To Be a Great Leader You Have to Learn How to Delegate

Does your day leave you feeling as if you're pulling your hair out due to an overwhelming amount of tasks? While effective delegation can be difficult to implement, it plays an essential role in a leader's overall success.

General George S. Patton, who led World War II campaigns in Africa, Sicily, and Europe, said this regarding the concept of delegation,

Delegation is the most powerful tool that business leaders have, and its implementation is critical to a leader's success.

If a leader does not learn the "art" of delegation, even though he (or she) may possess many other leadership traits, he will never find himself coaching that "Dream Team" of employees, nor will he ever develop a Legacy-stage business.

It's not easy to let someone else take the lead through delegation. It requires openness and an ability to recognize what is best for the organization. Supervisors must be willing to permit others to share in and take ownership of the problems that arise.

It takes a great deal of trust and confidence in our ability as leaders to be "interdependent" with our employees.

The benefits of delegation are two-fold:

1. It increases a leader's individual productivity as well as the productivity of the organization
2. 2. It increases the initiative of employees by giving them an opportunity to grow and to accustom themselves to succeeding

Leaders who fail to delegate create a barrier to effectiveness, productivity, and profits.

So where to begin?

Delegation is a process, so start slow.

As managers, we have a tendency to "dump" projects on our employees without direction when we first begin delegating.

That's only setting them up for failure. Create your plan, understand what you're giving away, then delegate with detailed instruction.