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Delegating is essential for managers. However, strong delegating is not so common. One reason that delegating doesn’t work out well is because the manager lacks clarity about what she's assigning. She may be unclear herself about what she is seeking, or she may be clear but her delivery of the instructions are unclear.
If an employee receives unclear instructions, she will spend time working on something that her manager will eventually review and be disappointed with. This is crappy both for the manager—because she doesn’t get the finished result she is seeking, and for the employee—because she has to re-do her work and doesn’t feel good about the time she wasted.
To avoid this situation, and to get a finished product of which you can both be proud, it’s important that as a manager, you provide crystal clear instructions. If you are unclear on what you need your employee to create, spend some time figuring that out before delegating.
If you are clear about what you want, make sure that you are explaining yourself completely. You can do this by asking your employee to repeat back what you’ve assigned. If she can explain the task to you, you will have the opportunity to assess if she's gotten what you’re asking, or if you need to clarify yourself.
How do you delegate to employees? Share with us in the comments below.