Why Delegating Tasks Before a Vacation Never Works

Have you ever returned to work from a vacation only to stare in disbelief at unfinished work you believed you’d carefully assigned to others? It’s frustrating, but the fault may actually lie in your own approach to delegation. The necessary work starts way before you set up your “out of office” message. All too often, managers confuse true delegation with simply asking staff members to do things — usually to lighten their own load. But that doesn’t create the accountability or empowerment people need to really own the task. Before you delegate a task, think through how handing it off might develop the other person’s skills or make use of their unique strengths. And when you hand it off, focus the conversation not only on key deliverables and outcomes, but also on what the employee will learn or gain by owning the task. And the next time you come back from vacation, you should find the work humming along without you.