1. Selecting and Assigning the Task:
There are a significant amount of tasks that a manager can delegate to his subordinates. List them and rank them according to the amount of your time which they consume and their importance.
Preparing routine reports, answering routine correspondence, preparing duty schedules, serving on certain committee, meeting equipment venders, and similar routine portion of managerial tasks are some examples.
A single function or as much of it as possible should be delegated to a single person try to delegate tasks which are of recurrent nature. Clarify the specific authority to the employee and clarify the limits of that authority. Fix a deadline or time-frame for completion of the tasks and make it clear to the delegate.
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2. Selecting the Appropriate Subordinate:
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The person selected, the delegate, should have qualifications to carry out the assigned tasks. Over delegating or too much challenge to an employee results in his or her failure and frustration.
Delegation should provide a modest amount of challenge, a feeling of expanded usefulness and an opportunity for growth.
Assess the subordinate’s capabilities. The person should be able to realise the importance of the task, must have the attitude, knowledge and skills to carry out delegated responsibility, and should have the time available for it.
3. Instructing the Subordinates:
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Delegation without adequate preparation is bound for failure. Instruct the subordinate the nature of task, method of carrying it out, the goals to be achieved or results expected, and the time-frame.
If there are no instructions available because of the maiden nature of the task, then instructions or procedures may have to be prepared and committed in writing.
4. Maintaining Feedback and Control:
Delegation is ineffective without feedback and control. Feedback is largely a matter of communication between superior and the subordinates.
Progress should be monitored through periodic reports. When you are known to check on deadlines, employees know you are on the lookout for results.
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Over control, all the time looking over subordinate’s shoulders to see how they are doing, is as bad as under- control which may miss employees making costly mistakes along the way. Make sure subordinates know you keep a track and want timely results.
5. Some Basic Tenets of Delegation:
1. A manager cannot delegate authority which he does not have.
2. A manager cannot delegate all of his authority because, in delegating total authority, he will then be giving away his prerogative to manage.
3. Delegation refers to operational authority only. Authority to make policy and technical authority cannot be delegated. In the organisational hierarchy, delegation is used only in the context of line operations.
4. Delegation of authority is not absolute and permanent Delegated authority can always be regained (recalled) by the delegator, and the right of the superior to recover delegated authority is absolute.
6. What should never be delegated?
There are certain aspects of a manager’s functions which should never be delegated. They are as follows.
1. The power to discipline
2. Responsibility for maintaining morale
3. Overall control
4. Crisis situation calling for urgent solution
5. A technical task or matter
6. Custodianship of trust and confidence.
7. Why is there not Enough Delegation?
In spite of the immense utility of the principle of delegation, there appears to be ineffective delegation in many institutions due to two sets of factors—one related to managers and the other to subordinates.
8. Management Barriers:
1. Unwillingness to give subordinates a chance. The manager feels he can do the job better and faster himself
2. Unwillingness to let subordinates make decisions
3. Fear of subordinates making mistakes
4. Unwillingness to trust subordinates
5. Unwillingness to let go power
6. Disinclination to develop subordinates
7. Fear of taking risks
8. Uncertainty over tasks
9. Failure to establish effective control
10. Lack of organisational skill confusion about authority and responsibility.
9. Subordinate Barriers:
1. Lack of aptitude for work
2. Feeling of insecurity, lack of self-respect
3. Fear of failure, of making mistakes
4. Lack of initiative
5. Lack of experience
6. Avoidance of responsibility.
Delegation is the most important parameter of managerial effectiveness. It enables the manager to enlarge his functional capabilities.
Many of us give lip service to delegation, but few of us are inclined to delegate authority in important matter. The tendency to delegate only the unimportant work should be curbed.
An effective manager delegates as many important tasks as he can, because that not only creates a climate in which subordinates grow, it also enables the manager to extend his effectiveness.