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


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)


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

For more information contact:

Tom Fox, president

[email protected]

917 539-6617

Other topics of expertise, training and consulting include:

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

MyEureka Solutions

Eureka Ideas for Growing Business and Personal Success

Art of Delegation, A Practical Guide

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