What about you? Here’s a simple check list to see where you fall on the manager-frustration continuum:

• Do you often feel overwhelmed and exhausted from the piles of work on your desk?

• Do you often feel that you are "spinning your wheels"?

• Is more and more work piling up, even though you are already overloaded?

• When talking to your manager about your workload, does he or she tell you to delegate more?

• Are you afraid of giving responsibility to your direct reports because you don’t trust that they’ll handle it correctly?

• Do you have trouble finding time to train or mentor others?

• Do you find yourself saying, "It’s easier to do it myself"?

• Are you told you are working too hard?

• Are you told you are too often unavailable by your direct reports, peers, and significant others?

• Does it seem like your boss expects you to read his or her mind?

• Have people close to you expressed concern for your health and well-being?

How did you do? If you answered no to all these questions, skip the rest of this and enjoy your afternoon on the golf course. But, if you answered yes to even one question, consider reading Donna Genett’s new book, If You Want It Done Right, You Don’t Have to Do It Yourself!: The Power of Effective Delegation (Quill Driver Books), due out in the fall.

Genett is a psychologist and a business consultant. She’s spent the last 15 years coaching executives and enhancing team performance at major corporations such as Weyerhaeuser, Nextel, and Seattle’s Best Coffee.

While managers often came to her with diverse agendas and goals, she found many of the problems they reported could be alleviated or solved by showing them how to improve their delegation skills. After one particularly full week of coaching clients how to become effective delegators, she decided writing a book was in order.

Recognizing that managers needed a quick and informative read, Genett wrote her book in the form of a short—it takes about an hour to read—entertaining business management allegory about two "identical cousins," James and Jones, and their experiences after being promoted into management positions at the same company. In the story she presents her six steps of effective delegation and explains how to implement them. It’s the kind of immediately-applicable material you can put to work the day that you read it.

Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager, a person who knows a bit about the subject himself, says of If You Want It Done Right, You Don’t Have to Do It Yourself!:

"The most common management style is seagull management. A manager gives you a task, disappears, and then only returns when you make a mistake—they fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on you, and then fly out. If you read Donna Genett’s book on delegating, these ineffective flights will not be necessary."

So, what if your job doesn’t include managing other people? That’s okay, chapter six shows you how to train your boss to be an effective delegator.

Editor’s note: ZweigWhite (no space, cap W) is correct.