Delegation and Teamwork: Keys to Organizational Health
Insight: The way to maximize personal and organizational health is through delegation and teamwork, not by trying to do everything yourself.
Is the old saying, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” really true? Not if you aspire to a healthy, prosperous organization. The fact is that you simply can’t maximize effectiveness by trying to do everything yourself. To the contrary: that tactic will leave you feeling stressed and burned out.
Prosperous leaders realize that their success is related directly to that of their employees. As a result, they empower their workers by creating a culture of collaboration and cooperation. They know that such environments enable the delegation and teamwork necessary for the optimal health of the business.
As I’ve written elsewhere, a healthy organization is one that is likely to be successful and even prosperous because it is able to maximize its effectiveness. When there is a high level of trust between management and employees, leaders are able to delegate responsibility and authority, and teams can work collaboratively and cooperatively.
So how do you delegate work to employees in ways that both enable them to be successful and allow you to step aside and let them assume additional responsibilities? Here are seven tips to help get you started:
Define clearly the responsibilities for each job in your organization.
Communicate clear expectations of performance.
Create accountability mechanisms that include measurable outcomes and consequences for both performance and non-performance.
Designate guidelines within which the work is to be done.
Provide the resources needed to be successful.
Grant the necessary decision-making authority.
Celebrate successes!
The above steps apply to both individuals and teams. The objective is to empower your employees to step up to the plate and deliver the expected results. To demonstrate that you trust them, give them the tools they need to be successful and then step back and let them get to work. Most people will do everything they can to live up to that trust.
One more important point: delegation and teamwork are most effective when you create win-win agreements with your employees. That is, for you to feel comfortable delegating the work, you need to trust that they will accept the responsibilities and be willing to be held accountable for the outcomes. In turn, for employees to accept the assignments, they must trust that you will provide the guidelines, resources, and authority necessary to achieve the designated results.
Prosperous leaders know it’s not good for their health or their business to try to do everything themselves. They’ve learned that delegation and teamwork are the catalysts for exponential business success. Establishing a high level of trust between management and employees and creating a workplace characterized by collaboration and cooperation allow their businesses to thrive.
To find additional information about how delegation and teamwork can propel your organization to success, please see chapter 12 of my book, The Prosperous Leader: How Smart People Achieve Success.
If you would like to learn more about how to optimize your organization’s health and prosperity, I invite you to visit my website for additional free resources. There you will find related articles, an organizational health self-assessment, and an organizational health checklist. Or contact me for a 30-minute personal consultation.
