The importance of effective delegation for successful projects

On large, complex projects the Project Manager may have several staff working for them, such as Assistant Site Managers, Section Engineers, Engineers, Safety Advisors, Quality Managers, and Supervisors. It’s impossible for the Project Manager to attend to all the tasks, so it’s therefore necessary to delegate tasks to members of their team.

I've seen projects where the Project Manager has tried to do everything, often leading to disaster because they take on too many responsibilities, resulting in tasks being completed late, done badly, or forgotten altogether. This leads to frustration in the rest of the project team, since they are left waiting for materials or equipment, which the Project Manager was supposed to organise. Furthermore, members of the team may feel overlooked and not trusted to manage their section of work, resulting in poor morale and productivity.

Frequently I hear excuses as to why a task has not been delegated such as; ‘it will take longer to show them than if I did it myself’. Yet how will the other person ever learn if they are not taught? Time spent training the person now, will, in the future, be time well spent, since hopefully the person will be able to do the task unaided.

I also hear comments like the person is ‘useless’ or ‘incapable of doing the task’. Are they really useless, or is it because they've not been shown what to do? Do they have the appropriate training and experience to fulfill the role expected of them? If they are genuinely useless, why are they still employed and what’s being done to replace them?

Of course, the opposite of not delegating tasks is to delegate everything, or to delegate inappropriate tasks.

If you are a member of Linkedin check out this great article on delegation Is your inability to delegate holding you (and everyone else) back?