Delegate to Succeed

Often confused with 'dumping,' delegating requires trust and respect. Doing it well can vastly improve efficiency and morale

If a daily, prioritized "to do" list is your best time saver, in the short term, delegation will be your best ally, long term, in your race against the clock. The idea of delegating effectively is to assign tasks to others in your organization to prevent bottlenecks. In any operation, managers and nonmanagers alike can benefit from delegation, by trading off tasks to workers who can perform them as well, or even better.

A good system of delegation will increase your operation's efficiency, generate enthusiasm in your colleagues, and build teamwork in your workplace. In contrast, poor delegation can seriously degrade morale and performance. Too few people understand that there is a significant difference between delegating important, demanding work to others and dumping menial, unpleasant tasks on them. As with most worthwhile endeavors, delegation is not to be taken casually.

Anyone to whom a task is delegated has an opportunity to increase his or her stature and improve his or her career potential within the organization. As each person within the group handles increasingly more-significant responsibilities, the power of the team, as a whole, increases. Properly handled, delegation will empower your employees, dramatically increase productivity and boost profits.

Once you've decided to delegate any responsibility, your first concern is to plan properly. The task involved must be carefully defined, as must the responsibilities required to execute it. Ask yourself how much authority will be required to complete the task, then determine to whom you should delegate the responsibility. Be sure to tell everyone involved about the new role of the "delegatee," and how they and others will relate to him or her.

Before you decide to pass a task on to someone else, take the time to verify that it really is a worthwhile task. One of the best ways to do this is by getting candid feedback from people directly involved in the area. Do they believe it is necessary and worthwhile?

In one case, a manager at one of our client firms was considering delegating the writing of a weekly "report to headquarters" to one of his staff members. The report took nearly half a day to compile. When we asked headquarters if the report was really necessary, we found that it wasn't used, or even read. In fact, they asked, "Why do you still send it?" Clearly, delegating such a task would have drained the "delegatee's" time and, eventually, morale would have suffered.

Account for personal styles

Next, you must design a way to train the person to accomplish the new task. This training process should take into consideration the individual's strengths and weaknesses, as well as his or her personal style. Although everyone is a mixture of these qualities, personalities can generally be categorized into one of four behavioral styles, which spell "DISC": D personalities are typically impatient, action-oriented, give orders and have big egos; I personalities are talkative, emotional, optimistic, enthusiastic and persuasive; S personalities are dependable, agreeable, calm, group- or family-oriented, and reserved; C personalities are task oriented, less responsive to people, prefer less small talk, and are perfectionistic and sensitive. For best results, each personality type will require a different approach.

Don't be a control freak

Key to successful delegation is focusing on the results you want, rather than the method you would use if you were doing the job yourself. Remember that the outcome is usually more important than the actual process. When you delegate any task, you are only guaranteed one thing: The delegatee will not perform the task exactly as you would. In many cases, though, he or she will do it better.

If trust is critical, timing is also important. Be sure you choose the right time to conduct training and delegate the duty. One person will need time to think and plan an approach to the new responsibility, while another may plunge head on into the challenge of proving how good he or she is.

Be aware that people also have varying capacities for work. Where one individual may be able to handle many unrelated tasks at the same time, another will panic at the thought of dealing with too many projects at once. Remember, your primary goal should be to maximize the results created from the whole team working together. Determine how much work each person can take on, and delegate tasks accordingly. Effective delegation requires capitalizing on the inherent strengths of each staff member.

The manner you use to notify, train and monitor the delegatee will help establish trust between you both. This trust is the emotional glue that binds leaders and followers together in any business effort. Remember that delegation is a sharing of responsibility and authority. Both the delegator and the delegatee must benefit if this relationship is to succeed.

Tracking performance

The last step is to develop a way to track and receive feedback on performance. Write down the specific results you are looking for, and develop a simple system for monitoring those results. Ask the delegatee to help you design the tracking system. Charts can be particularly useful in pointing out where you have been, where you are now, and where you plan to go, creating a picture and getting your employees more involved.

Authority vs. dictatorship

Respect the autonomy of your delegatee. Instead of micromanaging his or her work, make the delegatee accountable for an end result. Remember that authority is the power to direct others to do something; responsibility means being accountable for getting something done. The two things go together. You may have the authority to complete a project, but your workers have the responsibility for seeing that each task is performed properly. People become frustrated when the two concepts are confused.

A manager cannot just tell an employee what to do. It's best when the manager asks the employee what has to be done to reach a desired result. The manager knows and is expert on the goals and vision of the company. The employee should be viewed as the expert on how a particular job needs to be done. When the two views are shared, real communication can begin. When a leader sincerely asks an employee, "What is the best way to do this?" it creates an opportunity to reward and praise an employee for his or her creativity. This builds trust and enthusiasm. It also encourages initiative. In contrast, the boss who tells people what to do creates low morale, lack of initiative, and limited results.

The manager has the authority and responsibility to set company goals and establish a vision. The employee has the authority and responsibility to provide a specific amount of work, product or service. Only when the two people have shared their experience, expectations and needs will they be able to establish realistic goals.

There are risks in this type of exchange, and both delegator and delegatee are vulnerable. Nevertheless, the two cannot achieve the desired results unless they are willing to rely on each other. This is why both parties must clearly define the guidelines for their behavior, as well as for what they will produce.

Levels of delegation

There are five commonly used levels of delegation. These are progressive levels of responsibility and authority. Gradually, an individual demonstrates more knowledge, ability and value to the organization and moves higher on the following scale.

• Level 1. Stand by for instruction
• Level 2. Look into the situation, provide information on possible action and wait for instruction
• Level 3. Look into the situation, provide information, and recommend specific action, then wait for approval
• Level 4. Look into it, take appropriate action and provide frequent and immediate feedback
• Level 5. Look into it, take appropriate action, and provide planned periodic feedback.

Obviously, as an employee becomes more competent, he or she is worth more to the organization. By charting the various tasks that must be learned in a particular job function and relating these tasks to levels of delegation, you can assess a person's contribution to the organization. Using a matrix with tasks on one axis and levels of delegation on the other, you can develop a simple evaluation and communication tool that is very objective. Inspect what you expect from your delegatee. Be sure to schedule opportunities to meet, one on one, to discuss progress, coach problems and reward success.

The results

Effective delegation will increase your contribution to the organization. Although you'll be helping others strengthen their abilities, you'll also develop new skills of your own. Be on the lookout, constantly, for ambitious people who want to move up within your organization. Instead of being on the defensive, develop a positive attitude toward ambitious subordinates, emphasize personal growth, encourage creativity, and reward initiative.

Learning to trust and to delegate well takes practice. Be patient with yourself and the delegatee. Be sure you praise individuals who have performed the delegated tasks exceptionally well. If you must criticize performance, be sure to do so privately, during a one-on-one meeting.

Successful delegation requires mutual respect and open lines of communication, based on shared expectations. When the right balance between authority and responsibility is struck, a true "team spirit" will emerge. Delegating well can only boost efficiency, and morale, in your workplace.

David G. Rohlander,

DGR Communications

Edited by Agnes Shanley

This article appeared in Chemical Engineering.