An ex-staff of mine has found a new job which made her a Department Head for the company’s marketing function. Granted that she may just be the head of a two-person team but she’s still the head, and that’s a pretty good start. We started talking about the ’science’ of managing and one of the issues touched on was the delegation of work. In the past, it used to be that she was at the receiving end of work being delegated to her but now that she’s the head, she now has the opportunity to know how it feels to be at the the giving end.
Delegating isn't as simple as you think.
Delegating, or ‘offloading’, of work is not as simple as some managers make it out to be. I have seen some of my fellow managerial peers delegate their work to their staffs without guidelines and directions as to what, when and why it is required to be done. When things don’t turn out the way it is meant to, the poor staffs get all the blame while the manager gets off scot-free. No wonder staffs always look upon management with contempt.
Imagine that you have a mansion and you employ a housekeeper. You wouldn’t go around telling the housekeeper how to do his job, right? No. You would go about telling the housekeeper what is required, when it is required and how it is required. You do not need to tell him how it is to be done, that’s the housekeeper’s job. Sorry, no micro-managing allowed by the Coolbert Principle.
It makes sense to allow the housekeeper as much room in decision-making as possible to let him get on with the job while you sit back to plan other long-term strategies, seeing the big pictures to plan on selling the house for a profit. Heck, another way of looking at it is that delegating allows you time to roam the internet whilst sipping ice lemon tea, while your staff ensures the work gets done according to requirements set by you.
So the key to delegating is this: you set the requirements and let them get on with the job. Check once or twice along the way and if it’s up to scratch, don’t bother checking anymore. Gradually give them more to do and more to decide, as that would allow them to feel partial to management. They might be responsible for the work being done but you, as the manager, are still accountable for it. Build your team and trust them to get on with it.
Oft times such delegating might not turn out the way it should; you get played out, things get done badly, etc. But that’s part and parcel of management, and if it does happen, it’s entirely YOUR fault, as it’s YOUR team and YOU are the manager. So the Coolbert Principle dictates that you make sure you know what is required, when it’s required, why it’s required and how it’s required, so that you can offload accordingly and manage successfully.
“If it feels painful and scary, that’s real delegation.” – Caspian Woods, From Acorns-How To Build Your Brilliant Business From Scratch.
