Delegation as a Time Management Tool

Important to break jobs down for our subordinates if we want to succeed as Supervisors.

Idea behind delegation is not just breaking down jobs but to get the supervisor to work smarter and harder.

Introduction

You are limited as to what you are capable of achieving all by yourself in a day.

Philosophy of delegation

It is the art of achieving specific pre-defined results through the empowerment and motivation of others.

A powerful and effective process of helping our people become not as good as they thought they would be but better than they dreamt they will be.

Definition

We want to avoid the creation of indispensable and unpromotable people.

Better economic value for placing people at where they would be. Economic use of labour.

To challenge high performing employees otherwise they become disillusioned, frustrated and may have low self esteem.

Delegate to capitalize on abilities and capabilities of your people – to overcome some physical limitations that you have

Reasons to delegate

Legitimate

Or

Illegitimate reasons

Why Supervisors do not delegate

Understaffed and therefore no one to delegate to.

No training for subordinates such that there is no one to delegate to.

When dealing with sensitive or confidential materials it is important that you handle it yourself

Action itself may be appropriate to your level eg firing your secretary

Legitimate reasons

Not willing to make time upfront to explain a particular job to our subordinates.

We can do it faster – technically we have enough experience than them.

We can do the job better than others. Unwillingness to delegate for fear that the

subordinate can overtake him and take his position.

Occupational hobbies – jobs have become fun doing so do not want to she off.

Illegitimate Reasons

We start locking in our low performers.

We start forcing out our high performers.

We start attracting low performers from other companies who are not at their top notches.

We become unpromotable.

Impact of not delegating

Need to prioritize

Use urgent and important matrix.

Urgent situations are those calling for or demanding immediate attention i.e. to urge one into action

Important activities are those which are valuable in content or relationship

Are we delegating meaningful challenging jobs?

Urgent/Important Matrix

Important

U

rgen

t

Yes

No

Yes No

1

2

3

4

Important and Urgent

These are mostly the jobs that we deal with everyday.

They are the crisis we always meet and that is the heart of effective use of our time to handle jobs.

Most of them are unanticipated and need to be addressed immediately.

Quadrant 1

Important but not Urgent

These are jobs that we know are important but feel they are not urgent now.

We tend to put them off until all of a sudden the long term becomes now, e.g. mid-long range planning, training and development of our people.

We tend to put them off till they become a big problem because we didn’t do any advance planning so we deal with crisis.

Quadrant 2

Urgent but not Important

This is the quadrant of Deception. Noise of urgency creates the illusion of

importance. Actual activities if they are important at all are

important to someone else. Example: interruptions, phone calls, meetings, drop-in visitors, popular activities.

We spend a lot of time in Quadrant III meeting other people’s priorities and expectations, thinking we are really in Q1.

Quadrant 3

Not Urgent not Important:

This is the quadrant of Waste. Very trivial issues Activities that can be put off or left undone These are the time wasters like reading

addictive light novels, gossiping around the water fountain at the office, etc.

Quadrant 4

Is it easy to differentiate between Q1 and QIII?

A quick way is to ask yourself if the Urgent activity contributed to an Important objective. If not, it probably belongs in QIII.

Put this matrix on your table and don’t remove it. It is a very important tool to help you do superbly well things that consistently have significant positive results in your professional work life and personal life.

Key Questions

HOW DO YOU DELEGATE EFFECTIVELY

THE DELEGATOR’S DOZEN

Set a clear objective Let subordinate take part in the setting up of

the objective. Bring him in to take responsibility of the task

to be accomplished It ensures enthusiasm, commitment,

excitement and dedication. Look at experience, skills, knowledge, etc.

Select the Delegates Consider talents, abilities, time available, level

of training. Select right person for the job looking at his

behavioural style.

Delegator’s dozen contd.

Train the Delegatee:

Mentally check off to see whether he has enough training.

Get inputs form the Delegatee:

Share ideas, feelings and some anticipated problems.

Assign the project/Task with a Deadline

People communicate differently and the manner, which we assign the task, is important.

Communication is at the heart of delegation.

Delegator’s dozen contd.

Provide necessary Guidance

a) Provide information and data Information and data that delegatee has to have

from the on-set to consider viable alternatives.b) Suggest approaches: Mention that they are a guide to help the

delegatee and that he should feel free to add his own.

C) Set standards and describe results desired Both qualifyable and measurable results. Create in your mind how to results will look like

when it is done especially for jobs that cant be quantified easily.

Delegator’s dozen contd.

Make a delegation contract: Some bosses delegate work and then meddle in it. Determine ‘who to be in touch with whom’. 4 levels of authority normally available to go with the contract.

a) Take Action High level of confidence given to the delegatee Trust that everything will be done Need to be careful with the person you delegate to Complexity in jobs, costs, skills, etc. determine the person to be

given such authority.

b) Take Action but stay in Touch: Determine when to stay in touch and how frequent.

c) Get Approval before Moving on: Delegatee comes to inform where he is before going in.

d) Do why what I tell you to do: Strict directions Leaves a certain behavior style that needs to be worked on if

delegation is to go on.

Delegator’s dozen contd.

Establish Controls◦ Get some early warning signs.

Maintain Control◦ Touch base regularly.

Provide Feedback to the Delegatee◦ Not only at the end but in course of the task.

Identify lessons learned

Evaluate performance:◦ Use a fair, balance and just evaluation.◦ Try to capture performance as delegatee goes on. Use

maintenance control to track performance.

Delegator’s dozen contd.

Granting responsibility

You can delegate performance responsibility but not ‘ultimate’ responsibility.

Never abdicate your ultimate responsibility Never allow yourself to mention somebody’s

name. Allow for mistakes when people are trying new

things or making new attempts.

Granting Authority:

Authority is the freedom to act within established parameters.

Giving Responsibility, Granting Authority and Demanding Accountability

Holding Accountable for results: The delegator’s response to results achieved. People always think about accountability in negative terms. It must be

seen in terms of both positive and negative.

Positive: It is about clarity. What is it like for an employee to not know what he is

accountable for? It raises a number of questions for him

a) What do I contribute to this team/organization?b) Does anyone care if I do a good /bad work?c) What happens if I behave or perform unacceptably?

Simply ‘’you are accountable’’ means ‘’you are important to this task and without your input we will not succeed’’.

Negative: Honest feedback on performance to perform better on the job Consequences for unacceptable performance Manager needs to be courageous enough to give honest feedback

about performance of his people.

Giving responsibility, Granting Authority and Demanding Accountability

End of Session Ebo Quarm 0244-332757