Why Delegation is Important

By Eric Taussig | Updated: 11 Sep, 2019

You’ll almost never hear the word “leadership” without hearing the word “delegate” close behind. That’s because delegation is key for leadership and growth.

So why do so many fail to delegate?

Sometimes people hold onto work they should not be doing out of fear that they will become irrelevant with no work to replace the work they’ve let go of. Others hold onto work due to a sense of guilt: They misconceive delegation as lazily lobbing one’s own work onto others.

But delegation is not simply assigning tasks for someone to complete; it is passing on authority and responsibility to someone while remaining accountable for the outcome and success of the task.

Here are a few reasons why delegating is important:

Delegation Gives You Time and Energy to Do More Important Tasks

As a salesperson or sales manager, a common mistake is to try to do most of the work yourself, such as updating your CRM system and your social media accounts. This may leave you lacking the time to do more important tasks, like making sales calls and learning the latest sales techniques.

When you delegate things that you don’t need to do personally, you free up time that may be more valuable for certain tasks that require your expertise and energy.

Delegation Empowers Your Team

Everyone has their own set of skills and expertise and finding the right person to do the job better than you makes for a win-win situation. You get the job done correctly, and the other party gets to grow in his abilities and responsibilities.

Delegation of authority helps develop the capacity of others and makes them feel valuable to the organization. It also encourages job satisfaction through a sense of shared responsibility and breaks the monotony of a subordinate’s usual tasks and routine.

Effective delegation also gives them the chance to excel in a task and gives you the pleasure of seeing your team grow and succeed.

Delegating Encourages Creativity and Innovation

Delegating promotes an “inclusive” culture where more people can think about different ways to solve a problem or issue.

A team, instead of just one person working on a task, provides different points of view.

This setup allows people to more easily come up with a number of more creative or unique ways to address the project at hand.

New methods of doing a task or activity may also be discovered, leading to increased efficiency and productivity of your team.

Delegation Is Crucial for Your Own Improvement

As a leader or manager, people are observing how you get things done. Your ability to work strategically and dedicate time to planning and improving organizational systems are reflected by your ability to lead and delegate.

With enough time and energy on your hands, you can spend more time developing your sales and leadership skills.

Delegation Is Important for Leadership Succession

When you delegate, you allow people to step in and acquire other skills that are valuable to the organization. Delegating may be a way of training someone else in your company to perform jobs other than their routine tasks.

When the time comes that you are promoted or leave the company, you are sure that other people know how to do the tasks because you have delegated it to them a number of times.

Read More: 5 Surprising Benefits of Effective Delegation

Delegation Strengthens the Organization

By delegating certain tasks to subordinates in your company, you achieve a sense of commitment in your organization. Employees who accept authority and accountability during delegation have a better sense of shared responsibility and a stronger commitment to the organization’s success.

What tasks can you start delegating today?

What You Should Do Now

If you need help delegating, here are a few options to help you:

  1. Download our ebook "How to Use Delegation to be a More Impactful Leader" and get a better understanding of what tasks to delegate, how to delegate effectively, and how to create processes that save you time in your delegation.
  2. Book a free consultation call with Prialto. We can help you regain more of your time by offloading repeatable tasks to a fully managed virtual assistant. One of our experts will help you create a plan to delegate your tasks and we will even train your VA for you.
  3. If you know someone else who’d benefit from being a better delegator, share this post with them via email, Linkedin, Twitter, or Facebook.