What is Delegating Leadership Style? An Overview of the Style

In a low task and relationship behaviour approach, a Delegating Leadership Style is where Leaders empower an individual employee to exercise autonomy. It is most effective with a person who has all three qualities – confidence, competence, and will to perform.  

Delegating Leadership Style helps employees to increase self-efficacy. With over eleven crore Leadership Styles, this one has emerged as a flexible approach. Providing employees with autonomy is a great motivator in the entire management canon. This blog will discuss every element you need to know about it.  

Table of Contents 

1) Definition of Delegating Leadership Style  

2) How do you delegate effectively as a Leader? 

3) Advantages of Delegation Leadership Style 

4) Disadvantages of the Delegation Leadership Style 

5) Characteristics of Delegation Leadership 

6) Key indicators for implementing a Delegation Leadership Style 

7) Conclusion 

Definition of Delegating Leadership Style 

Different Leadership Styles incorporate different methodologies, such as autocratic, situational transformational, and non-interference. Exploring situational Leadership, specifically its delegation method, can help identify whether this approach might be very appropriate.  

It can be defined as a Leadership approach that incorporates four unique Leadership Styles. This includes, telling, selling, delegating and participating. In Delegating Leadership Style a Leader empowers an individual to exercise a sovereign workflow. Practicing this approach offers an individual with the bigger picture, trusting them to deliver desired results.  

This Leadership Style is crucial for a few reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that providing autonomy to an employee is a great motivation. Leaders engaging in every detail of the member’s work feel like micromanaging, which for many people seems offensive.
 

How do you delegate effectively as a Leader?   

In order to delegate effectively as a Leader, a certain flow of events is necessary. Ideally, this is how the flow should look like: 

1) Identifying candidates who are capable of taking on more work 

2) Training them for the desired work and results 

3) Providing context 

4) Allowing them to practice in situations with low-pressure 

5) Working with them alongside  

6) Proper guiding  

7) Taking a genuine interest in their career growth and development 

Coaching and contextualising work are key elements of a Delegating Leadership Style. It deals with important pointers, such as, things that need to be done, possible ways of working them out, encouraging employees to find alternative paths, and explaining execution strategies. To strengthen this process further, there are a few additional aspects to consider:
 

a) Project check-ins: This process is easy due to several software these days. Setting employees up rather than pressurising them to complete tasks allows them some breathing space. Also, this procedure allows employees to understand projects in a better way, pinpoint pros and cons, and benefits and bugs.  

b) Setting solid deadlines: This works as a framework or a structure. It helps you to understand what needs to be done and by when. 

c) Approachable environment: Employees should feel comfortable coming to you whenever they face issues or need help with the project. 

d) Avoid bottlenecks: If approvals are required for every minute detail, then you are micromanaging and acting as the bottleneck. This is not a Delegating Leadership Style.  

Advantages of Delegating Leadership Style 

Delegating Leadership Style comes with a set of advantages. It is a more flexible Leadership approach that promotes independent working, employee and employer relationships, and productivity. Listed below are some of those benefits:  

Facilitates adaptable Leadership 

The Delegating Leadership Style is a more flexible Leadership approach. It allows plenty of room to take up responsibilities and Leadership duties to benefit particular situations. 

Encourages autonomy 

It is a prominent aspect of a successful team known for its productivity. However, this can only happen if the members of the team are competent enough and have the necessary skills to operate autonomously.  

Increase in productivity 

By passing on more independence to the team, the time saved from micromanagement can be used for other work. This creates more efficiency and an increase in the rate of productivity.  

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Disadvantages of Delegating Leadership Style 

Delegating Leadership Style, just like other Leadership Styles, is unsuitable for certain situations. It is quite natural for one Leadership Style not to work in all situations. Listed below are some of the disadvantages of this Leadership Style:  

May lead to ambiguity  

The transfer of Leadership roles and additional responsibilities can often create ambiguity amongst the team. This can especially happen during the initial days of the transfer. A great level of communication, however, can solve this issue. 

Emphasises short-term objectives 

This Leadership Style is comparatively more beneficial for a short-term situation. Which, necessarily, is not a bad thing. However, it does limit its benefits, turning focus from long term projects to short term deliverables.  

Necessitates a skilled team 

A major drawback of this Leadership Style is the requirement for an experienced team with extensive skills. If the team does not have the required skills to work independently, it can usually be improved by development programs.  

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Characteristics of Delegation Leadership 

Let’s explore the characteristics of the Delegating Leadership Style:
 

Monitoring activities effectively  

Delegating Leadership Style, even though it does not involve direct management intervention, is still a great idea to monitor activities. There is a fundamental difference between supervision and micromanagement. Micromanagement occurs when instructing and administering every minute detail of the process. 

Whereas monitoring happens when you ensure individuals can deliver according to the necessary workflow. Monitoring helps with a system of information and insight into the ongoing work from the management’s perspective.  

Reinforcing achieved results  

Adapting the Delegating Leadership approach comes with the habit of engaging team members and Leaders and motivating them to achieve the best results. It might be achieved by showing appreciation for the team’s efforts and contributions, celebrating their success and maintaining a structure of positive outcomes.  

Maintaining accessibility 

While not getting directly involved in all the processes and allowing autonomy, it is still effective in being available for the team. It is always a good idea to be available to support in times of need. Answering questions, clarifying processes, and advising the team are some examples of being there for the team. It is extremely important at times of emergency, such as a sudden change in the plan of workflow and deliverable execution.  

Providing a holistic view 

When Delegating Leadership Style is practiced, it is important to provide the team with the bigger picture. This means - providing the employee with the overall situation, aim, strategies, and deliverables. The purpose behind this method is to ensure that they understand the purpose of their work and requirements.  

Transferring appropriate control 

The characteristic that almost defines this style of Leadership is transferring control. Essentially, this process includes transferring responsibilities and tasks.   

Key indicators for implementing Delegating Leadership Style 

The key factors that can be screened before implementing the Delegating Leadership Style are as follows: 

1) Consistent and high-standard performance 

2) Capable of functioning autonomously  

3) The individual is committed to the work and enjoys it 

4) Keeps higher management informed about work progress 

5) Conveys both good and bad news 

6) Is highly aware of the task and has skills to execute 

Conclusion 

The benefits of Delegating Leadership are straightforward. There is necessarily no perfect or ideal Leadership Style, as each has its own set of pros and cons. However, the Delegating Leadership Style is democratic, autonomous and flexible. Once you identify the requirements of your team, this Leadership approach works just fine.  

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