What to Delegate

Managers usually delegate to give themselves more time to do complex and difficult tasks, to improve productivity, or to develop their employees.  Some types of work you should consider delegating are:

• Detail work - this can tie you up when you should be making decisions, organizing others and planning how you and your employees can work together to achieve results.
• Information gathering - Your job is to consider the big picture, using only the most relevant information to make your decisions. This work, while interesting and fun, can take you away from that. It can be motivating and developmental for your employees to do it.
• Repetitive assignments - They aren't effective use of your time as a manager. Things like regular reports, filing, and other repetitive work, can, with the appropriate training, be delegated. And just because you don't like doing it, don't assume one of your employees might not find it interesting.
• Standing in for you at meetings and events - this makes better use of your time. Your stand-in can attend the meeting and provide you with the key details, saving you time, and giving the employee an important, interesting, and potentially developmental role.
• Areas where employees have more and/or more current expertise than you. As soon as you become a manager, your technical expertise may start to grow stale. Allow people with current expertise to carry the ball. It acknowledges their skill and lets you focus on the important checkpoints and outcomes.
• Future responsibilities - as a manager you should always be looking for ways to develop your staff and meet anticipated needs. Bringing them up to speed and training them in areas you feel will be important to your work unit's success will do this.

• Long-term vision & goals - With an overall understanding of your work unit, the organization and the marketplace, you're in the best position to do this most effectively.
• Performance feedback, reviews, discipline and counselling - In order to build positive professional relationships with your employees and connect with them, you need to do interact with them regularly on performance-related matters.
• Sensitive or confidential situations - Release of this information (deliberately or by mistake) can be damaging to you, your employees, and the organization. You need to assume responsibility for this to protect everyone's interests.
• Tasks that have specifically been assigned to you - IF you're expected to do it because you have unique skill, experience, or perspective, you shouldn't hand it off to someone else.