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CEOs should delegate to ensure efficiency

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Empowering people through delegation helps create high achieving teams. FILE PHOTO | NMG

To delegate effectively we need to ask ourselves and answer questions such as; why, to whom, what, and how do we delegate. How do we know that delegation was effective? How do we encourage feedback?

We delegate to avoid being worn out thereby conserving much needed energy, to achieve good health and rejuvenate the mind; to free time for more important tasks, leisure and rest; to create time to pursue personal developmental goals like furthering our education, spending more time with family and diversifying into other business interests and participating in social activities that grow and build us.

Furthermore delegation helps to create and foster an open and transparent environment that builds trust, motivates and encourages teams to buy into our vision, implement the vision, mission and culture of our organisation and encourages feedback.

Delegation also enables us to identify, coach, mentor and develop leadership talent especially when seeking a successor or building an exit strategy.

Empowering our people through delegation helps create high achieving teams ready to participate in formulating strategy, resolve issues and take on challenging tasks necessary to grow the organisation.

READ: Leadership should not be about a super hero, but an enabler

Effective delegation enables us to concentrate on and fully complete the tasks in our key result areas or our 20 per cent tasks.

Completing a task 100 per cent gives us a feeling of achievement, leads to success, happiness and respect from others. Delegation should be to the most understanding and the wisest members of the team.

They know how to be impartial when dealing with work issues and disputes.

They should therefore be those that possess the most technical skills but can also be natural leaders of the diverse informal groups that form within a big team.

Thinking clearly about the suitability of the person we can delegate to goes a long way to calm our fears.

Beth Kombo is a former senior banker and is CEO and founder of Trend Management Consultants.