Many people are reluctant delegators.
You might worry that your people will do it wrong… and “wrong” is defined as “not the way I would do it.”
You might worry that your people aren’t going to want to do the task.
You might think that “It’s just quicker for me to do it.”
However, if you are not delegating effectively to your team members, you are hurting them and hurting yourself.
How are they going to advance in their careers if they don’t get experience? How are you going to get anything done if you are doing everyone else’s work, too?
If delegation is a challenge for you, start by delegating one new thing each day. Give it to someone who will benefit from the knowledge or experience. Take the time to give them enough information and training that they are set up for success. Set check-ins or a time limit. Have an open-door, “Come to me if you get stuck” policy. Have them walk you through how they did the task, and let them make any additional tweaks, revisions, or modifications to polish it to perfection, so that they learn how to do the work at a professional level.
Yes, it takes more time to delegate effectively than to just do it yourself… that first time. But if you delegate effectively, you have built their competence, and you can now trust them to do the job that third, fourth, or seventeenth time with a lot less effort on your part.
(image generated by Midjourney)