Delegating jobs to subordinates

If you have a team working with you, delegation is a key skill to acquire or develop. It isn't just about giving tasks to others - it's about getting people to take full responsibility for certain key functions or tasks. In order for a business to grow, and for employees to find new paths of development, new people must be employed to take over established functions, allowing others to develop different aspects of the business.

For many of us, it seems to be a natural tendency to want to be in control of everything. We find it difficult to let go of things we know we can do well ourselves. However, if we wish to be successful managers this is exactly what we must learn to do.

There are many reasons why you may find it difficult to delegate. Often, it seems quicker to perform the task yourself rather than bother to explain it to somebody else and then correct his or her mistakes. On the other hand, you may feel threatened by the competence of a person who is quick on the uptake and does well. There is a fear that the employee may take over the role of being the person the rest of the staff goes to with their problems. They may even find something wrong with the way you do things.

If you lack the confidence, you may find it hard to give instructions and you'll put off delegating. If you do delegate, and problems arise because the employee fails to do what you've asked him or her to do, you may doubt your own ability to confront the person about his or her actions. If staff have been given increased responsibilities and have done well, you may not be confident of being able to reward them sufficiently. Conversely, you might be reluctant to delegate tasks that you think are too tedious.

Delegation offers many benefits. Done well, it will allow you to concentrate on the things you do best and also give you the time and space to tackle more interesting and challenging tasks in the future. You'll be less likely to put off making key decisions and you'll be much more effective. Your team / employees will benefit too; everyone needs new challenges, and by delegating to them, you'll be able to test their ability in a range of areas and increase their contribution to the business. Employees can take quick decisions themselves and they'll develop a better understanding of the details concerned. Done well, delegation can dramatically improve the overall productivity of employees.

It's all too tempting you to withdraw into 'essential' tasks and not develop relations with your team. The bottomline is that it's wasteful for senior staff to be given high-level compensation for doing low-value work, and passing tasks down the line is essential if other people are to develop. Not knowing how to do this is recognised as one of the biggest obstacles to business growth, particularly in small businesses. By delegating, you'll have much more time to do your own job properly.

However, delegation doesn't make things easier (there will always be other challenges), but it does make things more efficient and effective. Essentially, it represents a more interactive way of working with a team of people, and it involves instruction, training, and development. The results will be well worth the time and effort you invest in doing it properly.

- Sanjiv Anand is the managing director and Rajesh Iyer is director at Cedar Management Consulting International.