Saturday, May 7, 2011

The Art of Effective Delegation

In the post, the blogger likens the art of delegation to an animated character who is able to clone himself at will. As he delineates the characteristics of effective delegation, he reveals the importance of being able to replicate the talents, skills, and contributions of the leader in others to be more effective at accomplishing the goal. The leader who believes he or she must do everything limits what can be done and often overworks himself or herself while also sacrificing efficiency and effectiveness.

Delegation builds the team by maximizing the talents of the individuals in the group and by demonstrating trust in the members of the team by the leader. In delegating tasks, the anticipated outcome and motivation for the tasks should be explained. Authority and responsibility should be meted out together. Micromanaging should be avoided; results matter far more than the actual process. This emphasizes the importance of sharing expectations as responsibility is delegated. There is no need to manage every step in the process if the individuals that have been given responsibility understand what is required of them and equipped with all pertinent information. This also underscores another important point. The right people should be chosen for the job and held accountable for their results. Evaluation is a critical component that should always occur. It gives everyone involved an opportunity to learn and grow from mistakes and to celebrate successes. Just like the animated character was able to replicate himself, leaders must be willing and able to build a team of shared responsibility and authority.

1 comment:

  1. Delegating is doing more than just replicating oneself. If a person just replicates themselves chances are that they also will replicate their weakness. While I do agree that there is some aspect of replication in delegation. I think that delegation is more about completion than replication. The first thing that a leader must do to delegate effectively is know their own strengths and weaknesses. The second thing that they need to know is the strengths and weaknesses of their team. Finally they need to know what task needs to be done. A good delegator will find people who are strong in areas that they are weak and the will delegate those task to the person who can do them well, and who will enjoy doing them. A good delegator will also recognize when they have delegated a task to someone, and they are overwhelmed, they will take steps to correct to problem. We have heard it said time and time again leadership is not always about doing the job, it’s about finding the person who can best do the job. Sometimes that might be the leader themselves, most of time the leader will find the best person for the job is among those whom they are leading.

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