How to Delegate and Empower Employees

Many managers believe that if they want something to be done right, then they have got to do it themselves. No one can possibly do everything. These managers also forget that management is about getting work done through others.

Delegation involves giving an employee the responsibility for part of your job and the authority to carry it out while you retain control and accountability. Empowerment is very similar to delegation with the added responsibility and authority to make decisions tied to the assignment while you retain control and accountability.

To ensure that things go smoothly when you delegate, you should:

• Make your expectations clear to your employees concerning the quality of the work, time frame for completion, etc.
• Invest time upfront preparing your employees to handle the task well by providing coaching or skills based training.
• Build employee confidence. Praise them for previous work and point up their knowledge and skills. Your staff need to know that you chose them to do a task because of their competence, and most importantly, because you trust them to do the job well.

If you want to truly empower your employees, you need to ensure the following:

• Invest in your employees’ knowledge, skills, and ability.
• Believe in your employees’ ability to be successful.
• Be absolutely clear about your expectations.
• Provide them a safety net.
• Identify those who can and those who can’t be empowered.
• Share information with them.

Delegating and empowering employees have positive benefits. Both build employee abilities, experience, and confidence. Therefore

• Use delegation and empowerment to train your staff members.
• Pick delegates who are confident enough to admit they are encountering problems.
• Make sure that those empowered to oversee tasks are not limited by lack of others’ support, both within and outside your unit.