Spotlight series

Delegating

If management can be defined as a set of skills for achieving results through people, then all managers should delegate. And if you are going to delegate you might as well do it effectively. Delegating means entrusting another with the appropriate responsibility and authority to accomplish a specific activity. It involves briefing another person to carry out a task for which the delegator holds individual responsibility, but which need not be carried out by him or her directly. The delegated task would be one that the delegatee is not already paid to do, as part of his or her job. Delegators should have positive aims such as, for example, supporting employee development, and should not simply seek to pass on unpopular tasks to others. It is important that the delegator has a clear understanding of both the purpose and process of the task that is delegated. There are various degrees of delegation. A manager may, for example, delegate some responsibility for a task, but retain full authority, and continue to supervise it. Full empowerment is an extension of delegation, and involves complete authority for a task being passed to another person, who takes full responsibility for its objectives, execution and results. It is important not to abdicate all responsibility for a delegated task, but to maintain a fine balance between interest, support and motivation on the one hand, and interference or neglect on the other. Problems can result from being either too 'hands on' with well-motivated people, so that we demotivate them; or too 'hands off' with unenthusiastic people, so that we find out at the last minute that the task has been completed inadequately, or not at all. When delegation goes wrong, problems are often linked to entrenched attitudes like those demonstrated by the following statements: if you want it done properly, do it yourself I don't have time to explain everything I'll only have to check it all myself anyway.

Letting go can be difficult. Like many other aspects of dealing with people, success has much to do with trust, and depends upon working things out in a realistic way.

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Spotlight series

Other obstacles may be linked to practical resourcing or cultural problems, such as: genuine understaffing and real task overload an atmosphere of mistrust and blame when things go wrong people who are expected to achieve without training or development confusion over objectives, who is responsible for what, and where authority limits come into force.

As with most areas of management, clear and open communication is essential for effective delegation. A Skills Benchmarking tool on this subject is available to members within the Institute's Online CPD scheme. This tool presents a series of questions that enables you to evaluate and obtain feedback on your ability in this area. Non-members may like to explore the wider benefits of membership.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any forms or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the Chartered Management Institute.