Delegating only routine?

• Many managers see delegation as a process of offloading routine - stuff they don't want to do or which gets in the way of what they would rather be doing.
• No doubt you have to think strategically about yourself if you are to make best use of all of your personal resources. This entails some delegation of menial tasks.
• Management is like investment - to be effective you must invest all of your personal resources - time, personal strengths, experience, knowledge where you can generate the best return.
• But you also manage people, another resource. To get the best return from your investment in this resource, you also need to think strategically about how best to use the people who report to you.
• Offloading detail may help you make better use of your personal resources, but not make very good use of the people reporting to you.
• The key is to think strategically about ALL resources at your disposal - your personal assets plus those of the people reporting to you.
• This means delegating some of the choice tasks that you might like to reserve for yourself if doing so would help to develop a key member of your team.
• So, delegating only routine is not an effective way to manage all the resources at your disposal.
• It's a matter of assessing the development needs, skills, interests and aspirations of each person reporting to you and weighing that up with your own priorities to decide how best to reap the greatest possible return on all resources at your disposal.
• Management is a strategic investment activity.