To properly distribute work among your team members, you must first understand authority, writes Fastcompany.com.
You must be able to decide when to give up your authority and why. Specifically, authority can be delegated in three areas - decision making, resource utilization and problem solving. You have the following options to chose from.
When not to delegate
Do not delegate your basic responsibilities such as team performance management or solving problems that may jeopardize the results of the entire team. You also have to take care of most personnel issues. Do not throw away your responsibility for activities others are not qualified for or able to fulfill within a set deadline.
When to delegate idea creation
Delegating responsibility for new ideas is appropriate in a situation when others' expertise can be a great help, or when you want to enhance your team members' involvement in working together. However, you must always be ready to listen to the new ideas and consider their possible use.
When to delegate tasks
Delegate responsibility for fulfilling tasks that are clearly defined and do not require too many difficult decisions. This phase occurs after deciding what idea you are going to implement. Employees know what they should do and should be given a certain amount of freedom in how to do it.
When to delegate authority
You can delegate your responsibility for more difficult tasks that require more decision making to those people who are qualified to do the task or who can do it with little help from you.
Try to focus more on how effectively you use your work time. What can you delegate so that you could focus on a more strategic work?
-kk-