Effective managers know how and when to delegate important tasks. If you’re seeking leadership roles within your organization, it is important to understand the difference between offloading work just for the sake of it and strategic delegation. The online Master of Business Administration (MBA) – General program will prepare you to develop and apply these skills across a range of leadership contexts.
Leaders delegate tasks to employees who have the skills to accomplish them in a timely manner. These personalized assignments should always reflect the business’s best interests.
Benefits of Delegating
Effective delegation can boost employee morale while helping upper-level management avoid burnout. According to Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace report, 70% of team engagement is attributable to the manager. How managers allocate their time and responsibilities is a direct driver of team performance. Delegating can:
- Encourage employees to learn new tasks
- Promote collaboration
- Engender trust between managers and staff
- Help even workloads among workers
- Improve interoffice communication
- Prepare workers for promotion
Strong leaders empower employees by entrusting them with important tasks and helping them realize their potential. Conversely, business leaders who carry too many tasks can inadvertently lower morale because workers feel their talents are not appreciated.
Common Barriers to Effective Delegation
Many business leaders believe that their leadership roles are time intensive. They may also worry that less experienced staff members cannot perform certain tasks to a high standard. Business leaders may be reluctant to delegate because they:
- Think a task will take less time if they do it themselves
- Don’t trust their employees’ abilities
- Feel the need to be indispensable
- Enjoy doing the work themselves
- Feel guilty about giving more work to their staff
Effective delegation is a sign of strength, not weakness. Managers are not there to take on every task. Managers are responsible for supporting, training and coaching their teams while ensuring performance meets expectations and business goals are achieved. Delegation is a critical part of succeeding in any leadership role.
Tips for Effective Delegation
To be an effective delegator, business leaders should cultivate habits that might not come naturally. The following tips are a good place to start:
Maintain a delegation attitude: Effective delegators continually ask themselves, “Who else could be doing this?”
Delegate effectively: The most important criterion when delegating is deciding who gets the job. Some employees lack the skills to perform tasks while others may be ready to step up.
Welcome input: Effective leaders embrace new ideas. One example would be starting a discussion on which team member would be best suited to engage a big project.
Define expectations: Employees hold themselves most accountable when they have clear expectations and deadlines. Delegation frees workers to take assignments according to their personalized methods for accomplishing goals, but they still need guidance.
Monitor progress: Delegating is less about handing off than entrusting. To ensure that projects reach their targets on time, effective leaders should periodically monitor employees.
Learn Effective Delegation With an Online MBA from St. Thomas University
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) notes that real delegation means assigning responsibility for outcomes along with the authority to produce desired results — not simply unloading tasks. STU’s 100% online MBA prepares business leaders to incorporate skills like delegation into a variety of potential leadership roles.
Graduate students explore a range of specialized topics in areas like entrepreneurship, organizational design and human resource management to tailor their MBA experience to their interests and chosen career paths. The accelerated, faculty-led program delivers quantitative and qualitative management principles through seven-week courses, and the entire degree can be completed in as few as 12 months.
Learn more about St. Thomas University’s online MBA – General program.
