Delegation aids individual, team growth
WHEN YOU occupy a senior position in an organisation, it is not possible to perform every task under your responsibility, by yourself. While you can supervise the work functions being carried out and offer guidance and support, doing everything yourself is difficult. One of the best ways to fulfil your responsibilities as well as include your co-workers and subordinates in the same, is to adopt delegation of tasks. This will not only decrease your workload, but also help develop decision-making abilities and a more responsible outlook in your subordinates.
Delegation is a prime authority that comes with position. When you delegate a particular task, you need to keep in mind, the capacity of your subordinate who would take up the tasks assigned by you. Analysing whether or not he is capable of doing justice to the piece of work, will help avoid workload mismanagement. In addition to this, a clear line of communication is essential because your subordinates need to comprehend your expectations from them and how the particular task needs to be handled. This will make delegation of work easy. Let us now analyse what could be the varied criteria, requisites and guidelines one has to keep in mind, before delegating tasks:
Sharing of control: It is but obvious that one needs to share control over the tasks delegated with the subordinate who takes them up. You may feel insecure about your authority getting diluted or worried if the task will be completed as perfectly as you would deal with it. In such cases, you need to ensure that you spell out each and every step you would adopt, in completing the task, to your subordinate. This way, they would utilise the same knowledge in future tasks. You can still retain your hold by supervising their work processes at regular stages.
Catering information: Delegation translates into trusting your subordinate to make effective usage of his decision-making abilities. To take the right decisions access to information is important. Information should be factual, error-free and clear. This information can be in the form of interpersonal exchanges, company information or even information obtained from the computer and the web. This will ensure that tasks are carried out efficiently.
Pragmatic approach: As a manager you need to realise that all employees do not have the same level for knowledge or know-how. You need to explain how exactly a particular procedure needs to be followed, along with the detailed explanation of the steps. This way, there will be no miscommunication or misunderstanding of the tasks. Therefore, making allowance for those with lack of knowledge about your own specialisations or work processes is integral to raise the confidence levels of these juniors.
Involvement: As the delegating authority, you might tend to get too involved with the project you delegate and thus appear readily available to your subordinates for any help. You need to understand that the main motive behind delegation is to encourage individual responsibility and less involvement from your side. Also, stop barging in incessantly or being too critical, since it leaves little room for growth.
Result: The outcome of the completion of the delegated work may not be satisfactory to you and you may feel it would have been better in case you dealt with it. But remember the end result may not essentially be a success. Nevertheless, it could be a great learning opportunity for your subordinates.
As a team head or a manager, it becomes a part of your work function, to infuse leadership qualities, team spirit, decision-making and cooperation in your team. Delegating tasks is a great way to foster these traits and strengthening the capacities of an individual employees and the team as a whole.
PREETI RAGHUNATH
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