Delegate to allow achievement

As you progress in your research career, you will need to shed some of the work you did as an early career researcher in order to make space for setting out the vision, developing your leadership skills, managing your team and engaging with stakeholders. You will need to think and act more strategically and if your time is being taken up with tasks that could be delegated you may fail to realise your goals and outcomes. (See the section on being strategic).

Many research leaders are driven to succeed and often take on more projects than they can handle alone. A fear of failure (and a noisy inner critic) can drive you to avoid delegation for fear that someone else will not get the job done correctly. If you are juggling too many priorities at the same time, you are more likely to make mistakes and still end up with a poor result. Delegating tasks to the right individuals allows you to focus on different priorities and move forward on your strategy. (See the sections on time management and the inner critic.)

Perhaps it’s a task that you’ve been doing for a long time and you can complete it without too much time or effort, but does it really require you to do it? Your time might be better spent on a more stretching task where you can learn something new. 

It can sometimes feel like a cliché, but research leaders who give their team members the freedom to tackle delegated tasks are giving them a development opportunity.  Giving your team members the freedom to tackle tasks in their own way empowers them by giving them creative license. In research we want to find novel approaches and processes, so we must give people the freedom to be creative and find breakthroughs that could benefit the whole team and develop skills along the way. 

Leaders who fail to delegate adequately often have team members who are afraid to take the initiative or who feel apprehensive about sharing new ideas. When your team members truly feel trusted, they are more motivated and may also be less nervous about speaking up, and less likely to make silly mistakes on tasks. (See the sections on building trust, using a coaching approach and motivation)

Perhaps the best reason to delegate tasks to others relates to the research culture you hope to create. Delegation helps to boost team moral, improve efficiency and productivity, and promotes enthusiasm, innovation, and cooperation – all of which are vital to a thriving research culture. It is important for research leaders to remember that delegation is not a way to push off unwanted tasks to others. Delegate effectively and offer communication and support but allow for autonomy and creativity at the same time.