Delegating: Leadership Basics

As an economic development executive, do you delegate work to others? Good leaders are adept at delegating work, even the work they love to do themselves.

The road to leadership is paved with action—with doing. Leaders are characterized by doing what other people don’t want to do. They do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. While this is an invaluable trait, it can be taken to an extreme and become your biggest liability. At some point you have to rely on other people to help you do what needs to be done. Delegating is that skill that will benefit you and those whom you lead.

Delegating is a way of increasing your time. It allows you the freedom to focus on what you should be accomplishing and to better see the big picture.

Only do those tasks that nobody else can do. Determine what it is you will delegate. Look at what you do and ask yourself if this is really where you should be spending your time. All routine activities and minor decisions should be delegated to others. Also, any tasks that should be performed when you are not there or unavailable are also candidates for delegation.

Never keep work simply because you do it better. Delegating certain tasks to others is a way of developing and endorsing those you lead. Delegating allows people to learn by doing, to take risks and to build confidence. It is one of the best ways to develop that person for further responsibilities and their own leadership responsibilities.

Don Iannone is writing Creating Leadership Advantage for Economic Development, a new book on the role of leadership in economic development. It will be available in about three months. Contact Don for more information: dtia@don-iannone.com. He will be a keynoter at the IEDC Leadership Summit on Janaury 23, 2006.