Which company culture does delegation work in the least? You can often hear managers complain about the following: “we put out fires all day long, we have no time, we are extremely busy”. “We do not have time to fix the fence because we have to round up the chickens!” These are all well-known slogans in micromanagement, and people who keep saying them are not willing to not face up to the fact that those who fail to delegate fall apart and scatter the resources of their company.

Manual control is evident loss in itself. Those who need to feel that they “know better” are not good leaders. Real leaders do not hesitate to assign tasks; those who fail to delegate out of fear are also afraid of other things. However, good leaders are courageous and confident not only in matters of delegation, but in other decisions as well.

A place where there is no time for planning, where the process-oriented approach does not work, where the management wants people who are “ready” and no education or training is provided, or where tasks are assigned to people instead of people being assigned to tasks is a place where delegation will not work either. In this way, leaders become not only indispensable managers, founders and owners, but also indispensable experts, specialist, colleagues and operators.

Some managers are even afraid that their subordinates might do something better than them – as if this ought to be a problem. There are certainly some things that subordinates can do better. This does not reduce the leader’s authority, but increases the company’s reputation: word spreads of how excellent employees work there and how their boss does not want to appear irreplaceable, indispensable or almighty.

It is a well-known expression that “we delegate responsibility – and trust –, not tasks”. Delegation itself is customised, personalised trust, when a leader assigns a task within their own scope of responsibilities to the appropriate subordinate, and is not worried that “explaining it may take longer then doing it themselves”. They do not flatter themselves that “no one can do it as well as they can”. They do not delude themselves by saying that “because of revision, delegation is twice the work”. They do not say, “I delegate things, but I am asked the first ten questions within five minutes”.

In addition to the task, we also delegate responsibility, authority and power, inseparably from the task itself. Responsibility, just like love, proliferates: the subordinate becomes responsible, while the leader also remains responsible. A manager who delegates properly improves their own time management, but also develops their colleagues and increases their autonomy. Not to mention the great SECRET, the magic of retention!

The managers measure and evaluate by learning more about their subordinates’ skills, performance and capacity. In this sense, delegation can also be a reward, a concealed grading. At certain companies, employees actually fight to have the opportunity to prepare the current report, since they know that by performing this task (which requires mastering a complicated process), they can obtain marketable knowledge for themselves as well. Evidently, not everything can be delegated – these tasks may differ based on sectors, companies, leaders and subordinates. A more important question is what to delegate to whom and based on what kind of expectations – this task is not easy, but it is necessary. While this may be bad news for some people, the good news is that the “art” of delegation can be developed. It only takes a certain knowledge of the subordinates’ competencies: if, at a certain company, the right people are doing the right job in the right way, it is an indication that the manager delegates well.

And those who delegate well, not only optimise resources but also generate flow – by motivating well. These days, it is important for young workers to be able to grow at their workplaces, and delegation provides an opportunity for that. True talent is strongly motivated by responsibility – how else could they gain the necessary experience? We all know how pressure makes diamonds. However, it is important to delegate gradually, starting with a compact, clear, manageable and rewarding task instead of a complex one! Beginner cooks do not start with the first three stages of preparing a Beef Wellington either, instead, they try to make pancakes or scrambled eggs on their own. After they have successfully prepared their first batch of chips…

Of course, the boss will want to check on the colleague, but thankfully, there is a helpful golden rule to be followed here. If we support junior colleagues during smaller tasks by providing greater control and frequent feedback, then soon, they will only require limited control even during larger tasks. There is no delegation without communication: we need to explain how the assigned task fits into the big picture and how it can be measured. This way, it also becomes clear that the leader is not delegating for convenience but for business reasons, and because there are certain tasks that only they can do – i.e. the reason for delegating as well as possible is that not everything can be assigned to others. In some sense, the basic foundation of delegation is faith: a good leader believes in their colleagues, subordinates and employees – the company’s community. A manager who has become indispensable at their company is incompetent at managing resources. All leaders are responsible, and let’s admit it, even at fault, for feeling irreplaceable. And not only for the feeling itself, but also for this situation happening in the first place. Nevertheless, they have the opportunity to change it, which is in the interest of both the company and the manager.