[To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com]
This week’s blog comes from:
Dale Carnegie Training Newsletter
By Anita Zinsmeister, President — anita.zinsmeister@dalecarnegie.com
Dale Carnegie® Training of Central & Southern New Jersey
- Word count for this issue: 460
- Approximate time to read: About 1.8 minutes
@ 250 words per minute
It takes more than one person to run a successful business. Even when we work on a team, attempting to carry our entire workload alone can lead to overload. At some point, we must all engage in that time-honored practice among associates: delegation.
Striking a balance between an existing workload and new tasks can be tricky. With that in mind, we have assembled four tips for 
delegating your work more effectively.
Here are four Tips For Delegating More Successfully
1. Be Proactive In Following Up – No matter how well a project seems to be going, you still need to consistently and proactively follow up on its progress. Your efforts will keep the project on the forefront of everyone’s minds and help maintain unity during the project period. Conversely, if you fail to follow up, your employees are far more likely to fall out of sync with you.
2. Choose People You Trust – Not all members of your team will be suited for the project you want to assign. Be familiar with your team members’ strengths and weaknesses and assign projects to the people you are confident can handle them. Also, choose people who can work without constant supervision. That way you can focus on other tasks that require your attention.
3. Communicate – As a project progresses, if one step does not transition smoothly to the next, it is usually the result of poor communication. Whenever a project is delegated to multiple employees, make constant communication a priority. Whoever is heading the project has the responsibility to not only keep the channels open, but also lead by example. Furthermore, they must maintain this level of communication until the project is completed.
4. Develop A Plan Of Action – On average, most people do not work on just one project at a time. That’s why it is important to have a plan of action ahead of time to ensure everyone knows the project’s priority and where it fits in their workload. If you do not have a plan of action, you run the risk of your employees placing different priorities on their work, resulting in a breakdown in unity. Consider all the steps and resources that the project requires, then draw up an outline to act as a road map.
Executive Summary: There is more to delegating work than simply dumping part of your workload on someone else’s desk. At the end of the day, no matter how you share your work with other employees, responsibility for its completion still falls on your shoulders. Because of this, it is critical that you handle delegation effectively. By handling delegation in the manner we presented above, you can see your projects to completion with little to no complications.
[To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com]