by D. P. Noe

Created on: September 06, 2008   Last Updated: November 12, 2010

Increasing your willingness to delegate can be challenging for many individuals. There is a tendency for individuals to resist delegating tasks because they are use to doing the work themselves. Effective delegation is a process where the responsibility and authority for performing a task is handed over to another individual to perform. That individual (delegate) then accepts the responsibility to complete the task. At all times the individual that delegates the task remains accountable and has the responsibility that the task has been completed. Delegation that is done successfully empowers and builds trust and strengthens communication with employees and is a foundation for building a teamwork environment.

Tasks can only be delegated when you are responsible for those tasks.  If you have no ties to the task, then you cannot delegate the task. For instance, in health care the RN delegates tasks to unlicensed care givers like nursing assistants or Student nurses to complete vital signs and checking blood sugars. Ultimately the RN remains responsible to ensure that the task is completed and done correctly and accurately. In this case the RN is also transferring the authority, the RN has empowered another individual to complete the task.

The individuals that the task was assigned to complete will also gains benefits from following through and completing the delegated task. The delegate is given opportunity to learn new skills making them a more valuable employee. The delegation process has the effect of increasing job satisfaction and creating new challenges for employees that previously were not able to expand their role and take on new tasks.. The end result of this is an employee that feels good about their job and you should see increased cooperation and teamwork. This is a win-win situation for both the individual that delegates and the delegate.

One of the major problems with delegation is a leader that believes there is no one else capable of completing a task except themselves. This is an example of very narrow minded thinking and will never build a teamwork environment where every employee feels that they are valued. This is very negative on productivity because leadership has less time to focus on tasks they need to complete because of their reluctance to delegate tasks to another individual. You will often see this type of individual complain that they cannot get their work done because they are  reluctant to delegate tasks.

When tasks are

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