Why delegate?

You are responsible for the school. However, you cannot and should not try to do everything yourself. Leadership and ownership among staff, as well as their greater understanding of what makes the school work, are developed through staff members taking responsibility for important tasks. On the other hand, while people are developing new skills, they will make mistakes and their finished work will likely not be at the highest standard. The quality of work could be higher and often it could be done faster if you did it yourself.

So why delegate at all? Why not do all important tasks yourself?

What do you gain by delegating authority to do important tasks?

1. You ensure that more time and more expertise are available to devote to an important issue than one person can possibly give.
2. You enlarge the pool of staff members who take responsibility for the learning and working environment.
3. You tap the creative energies and enthusiasm of interested staff and take advantage of resident expertise.
4. You increase the buy-in of staff to change initiatives.
5. You support the growth of the adults in your school.

If you are principal of a large school, delegation is mandatory among your assistant principals, deans, activities and athletic directors. If you are principal of a small school AND you believe that delegating important responsibilities to other people will energize the school and result in better decisions, then you want answers to the following questions, our topics for this week:

a) How do you know when to delegate?
b) How much authority should you delegate?
c) How do you know when to intervene?