Job Design and Delegation

January 2016

material minds

What is expected of them How they’re doing How they can improve

In order to execute strategy effectively, you need to connect that strategy with the daily action of

all employees. In order to connect strategy to action employees need to know three key things:

The rest of this document outlines how you can enable employees to know what is expected of

them, the first key to connecting strategy with action.

Connecting Strategy With Action

Your job is to get work

done through other

people.

It is not to do the work

yourself

And if you’re doing

something repeatedly it

means that you aren’t

getting work done through

other people.

You’ll know when you’ve

succeeded as a

manager when you

have nothing to do.

And the key to being

able to get work done

through other people is

effective delegation.

A manager’s job is significantly different than that of an individual

contributor.

Your job as a manager

Letting go of decisions and

activities can be difficult, especially

the first time you do it. As a result

many first time managers end up

micro-managing; watching work

closely, controlling decisions, and

re-doing work.

The first time you delegate something, it takes time. In fact

it takes more time to delegate than to do the job yourself.

But if you don’t delegate, you’ll always spend that same

amount of time. So delegating is an investment that

rewards you in the long run.

And there is ego involved in many cases as people are

unwilling to think that someone may be able to do

something better than they can. If they define themselves

by the work they do then giving up that work is giving up a

bit of oneself.

Finally, delegating something is changing the way you work

and many people are naturally reluctant to change.

There is risk to delegating. Your subordinate may screw up

and you’ll end up looking bad. But this shouldn’t happen

too often if you’ve hired the right people.

Why managers don’t delegate

The Opportunity

Failure to delegate means that you’ll end up doing the same job time and time again as delegating

work is the only way to be able to get new and interesting work to do.

In the long run, if you want to advance as a manager, the only way to do it is to become good at

delegating.

The first step in delegating is to know

when to do it.

• There should be an experienced

person available.

• That person should be in need of

and looking for growth

opportunities.

• The task you delegate should be

a recurring one.

• The person to whom you

delegate should have enough

time available to learn and

accomplish the task on a regular

basis.

• The task you delegate should be

low risk, not something that bears

a lot of ongoing risks.

Know when to delegate

You can’t delegate something just to anyone. That person

needs to have:

• The right experience and skills.

• the right attitudes and work styles.

• An existing workload that allows them to take on a

new set of responsibilities.

To whom should you delegate?

What to delegate

Just as you can’t delegate anything to anyone, it is important to understand what things are appropriate

to delegate. This isn’t about what tasks but what you make someone responsible for but what level of

responsibility and authority you give them.

Delegate Responsibility for Results

When you delegate just the process and not

responsibility for results, then the person can hide

behind poor results.

When you delegate the responsibility for getting results,

you ensure that the person must then figure out the

best way of doing something to get those results.

Delegate Authority

When you don’t delegate authority then the

person doesn’t have the ability to change a

process to ensure that results are obtained.

When you delegate authority for making

decisions, you truly make someone

responsible for getting results.

An individual who is responsible for doing something must understand what success is. This is the first

step in helping understand what truly is expected of them, the first in our three steps in effective

leadership.

Define success

All productive employees want to be successful and they want their employer to be successful. In

using metrics, you’ll first need to define what success is by measuring employee results.

Measure Success

In each of these cases, there are

three things you can measure:

• Quality (many dimensions of

quality)

• Cost (Revenue, Time, Profit)

• Speed (Elapsed Time)

Results can come in the form of:

• Payment

• Election to proceed

• Milestone reached

• Approval

• Measure of satisfaction

These results need to be

externally validated by

• A customer

• Supplier,

• Another team

• Or a boss.

If employees need to know what is expected of them, how they are doing and how they can improve,

the most effective and unambiguous way to communicate those three things is by using metrics.

Define Activities that lead to success

Figure out what causes

success, which activities

that you undertake

directly cause the results

you’re looking for.

Then you’ve got a

formula for success in

that you know exactly

what activities you have

to complete and at what

level of volume to be

successful.

The reporting should include :

Result Metrics

Comments on results

Future plans

Develop a reporting process

You can’t just abdicate

something. When you

delegate, you need to develop

a reporting process so that

you know that the results you

delegated are being achieved..

Amend the job description

Your expectations must

be clearly defined for

someone to know what

is expected of them.

This can be done in a job

description or

performance plan.

Use metrics to outline

the results you expect

and the limits of

authority.

Make sure the employee

is responsible for results

and can alter a process

to acieve those results.

Communicate frequently

Get frequent feedback on results.

Be available to solve problems.

Ask them how things are going.

Challenge them to improve.

Putting it All Together

material minds

Helping companies execute

strategy better by connecting

strategy with the daily action

of all employees.

Charles Plant

416 458 4850

cplant (at)

materialminds.com

Consulting

Coaching

Workshops

Speaking

Teaching

This is a five part series on Strategy Execution and is comprised of:

1. Strategy Execution

2. Using Metrics to Define Success

3. Job Design and Delegation

4. Performance Management and Communication

5. Coaching and Motivation