Art of Delegation, A Practical Guide

The Art of Delegation A Practical Guide Outline

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What are the reasons for Delegating?

�  Manage Leader’s time/productivity/opportunity

�  Increase accomplishment

�  Get to important things on the “back burner”

�  Develop a critical leadership skill

�  Develop staff skills and create career opportunities

�  Improve team functioning

�  Positive and informed responsibility improves company results as well as morale

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What to Delegate? Definition: entrust (a task or responsibility) to another person, typically one who is less senior than oneself.

�  Tasks that you used to do before being promoted

�  Tasks where experience suggests success capability

�  Functions that fit a staff development agenda

�  Tasks that logically fit an evolving job description (the Leader’s and/or employee’s)

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What shouldn’t you Delegate?

Delegation implies tasks or functions, it does not suggest an abdication of responsibility. The leader retains responsibility for the actions/decisions of staff.

�  Managerial functions to a non manager

�  Financial responsibility inconsistent with a job title/level and/or experience

�  Responsibilities where the consequences directly affect other staff without prior communication

�  Your problems

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Delegation Strategies Similar to LEADERSHIP, there are basic strategies in how delegation is assigned, communicated, evaluated.

ASSIGNMENT �  The Leader tells who, what to do, by when, etc.

PARTNERSHIP �  The Leader sets two or more participants to share a task/function and gets

commitments

VOLUNTEERING �  The leader describes needs/situations, scales/scopes project or tasks, involves

team, then encourages individuals to volunteer or accept tasks/responsibility

PURE DELEGATION �  The Leader develops a task/outcome and leaves it to a team or individual to

plan and accomplish

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Delegation Challenges Some Leaders struggle with effectively delegating, often due to:

�  Not knowing how to effectively delegate

�  Inability/Inexperience tracking delegated tasks/roles

�  BELIEFS: �  It will take longer to explain than to do it myself �  Can’t ask others to bear my responsibility, “it’s my job” �  Others are already too busy to ask them to do more �  Staff will demand to get paid more if asked to do more

�  FEARS: �  Fear of failure or �  Fear of push back from staff

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Delegation Do’s Before delegating be sure as a Leader you:

�  Appreciate the value of time, yours and staff

�  Understand your needs and the needs of whomever you are delegating to

�  Determine the needed skills/experience to succeed

�  Match tasks to appropriate employee

�  Are comfortable if decisions are delegated

�  Have context of delegation within staff development

�  Anticipate mistakes, teach/learn, no 2nd guessing

�  Prepare for questions by first asking, “What do you think?” to both test knowledge and insight and to create a sense of responsibility

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Delegation Process When delegating a Leader needs to communicate clearly:

�  If you are doing a “one off,” “trial” or a “hand off”

�  The expected outcome(s) and appropriate metrics

�  The timeframe for completion (hard or soft deadlines) and required checkpoints

�  The big picture context of the result

�  Particular employee has been asked/chosen

�  Relevant background, how to access data/info

�  You are giving ownership so responsibility accompanies

�  The transfer of authority that accompanies the task

�  How and when you will provide feedback

�  Effort and Accomplishment public and private recognition

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Delegation Dangers When delegating a Leader should try not to:

�  Pass off problems or dump only the mundane (share it)

�  Be random with assignments (seniority is not necessarily the best pairing, weigh skills as well as experience to needs)

�  Parcel tasks into fragments, favor complete tasks

�  Hover, Helicopter Bosses only work in Aviation

�  Abdicate responsibility (you own what you delegate)

�  Keep every decision to yourself

�  Feel threatened or diminished by other’s excellence

�  Delegate what is clearly a manager’s role/responsibility MyEureka Solutions

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Summary / Conclusions Delegation Strategy is mission critical to business because:

�  Delegation skill is an absolute indicator for LEADERSHIP success

�  Delegation is critical to cohesive, cooperative and communicative teams

�  A process for delegating offers a far greater success opportunity than randomly assigning tasks as needed

�  Delegation should be part of all Professional Development for both the giver and the receiver

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Contacts MyEureka Solutions provides strategy, process and training for business success and personal development.

For more information contact:

Tom Fox, president

tom@myeurekasolutions.com

917 539-6617

Other topics of expertise, training and consulting include:

Leadership, Process Engineering, Manager Development, Communication, Effective Meetings, Culture Paradigms

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