Delegation- The Effective Tool for Management

Mayur Kalbag is an Indian Corporate Leadership Coach, Corporate

Trainer & Author who regularly does corporate training for businesses in Fiji. He can be contacted via email: mayurkalbag@hotmail.com

What is Delegation? In simple y et sensible ter ms, dele gation is the ar t of getting things done through the ef forts of others . It is that process where people and especially the ‘down-the line’ executives are assigned certain and specifictasks, roles or responsibilities with clear-cut objectives and goals specifically set for them.

Delegation must not be confused as a mere activity of distributing the tasks to others.

It is actually an intelligent art of evaluating people on specificparameters and then assigning them with relevant tasks or r oles that are time-bound and with accountability.

The parameters for successful delegation!

The activity of assigning the roles or tasks to various people in an organisation should always be based upon specific parameters and these have been stated below:

Clarity:

Clarity is a bility to acquir e the highest le vels of understanding and depth regarding the task or the role!

It is often seen that a task, if delegated to an indi vidual who may

not have proper and dee p understanding about it, can lead to f ailure of execution and could ne gatively affect the overall performance of the team!

Hence, a mana ger must ensur e that his team member , to w hom he is dele gating the task, kno ws about the task and thereby avoids a below-average perfor mance or nonaccomplishment of that task.

Competency:

This relates to the a bility of an employee to convert his knowledge regarding that task into accura te actions.

And this r equires him to kno w techniques and methods of execution.

Without competent action, the result still could get negatively affected.

Hence clarity of content should be accompanied by competency of techniques.

Just remember, what to do is important but how to do is as impor - tant…if not more!!!

Character:

Well in easy ter ms, it means the various types of attitude of a person.

Parameters of Clarity and competency are highly incomplete in the process of delegation if the parameter of character is not recognised. Organisations select people on not just academic merit but also on the basis of merit of character.

When delegation is to be ef fective carried out, one must look a t the role of the employees’ attitude and specific traits such as:

•Integrity and Honesty

•Enthusiasm and Energy

•Confidence and Courage

•Commitment and Focus

•Perseverance

At the same time , ne gative characteristics such as Procrastination, Lethargy, Casualness and Carelessness must also be identifiedand dealt with, in a constr uctive manner, as they can become the bar riers to effective dele gation. Remember! Attitude is the k ey to Altitude in ter ms of successful delegation and eventual success in perfor mance.

Communication:

Successful delegation is only possible when there is proper and effective inter-personal communication between the delegator and his subordinates.

Imagine a situa tion where tasks are being communicated as a part of the delegation process, but, most of what is being communicated is misunderstood due to lack of clear communication.

The repercussions of this could be very bad to the perf ormance as such. Hence, remember we must that while delegating, every word and sentence must be clear and audible with even some modulations so as to help the people understand and subsequentl y ex ecute their ‘delegated’ tasks in the most ef fective manner.

Communication always has been the strong bridge between the manager and his team thr ough the entire process of achieving overall perfor mance and productivity.

Concern

The manager’s attitude too, matters a lot! Especiall y that attitude of being ‘concer ned’ Concer ned about how the task is g etting executed.

It is extremely vital f or the manager to keep in ‘touch’ with the ongoing actions of the tasks that were delegated to the team.

Aspects like regular meetings or interactions to check the status of actions on the dele gated tasks is the reflectionof the true concern of the manager.

The advantage of this aspect of Concern is that it allows the manager to guide and help the employees if and when there are hurdles or obstacles that might be difficult for them to handle.

Important things to also remember!!!

•Know your team members specifically in terms of their Strengths and Areas of Improvements.

•Make a daily and weekly plan of what to delegate and to whom.

•Keep reminding yourself of why are you delating and track the delegation process without being too aggressive.

•Create a sense of Responsibility and Accountability upon the team to whom you are dele gating the tasks.

•Delegate with the courage to deal with failure as f ailing is a part of success and we lear n from it.

•Remember to look a t delegation a not only as part of time management but also as a tool f or Motivation to the team

Last but surely not the least…

•Understand that your ability to delegate is also your ladder to higher corporate growth.