This is my first post on management practice and the topic is suggested by my peer manager Rahul.
DELEGATION is NOT (a)
1. An excuse to pass on work on us/excuse to pass on failure....
2. Planned approach to ensure I do not meet expectations and be at mercy....
3. Delegation or Containment in .NET :)
It is (b)
A tool for motivating and training an employee to realize their full potential...
(a) is an outcome of poor delegation and could also result in poor performance, job dissatisfaction, frustration, confusion, work overload & stress.
(b) is an outcome of effective delegation and could also result in better productivity, people development, job satisfaction and groom successor.
Delegation is the most commonly used and important skills with maximum impact on people development. Effectiveness of this skill is directly proportional to the manager being a leader. Hence it is worth investing in practicing and improving this skill.
Effective delegation is not about mentoring to get the job done but coaching the delegate to explore creativity, decision making and change management ability. In other words trust the delegatee with the task to take decisions and to react to the outcomes without seeking your direction. During the process take accountability of things going wrong and give recognition.
To ensure a task is delegated effectively use the same rules that you apply for commitments i.e. Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, Time bound.
Example: If you ask an employee to review timesheet every day and ask peers to update the entries the employee will just do that and will never understand/educate the importance of timesheet management and the impact of poor timesheet management. Instead if you ask the employee to ensure ethical timesheet management, you will get to hear decisions, opportunity to ask questions, understand pains of an employee, validate action plan and set expectations.
About Me
- Dr. Amith Ellur
- A Microsoft Certified Professional, Microsoft India Community Star, PDM, MCA, 6 Sigma GB trained and CMMI Level-5 FAR currently associated with Microsoft having over 12 years of experience. Few of my creations were showcased at Microsoft conferences viz.: Meeting Manager a logical extension to outlook meetings was showcased at Microsoft Exchange Conference (Mumbai) - 1999 and FlexiFlow an intuitive and flexible workflow product was showcased at Microsoft Biz Productivity Conference (Mumbai) - 2002.A story on my freelancing activity was published in Digit - Jan 2003. Most recent contribution was to Microsoft Patterns and Practices.
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3 comments:
Great article.
Good article Amith. I was wondering how many managers actually understand this concept of delegation? I have observed a trend in some companies that I have worked with. If the manager is not able to do some task he straight away delegates it to his subordinate. The subordinate is told he is getting a chance to do R & D on the topic. I think there are more number of managers who understand what Delegation is NOT rather than what IT IS.
Realization of delegation starts when there is more to do in less time. As you rightly mentioned for most managers who just started using this skill they take a few iterations to match communication style with delegation for that specific person.
I am glad you liked the post.
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