Dan Lawson Petros Consulting Services www.petrosconsultingservices.com Don’t Dump…Delegate Dan Lawson Petros Consulting Services www.petrosconsultingservices.com

How well do you delegate? Questions to ask yourself: Do I work long after regular hours? Do I take work home on a regular basis? Do I work longer than my staff? Do I spend time doing things for other people that they could do themselves? In an emergency, is there no subordinate or colleague who could relieve me? Do I lack the time to plan my tasks and activities? When I return from a trip, is my desk piled high?

How well do you delegate? Do I often have to postpone an important task to deal with others? Am I constantly in a hurry in order to meet deadlines? Do I spend time with routine work that could be done by someone else? Do I dictate most of the correspondence, memos, and reports that I have to sign? Do I lack time for social or company functions? Do I want to be involved in, and informed about, everything? Do I have a hard time following my priority list?

How well did you do? 0-4 : You delegate extraordinarily well! Add up how many times you answered with yes. 0-4 : You delegate extraordinarily well! 5-7 : You could improve your delegation style in several areas. 8-13 : You have a serious problem with delegation. Solving this problem should have absolute priority. Time Is Money: Save It, by Lothar J. Seiwert, Dow Jones-Irwin, 1818 Ridge Rd., Homewood, IL 60430

Don’t Dump…Delegate Two questions to ask leaders when they become ineffective or suffer burnout: Do you have the ability to build a team? Do you have the right people around you to share the load?

Don’t Dump…Delegate Your style will be determined by: Your temperament. Your team. Communication with your team. Your schedule. Your priorities. Your place in the organization.

Ten Reasons Why We Don’t Delegate We enjoy the task too much. We believe that the other person is already overloaded. We have had a bad experience with delegating. We are unable to find “qualified” people to delegate to. We have wrong expectations.

Ten Reasons Why We Don’t Delegate We have never done it. We are insecure. We want to keep control. We don’t want to take the time to find, recruit and train other people. We don’t like to bore people with repetitive tasks.

Steps to Successful Delegation Know yourself. Know your team. Clearly define your priorities. Clearly define the task. Provide the resources needed. Develop a list of working questions to gain feedback.

Steps to Successful Delegation Develop a system of delegating authority. Make clear the level of authority you have given to the person. Hold people accountable for their actions. Recognize effort and reward results.

Do’s and Don’ts of Delegation Delegate to develop people. Delegate to someone who can do it at least 80% as well as you. Communicate clearly and continually. Trust the people on your team. Delegate for results.

Do’s and Don’ts of Delegation Let the information chain get to long. Ask one person to report to two or more people. Make fuzzy job assignments. Be to rigid. Delegate and then advocate.