Delegating effectively

I hope you are looking forward to this weekend as much as I am. This week has been taken up by a highly commercialised Valentine’s Day.

I am amazed how many people have been sucked into the commercialisation of the day? Even all the highbrow schools (and probably not so highbrow) sucked the children into this whole myth of an event.

Why do I call it a myth? We should set out every day for love, not just one day. We should give gifts all the time (to those who care).

The day is lust day anyway not love day for most and we all know lust is fake love. Also, it is a day that brings out a lot of insecurities to mention a few of the challenges. Okay, my one-minute rant is over.

We need to train our managers in the art of delegation. Many of them do not feel comfortable doing it and quite frankly they are not alone

We usually promote people to the manager level without really equipping them. Once they have been in a position for what we think is long enough and they are good at what they do, we assume it is fine to promote them to managers and expect they will somehow know how to manage.

This is not only false but causes so much havoc within the organisation and to the new managers morale. Enough to make them want to move jobs.

Today I want to touch on delegation which is one of the skills necessary for being a good manager or rather being an effective manager.

Communication, coaching, mentoring, and training are other attributes of an effective manager.

We need to train our managers in the art of delegation. Many of them do not feel comfortable doing it and quite frankly they are not alone. They must delegate as it is non-negotiable.

The starting place is to know what matters most. This means the manager must have a good idea of the whole project and be in a good position to set priorities and determine which trade-offs are right for them and the project.

A good project plan and flow chart are therefore important.

They must build trust. This is a continuous journey and not a destination.

Clearly, their behaviour must constantly be one of integrity and transparency. They should not have integrity one day and act the opposite the next.

This will enable them to surround themselves with talented people (hopefully even better than themselves) who possess a high level of trust and integrity.

When delegation has taken place, they need to manage the process. This is not micromanaging, it is just ensuring that it is not an abdication of duty.

Focus on the process as much as on the result is important, knowing how best to draw the balance.

The personality, strengths, and weaknesses of the person they are delegating to, is important when assigning work.

A deal-breaker is the extent of the explicitness of the goals and expectations. Communication and a thorough understanding of the goals and process come to bear here.

The manager must tell the delegated what the goal is, rather than as we said before micromanaging how they do it.

This liberty may even translate into the delegated coming up with a better way.

As we do not want an abdication, milestones should be set. Delegating does not mean walking away from the activity until it’s complete.

Establishing key milestones and reviewing the progress along the way is effective and efficient.

Delegation must be of both responsibility and authority. It’s not enough to delegate just a task. Delegated responsibility and authority get it done.

Without this the person will have to keep coming back for authority to do this or that.

The right tone for the work environment is also key. The new manager must create an environment in which communication is open, where questions are encouraged, and mistakes become part of a learning experience.

This enables everybody focus on their own duty without having to walk around on eggshells.

Read also: Capacity building of education secretaries, key to effective delivery of basic education – HDI

Feedback of rating on the assignment is key and golden. This should always be constructive so it will help future work.

There’s a difference between criticism and constructive feedback. Delegation falls apart when people are just expected to magically know what is expected and how their efforts have been rated.

Finally, delegation is not complete until there is recognition and reward for good work that is carried out.

A good manager must always give credit where it is due. As much as possible compliment people in public.

Please forward this to all your managers and I hope you are also delegating effectively.

Have a great weekend, now the pressure of Valentine’s day is over.