Effective Delegation

In our view, effective delegation should be a key subject on all management training course programmes designed to develop quality leaders. The ability to delegate properly is a key characteristic that demonstrates good or bad management quality. Managerial weakness is indicated by too much as well as too little delegation! Managers who, in most cases, were particularly successful as a member of staff themselves for many years, are the ones who find it most challenging not to interfere in the work of their people and who often take decisions on their own.

Even highly regarded managers like the manager who “saved” Chrysler, Lee Lacocca, have failed at the end of the day because they were not willing to delegate. He was so convinced of his own abilities that he insisted he had a determining influence in the design of new Chrysler models. But his concepts no longer reflected the modern market trend resulting in a decline in sales.

The following four rules of delegation should be heeded by all managers:

Rule 1. Never delegate a task you do not understand yourself!

If, for example, you are a Sales & Marketing Manager you should not delegate to one of your area sales managers the division of an area into territories if you yourself are unclear about the criteria that should be used to carry out such a division. In this example, your first step should be an intensive exchange of information with the sales people in your charge, including reading their reports thoroughly and discussing the matter with them.

If you are responsible for the work of another person, before you can delegate to them you need to find out as much as possible about them and their skills: what has their performance been like to date, what do their people think of them and what are their particular strengths and weaknesses?

Only by analysing which tasks you are going to delegate to which people will you be able to guarantee that there will be no unpleasant delegation surprises! You cannot delegate responsibility for the overall result, that sits with you and the delegation decisions you make!

Rule 2. Hold back on giving “well meant advice”!

Delegation often fails because of two problems. Firstly, the people you want to delegate to are not always willing to take on the additional responsibility you have given them and secondly, managers are sometimes not willing to really let go of a certain task.

As covered on any good management training course looking at effective delegation, you cannot and should not delegate your personal responsibility for the overall result. You can, however, make your people responsible for parts of the overall outcome. This means that you have to be willing to let go and give away a part of your authority - and live with the consequences.

Of course there will be some situations that will demand that the manager makes a clear and irrevocable decision. Henry Kissinger once said, “No one has the right to be in a position of authority if they are not prepared to overrule their subordinates” . Another good quote comes from Arthur K. Watson, former head of IBM, who said, “It’s no fun being the boss if you can’t take a decision on your own once in a while”.

Beware of using this approach all the time as your credibility as a manager is reduced if you use this dictatorial approach too frequently and so abuse your positional power. Think carefully before you revoke the responsibility you have already delegated to one of your peopel when you dictate to them by giving some “well-meant advice”.

All top-down decisions and advice should be used in a measured fashion. The key is “once in a while”! Effective delegation requires open communication, you have to know how things stand and your direct reports must know where they stand.

Rule 3. Examine your own skills as a team leader.

The first step towards better teamwork is critical self analysis. You should ask yourself “What skills needed for effective and successful team management am I lacking" and "Which particular skills haveI got that contributed to my success in the past?”.

For a team you need players not just captains. This fact is particularly problematic when you take on a new task as ome of your "players" are already on the field, whereas you are still warming up. In situations like this it is important to carry out a critical self analysis as well as analysing the existing characteristics and skills of the players you have.

Above all, you must resist the temptation to surround yourself with people who are all the same. Using our "players" analogy, you cannot win a game with eleven centre-forwards!

Rule 4. Be willing to delegate!

Your ability to delegate will develop and change over the years. The American academic Robert W. Lear, founder of the Executive-in-Residence program at Columbia Business School, believed that each manager passess through three key development stages. Each of these stages are said to last from from one to five years.

In the first stage, after becoming a manager, the manager makes fundamental decisions. These decisions change and mould his/her area and strategic direction.

The second stage involves discovering the external world. For example, if you were a  Sales Manager this stage would involve you travelling around a lot, visiting large-scale clients, allied companies, suppliers and remote subsidiaries.

The third stage is characterised by an even stronger external focus. In this stage,  for example, our  Sales Manager would be primarily interested in the “larger vision” and not the small, operative details.

By the end of the second stage, at the latest, the Manager needs to have developed a strong and responsible team to support him. Managers can only build such a team if s/he is willing to delegate certain aspects of responsibility on both a short-term and long-term basis. S/He must also be willing to demonstrate trust in his/her team members.

Many managers find delegation a challenging. If you want to develop your delegation skills further, you should consider attending a good management training course.

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