Are You Delegating or Abdicating?

Delegation Vs Abdication – Are You Delegating or Abdicating?

Most small to medium business owners are ambitious entrepreneurs which means, when their business idea is successful, making the transition from solo worker to manager can be tricky!

Learning the balance between delegation and abdication is an important place to start!

Delegating by definition

Delegating is entrusting a task to another person – which makes a lot of sense if they are skilled in that particular field and you aren’t!

Abdicating is failing to fulfil a responsibility or duty.

That means you have to assess your behaviour as a manager – when is passing on a task the right thing to do and when is it not wanting to complete something you can and should do yourself?

Steps of delegation

Delegating a task does not end at handing the duty over to someone else.

A good manager knows they are still responsible for it even if they are distant from it.

That’s where the steps come in.

• A manager needs to select the right person for the task,
• ensure they are trained for the task,
• instruct them clearly,
• assign the duty,
• authorise them and
• mentor them.

If these steps aren’t complete, you haven’t delegated a task, you’ve abdicated a task!

Make sure you don’t drop a task – and your team is well trained for any tasks you throw their way, with the help of Sussex Business School.

Browse available courses here.