don't understand, ask again.

现在有些方法要求不会让你看起来好像没有能力。以下是我们的一些最爱：

It would be great if you could go over all that again. I got some of it, but I need more clarification about xxx.
You're clearly know everything there is to know about this project. I'm just starting so maybe you should treat me as a real beginner.
我不想似乎脱离我的深度，但如果你可以再次解释这一点，那就会有帮助。
我要重复你刚才所说的，所以你可以确保我真的有了。
Oh dear, I'm afraid that just didn't sink in, could you try again?
我可以看到你有点沮丧，但是一旦我破解了这一点，你就不会再解释一下。

And so on. There is nothing wrong with asking and then asking again. The delegator might appear or even be exasperated, but this could be about learning something completely new, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to get it right.

You Will Make Mistakes.

Own up to them right away, and we mean right away. Don't hide, pretend, blame someone else, put it off. The sooner you 'fess up' the sooner it can be put right. Unless you're damn sure you can fix it without help, call in the troops. It can feel might lonely and isolating sitting there knowing you've screwed up and hoping no one will notice while you scrabble around trying to put it right. There are wiser heads out there who will have seen it all before anyway.

是的，但如果他们最终给我所有的笨蛋工作怎么办？

Ah yes, you might have a boss who just wants to get rid of all the dull, time-consuming stuff he/she doesn't want to do. These people aren't reluctant at all, they're just waiting to pounce and give you piles of boring things to do so their time is freed up.

This is an interesting one. On the one hand, you don't want to seem difficult and on the other, you don't want your own day filled with the dull and boring.

Offer a compromise. Show willing with the dull stuff but ask for something more interesting as well. Not only that, we believe that everyone needs some boring, routine things to do, especially in the 'slump' part of the day (Jo Ellen: "I seem to 'cave' at about 3 pm and am quite happy to sink into mindless work for a bit that requires not a single creative brain cell.") where you don't have to think too much.

If it looks as though that's all that's coming your way, you can point out that you want to develop skills and are certainly able to take on more challenging work.

找到自己的方式

一旦你掌握了新的东西，你就不必成为让你做的人的克隆。虽然他们可能希望你能做一切'他们的方式'，但有时你可能会发现更好或更有效的方式。有时，当事情已经相同的方式工作了很长时间时，常规会接管和新的做事方式被忽略。

One of the plusses of being delegated to is that you might see things in a completely new way and change the routine. Indeed, fresh eyes usually will see things that 'old' eyes just can't.

结论

As far as we're concerned, delegating is an essential part of any manager's role. Done well it empowers people (see also our document on Empowerment), raises self-esteem, gives people new skills and frees up your own time and energy.

Give it away!