Basics of Delegating
Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2008.
Adapted from the Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision.
(This document is referenced from Delegating to Employyees.
The hallmark of good supervision is effective delegation. Delegation
is when supervisors give
responsibility and authority to subordinates to complete a task.
Effective delegation develops people who are ultimately more fulfilled
and productive. Managers become more fulfilled and productive
themselves as they learn to count on their staffs and are freed
up to attend to more strategic issues.
Delegation is often very difficult for new supervisors, particularly if they have had to scramble to start the nonprofit or start a major new service themselves. Many managers want to remain comfortable, making the same decisions they have always made. They believe they can do a better job themselves. They don't want to risk losing any of their power and stature (ironically, they do lose these if they don't learn to delegate effectively). Often, they don't want to risk giving authority to subordinates in case they fail and impair the organization.
However, there are basic approaches to delegation that, with
practice, become the backbone of
effective supervision and development. Thomas R. Horton, in Delegation
and Team Building: No
Solo Acts Please (Management Review, September 1992, pp. 58-61)
suggests the following
general steps to accomplish delegation:
1. Delegate the whole task to one person.
This gives
the person the responsibility and increases their motivation.
2. Select the right person.
Assess the skills and capabilities
of subordinates and assign the task to the most appropriate one.
3. Clearly specify your preferred results.
Give information
on what, why, when, who, where and how. Write this information
down.
4. Delegate responsibility and authority
Assign the
task, not the method to accomplish it.
Let the subordinate complete the task in the manner they choose,
as long as the results are what the supervisor specifies. Let the employee have strong input as to
the completion date of the project. Note that you may not even know how to complete the task yourself
-- this is often the case with higher levels of management.
5. Ask the employee to summarize back to you.
Ask to hear their
impressions of the project and the results that you prefer.
6. Get ongoing non-intrusive feedback about progress on
the project.
This is a good reason to continue to get weekly,
written status reports from all direct reports. Reports should
cover what they did last week, plan to do next week and any potential
issues. Regular staff meetings provide this ongoing feedback,
as well.
7. Maintain open lines of communication.
Don't hover
over the subordinate, but sense what they're doing and support their checking in with you along the
way.
8. If you're not satisfied with the progress, don't immediately
take the project back.
Continue to work with the employee
and ensure they perceive the project as their responsibility.
9. Evaluate and reward performance.
Evaluate results,
not methods. Address insufficient
performance and reward successes (including the manager's).
For the Category of Leadership:
Related Library Topics
Recommended Books
For Leading Yourself, See
Personal Development -- Related
Books
For Leading Other Individuals, See
Supervision -- Related
Books
For Leading Teams, See
Facilitation and Teams -- Related
Books
For Leading Organizations, See
Organizational Development
-- Recommended Books
For Management, See
Management -- Recommended Books
Basics and General Information
Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides step-by-step, highly practical guidelines to recruit, utilize and evaluate the best employees for your business. Includes guidelines to effectively lead yourself (as Board member or employee), other individuals, groups and organizations. Includes guidelines to avoid burnout -- a very common problem among employees of small businesses. Many materials in this Library's topic about staffing are adapted from this book.
Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision With Nonprofit Staff
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides step-by-step, highly practical guidelines to recruit, utilize and evaluate the best staff members for your nonprofit. Includes guidelines to effectively lead yourself (as Board member or staff member), other individuals, groups and organizations. Includes guidelines to avoid burnout -- a very common problem among nonprofit staff. Many materials in this Library's topic about staffing are adapted from this book.
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
