Great work is never done by one person alone. Do you ever feel like you work so hard, yet you consistently end up with the same results that are simply satisfactory? I know the feeling. Why is it that when you work in groups on a project, it is not always a fair collective effort, as in everyone puts in the same amount of work? For instance, when I work in a group, I feel that I put in tons of more effort than some of my other group members. Part of the problem is that I have now made these members dependant on me to get the job done simply because I stood up and took a leadership position. However, often times group members are willing to put in the same amount of effort as I am, though, having taken a leadership, I may not be giving the members tasks to be efficient as a whole. Eventually, the project would be done to a superior level of quality in half the time it would have taken me if I had done it solo. This is the ART OF DELEGATION. “Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results,” George S. Patterson once said (5). Delegation is the strategy of breaking up and dividing tasks to be distributed to group members for the completion of an overall project. For instance, if your class is assigned a history project and your group must pick five events to analyse and discuss in paragraph format. Your group has four members; for all the mathematicians out there, five tasks cannot be divided evenly by four people. In this case, you must put your thinking cap back on and strategize (another leadership skill that is super beneficial)! There is a way to work around every obstacle; you could delegate one task to each group member and split the fifth five ways. You are probably wondering, “how can one task be split up into five parts?” Once again, another obstacle that a leader must learn to overcome. Yes, a group project is a collective effort of every group member contributing their fair share, though the typical point is to encourage the collaboration of varied ideas to form a unique whole. With this being said, it is equally as important to work collaboratively on one singular task as it is to complete different tasks individually and put it together to form a whole. Both these methods will produce unique work, though, work that is collaboratively done rather than in individual roles will cultivate unified work, which is ultimately the accomplishment that is seeking achievement. “Delegation is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of a strong leader,” Genevieve Conti explains in her blog post, “A guide to delegating tasks effectively.” In her post, she outlines some of the most evident reasons as to why people tend not to delegate tasks:
For delegation to be effective, a leader must be courteous to their team, checking in with them to ensure that the method of delegation is well implemented and functioning, “[It is important to remember that]....[d]elegation does not mean dumping responsibility on another person. It is not offloading things that you don’t feel like doing. It is also not seeking help to finish things at the last minute.” I have learned to use this skill not only in school but with my organization, Sports For Smiles, as well. At the beginning of last year, I was spending hours and hours on attempting to get my project off the ground, though I was not getting as much as out of it as I was putting in to it, and it was not soaring at the rate that I had thought it would. I was swamped with school, work, sports, and other commitments; I was not able to religiously dedicate the entire weekend, per say, to working on the project. At that point, I was not being an effective leader. I was simply overworking myself because I thought that I could get everything done myself. That is when I approached my team and began sorting out ways to split tasks so that every member was each contributing an equal amount. I began DELEGATING tasks with my discretion of who would be the best for a specific task, and based on preferences of the members. Not only did this lower my stress level in a management position, but it also helped my organization soar to new heights. We achieved more in six months than I did in a year on my own! For perfectionists, like me :), it is often times difficult to leave things in the hands of others as it may not be done to your “desiring quality.” This is understandable, however it is important to be compatible and flexible when in a leadership position. For those whom are studious, treat this skill as your “cheat sheet” for success in academics. Those whom are sporty, delegation can be your tactic to success in a game; you cannot dribble from your end all the way down the field, attempt to deke all eleven players out and not expect to lose the ball.
Great work is done with the collaboration of many diverse ideas, forming a whole that is superior. Janeva S
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Have you ever been thrown into a situation where you are chosen to lead a bunch of people and delegate them tasks that maybe they don’t want to do? I’ve been there too, and it’s a tough situation. Delegating tasks may seem very simple and straight-forward, but for “quiet” leaders it’s much harder. Some leaders do it with such ease that nobody ever seems to question them, and everyone just has a giant amount of mutual respect. Other times when you’re handing out tasks, you overthink, and you mess up, and put yourself through so much unnecessary stress because you don’t want to mess up in front of all these people, and you want to be seen as a good leader. In the type of class that we are in, delegating tasks are vital because as students, they give us a huge opportunity to show off all of the skills we have learned from the class to our peers, and to the community. Delegation is assigning any responsibility or authority to another person to carry out specific activities. People tend to delegate tasks to certain people who specialize in that area, they wouldn’t give someone who doesn’t know how to fix a computer the task of fixing a computer. An important part of delegation is making sure that your teammates understand why they need to accomplish their tasks. Explaining this need gives you the chance to relate the tasks to the goals of your organization. This will help your teammates understand your team’s objective and will help them understand what they are working towards, rather than going in blindly. The following tips are here to help you know how to delegate tasks properly:
Ways you can personally improve your delegation skills are: learn to let go, state the things that are priorities, play to your workers’ strengths, always include instructions, never be afraid to teach them new skills, and trust them. Delegation skill is the ability to effectively assign task responsibility and authority to others. In other words, delegation skill is your ability to get things done by using work and time of other people. Also, a major reason why employees resist change in the workroom is because of poor management skills who don’t take charge and properly delegate their employees the tasks they should be. I know for me personally I tend to overthink, and second-guess myself whenever I am in a leader situation, and when everyone is relying on me I sometimes feel like I can’t rely on myself. For my own personal leadership, delegating tasks is the hardest thing to do when you have been put in a leadership position, because you have to deal with a lot of different personalities wanting to do the same task, or somebody doesn’t get to do the task they want, and you’re to blame. After researching this, I wish I had seen these tips earlier, so that I wouldn’t freak out every time I was put into a leadership position.
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