“The art of choosing men is not nearly so difficult as the art of enabling those one has chosen to attain their full worth.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte, Empire Builder

Delegation is the practice of empowering your subordinates by allowing them to act with your authority on your behalf. Delegation requires authorizing others to carry out specific tasks under your general supervision, for which you take responsibility. Delegation is part of your time-mastery strategy because it allows you to be more productive and creative.

Necessity can be the mother of delegation. My senior year at the University of Florida I managed a student sales office, was president of my fraternity chapter, and had a cabinet position in student government. Time was precious. I taught my student sales secretary to conduct the non-sales parts of sales training, like how to fill out a sales contract. Once a new student sales person wrote one order, I promoted him to assistant trainer if he would conduct training one day a week. Our part-time office was competitive with other offices managed by full time sales managers with full time sales reps. My immediate motivation was to leverage my time, however I discovered a life-long method of accelerated management development. Delegation requires you to be organized because you outline projects, assign responsibilities in smaller units, set deadlines, and check progress.

Delegate early and often: the question “When in my management career should I start delegating?” has only one answer, “As soon as you have one person reporting to you.” Early delegation:

• Gives new sales people a chance to practice their appointment talk and sales presentation.


• Tells the new sales people you are serious about early management training.


• Confirms your, “I trust you,” approach to management.


• Demonstrates that early success is possible.

• How much time did you spend on each activity?


• Is it something you can teach others to do?


• If you trained all your key people to do all the tasks you COULD delegate, how would your schedule look like then?


• If you could train all those people NOW — would your sales team consequently grow?


• What was it you wished you had more time for, if others could do part of your current job?

Often, delegating the decision-making process on subjects such as the choice of which local marketing activity to choose to promote at the next sales meeting, where to go for the next “safari” sales trip, or the agenda for the next week’s sales meeting, assumes that such and such event WILL happen. What is delegated is the how and where. Be careful though, if ALL you delegate is scud work, you defeat your purpose.

The greater the number of creative, innovative minds you can engage in setting sales meeting agendas, experimenting with prospecting ideas, and writing recruiting ads, the more likely your entire sales force will find better ideas. Once discovered, that new, workable idea is yours forever.

Pride from being trusted lingers long after the assignment is finished. Step-by-step, your sales team members gain the confidence that only frequent practice provides, to perform all the activities of a sales manager. Once your subordinates can fill your job, you are in position to be promoted.

The following is a list of helpful hints on HOW to delegate:

• Always lookout for assignments to delegate. Every time you do something, ask yourself, “Who else could do this?”


• Be quick to publicly praise and slow to criticize, even in private. Most people do their best most of the time; sometimes when they do things differently, they are right!


• Be patient; understand the learning curve. Different people learn at different speeds.


• Show interest in results. Practice active listening.


• Outline the project to be delegated. Write it out.


• Assign definite responsibilities. Give clear instructions.


• Identify the easiest delegation tasks.


• Select candidates for the delegated tasks EARLY in their careers.


• Assign one task to one person.


• Set deadlines. People need to know WHEN the task should be completed.


• Inspect what you expect. Or as the late President Reagan once said “Trust, but verify.”


• Assign work gradually


• Delegate in advance; avoid last-minute crisis assignments.


• Let your team know delegation is an honor.


• Rotate delegation tasks; keep everyone fresh.


• Identify tasks you, and only you, should be doing.


• Allow people freedom to carry out assignment their own way.


• Explain why the assignment is important and how this assignment is part of your management development program.


• Start today! Do not think about delegation; DO IT.


• View delegation from the delegatee’s viewpoint. Your team members are entitled to certain delegation expectations. Included in those expectations are:


• They completely understand your expectations of them when they receive an assignment.


• They recognize how their assignment aids the teams overall success.


• They know their questions will be answered.


• They will receive prompt feedback, preferably in mid- stream, letting them know what they did well and what needs improvement.


• They are actively encouraged to suggest new ideas to improve their assignments.

• Do you want more free time? Learn to delegate.


• Do you want to reduce your dependency on personal orders? Learn to delegate.


• Do you want increased loyalty from your team members? Learn to delegate.

Consider the link between recruiting and delegation. The more frequently you recruit, the more likely you are to find eagles who can be promoted. The larger the talent pool, the more likely you are to find people who want to have meaningful activities delegated to them. Conversely, the more you recruit the more people you have who need to be trained and managed. Thus, you have more activity that can be delegated and more delagatees.

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