Leadership is not a skill that comes naturally to everyone – it is an art which aspirational business leaders must work on continuously.
Several leadership skills are crucial to the success of your organisation – delegation skills being one of them.
Some people are born with a natural aptitude for delegation. But of course, this does not mean that this skill doesn’t need to be honed.
Working on developing all of your leadership skills will only serve to strengthen yourself professionally, will enhance your team and will create success in your Information security business.
Today, I’m going to be looking at one of the skills most vital in Information security organisations – delegation; why it is important, and how to develop it.
Delegation – An Essential Information security Skill
Information security is still one of the emerging technologies of recent years, which means that it is an attractive sector for young, hungry tech talent.
There is a buzz surrounding Information security, created by massive growth and investment – the MENA’s Information security sector is predicted to be worth $2.5 billion before the end of 2020.
The sector is attractive to some of the most inventive minds in the tech industry, but all of this innovation needs to be contained and managed if it is to be successful.
To help your Information security organisation be more cohesive, streamlined and successful, you must possess the necessary delegation skills to get the best out of your employees.
Let’s look at how you can do this.
How to Be a Better Delegator
There are four key steps to effective delegation, which I will go through now.
Step 1: Assess the Workload
It is common in Information security businesses for leaders to be unaware of the precise size and scale of workloads. In dynamic Information security organisations where employees are given a lot of autonomy, teams often organically develop their ways of working. This has many benefits, of course, as teams can make progressive advancements when they are given a great deal of freedom.
However, this can be a challenge when it comes to delegating.
You must work closely with all employees to find out the minutia of detail in their work, find out which tasks routinely get completed on time, and which tend to run over. Document everything that needs to happen on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Step 2: Set Your Expectations
Once you know the size of the workload you’re dealing with, you can start to match employees with tasks, suited to their skills and abilities.
Each of your employees will excel in different ways; great leadership is all about matching people to appropriate tasks.
With each employee, create a plan of their tasks, a time-frame and performance objectives. This should be a working document which can be changed and amended – and crucially, you should work with your employees to get their input.
Newer employees might have ideas they wish to put forward, more established employees might have ways to modify existing procedures to make them more effective.
Step 3: Provide Support
Once you have set your expectations for your Information security team, it’s not a case of sitting back and waiting for the results to roll in. Information security leaders who are experts in delegation will continually check that their team are not struggling and offer help and collaboration wherever they can.
It can also be useful at this stage to encourage collaboration between team members which you know will be able to help each other out, pairing individuals together based on skill, ability and personality type.
Will your team need any extra support such as help from other departments, or external resources? How much authority and autonomy will you give employees? Are there any problems or obstacles within the tasks that you have assigned which you can predict?
Step 4: Follow-Up
Ensure you have a comprehensive follow-up procedure for tracking your assigned tasks. Do you use digital project management software to alert you when tasks are completed or moving to the next stage? What is your process for following up employees who miss deadlines on tasks?
A critical part of follow up in delegation is showing appreciation to employees on finishing tasks, and a de-brief to go through any further actions or points to cover for the future.
Some additional tips for improving your delegation skills include –
- Don’t assume Information security employees understand their delegated duty – clear communication is critical; always confirm that they know what you are asking of them.
- Never take tasks back – it can be tempting to take on a duty yourself when an employee is struggling, but this will take away the opportunity for them to learn something new.
- View communication as a two-way street – too many leaders don’t listen appropriately during delegation; they speak but do not listen. Always actively listen to your employee’s input; they are working more closely on tasks than you, and will have invaluable insights.
Excellent Information security managers use delegation not just as a way of managing tasks, but also as a way of developing employees. If you need talented leaders for your Information security organisation, see below for how we can help.
Next Steps
We help Information security organisations in the Middle East source the most talented individuals for positions within the I.T. services, Information security, cyber security sectors.
If your organisation requires dynamic candidates for a current or upcoming role, get in touch with us today on +9714 442 0921 or contact us with the details of your vacancy here.
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About Flow Talent
Flow Talent have been sourcing the best Banking, Technology & Financial Services professionals locally and internationally for leading organisations across the Middle East region since 2018.
The Middle East is a dynamic and growing market where identifying top talented professionals for your organisation is highly competitive and we offer a range of recruitment services to help you with this.
To find out more get in contact with one of our team today.