Delegation makes a big impact in your workplace.
What is delegation? What do gain from delegation? Please read this post to find out the answers.
Delegation is assigning a task to someone below us, authorising him to do the task on our behalf and thus freeing ourselves to take care of more vital issues.
“You can delegate authority, but you can never delegate responsibility for delegating a task to someone else. If you picked the right man, fine, but if you picked the wrong man, the responsibility is yours — not his.”
-Richard E Krafve.
The need for delegation in my workplace
When I was placed in Foundry of ISP to assist my senior, I found him how he dealt with his day to day activities. I followed him for few days. After a few days, I found him to calculate the charge mix for Non-ferrous melting. Apart from this, I found him to maintain four to five numbers of logbooks also. One day I asked him,”Why do you do them? Can’t you find someone competent enough to do these activities?”
He said, ” Most of these foremen are illiterate and don’t have any technical knowledge. Our company has promoted them on a seniority basis. So they can’t calculate the charge mix. If they make mistakes in it, then the whole lot of non ferrous castings will be rejected. To be sure, they will do wrong posting in the logbooks also”. In the next moment, I said, “Why don’t you help them to learn the things? ”
He smiled, “They can’t learn anything now.” Our conversation stopped there. I gradually learnt the things which my senior was doing. I believed that any intelligent foreman who could read and write and had some sense of responsibility could do these activities well. After some months, my senior got transferred to another department of ISP. Then I chose the right foreman with the above credentials to do these jobs.
Initially, I advised him to see how I calculate the charge mix. He was keen to learn the things. In no time, he himself calculated the charge mix and I just observed. After one month he did the jobs like an expert.
Before delegation
To be more precise, my senior did not find the answer to these questions.
What did I do now?
Why did I do it?
Should I keep it and why?
To whom could I give the job now?
Whom should I train to do it and how?
If he could answer these questions, he could have delegated those jobs.
“The inability to delegate is one of the biggest problems I see with managers at all levels.“
-Eli Broad.
Before delegating you must check the ability of the subordinate.
Which tasks to delegate
Don’t delegate the tasks that you do with difficulty. Rather, delegate the tasks that you himself do the best
Don’t delegate the confidential, security and policy matters, matters essential to your overall controls as well as discipline over subordinate’s own colleague.
As the task of charge calculations and log posting don’t come under confidential, essential or discipline matters, so I delegated them to the foreman.
Prepare to delegate
- Train him.
- Clarify the tasks to him. Make sure he understands what to do.
- Assure to give supports to him.
After delegation
- Advise the other members to support him.
- Monitor his effectiveness occasionally.
- Apprise him of his progress.
- Praise him in public.
What do you gain by delegation?
- It reduces your workload. So you can focus more on important and critical issues.
- It not only helps to develop your men but also empowers them. So they engage more in jobs.
- Finally, it boosts the morale of the employees.
In spite of these benefits, delegation involves taking risks. So plan and train properly to minimise these risks as well as maximise benefits.
I must close here with this beautiful quote.
“If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.”
– John C. Maxwell, American author.
Loved what to delegate and what not
Thank you so much for reading this post.