Module V - Delegation

Learning Objectives:

 Participants should know what the meaning of delegation is, its advantages and disadvantages
 Participants should know how to overcome reluctance to delegate tasks
 Participants should know when, how and to whom they should delegate tasks

Delegation is a skill of which we have all heard—but which few really understand. It can be used
either as an excuse for dumping tasks onto the shoulders of colleagues, or as a dynamic tool for motivating
and training your team to realize their full potential. Delegation underpins a style of management that
allows your team to use and develop their skills and knowledge to the full potential. Yet, it is not instinctive
human behavior. This module looks at the form and function of delegation; its importance as a skill for
team leaders; and ways in which it can be approached in schools.

Definition of delegation

At times, we all need to pass on work and responsibility to our colleagues. Delegation is an
important technique to acquire, not simply because it relieves us of workload, but because it can be used
as a way of motivating those with whom we work. Delegation occurs, therefore, when the team leader
chooses to entrust a team member with a specific task that he or she could have retained for him or
herself. It is the art of getting a job done by the person best able to do it, in the time available, and is
primarily about entrusting your authority to others. This means that they can act and initiate
independently; and that they assume responsibility with you for certain tasks. If something goes wrong,
you remain responsible since you are the manager; the skill is to delegate in such a way that tasks get
done but do not go (badly) wrong. Such a task could be a “one-off,” or one that might become a regular
feature of that person’s work.

The advantages of delegation

Managers stand to gain a great deal by adopting the habit of delegating. By passing along well-
defined tasks to lower-level people, managers can free more of their time for important chores such as
planning and motivating. Regarding the question of exactly what should be delegated, Intel’s former
chairman, Andy Grove, made the following recommendation: “Because it is easier to monitor something
with which you are familiar, if you have a choice you should delegate those activities you know best.”
Grove cautions that delegators who follow his advice will experience some psychological discomfort
because they will quite naturally want to continue doing what they know best.

In addition to freeing valuable managerial time, delegation is also a helpful management training
and development tool. Moreover, lower-level managers who desire more challenge generally become
more committed and satisfied when they are given the opportunity to tackle significant problems.
Conversely, a lack of delegation can stifle initiative.

Perfectionist managers who avoid delegation have problems in the long run when they become
overwhelmed by minute details.

Barriers to delegation

There are several reasons why managers generally do not delegate as much as they should:
  Belief in the fallacy expressed in the advice “If you want it done right, do it yourself”
 Lack of confidence and trust in lower-level employees
 Low self-confidence
 Fear of being called lazy
 Vague job definition
 Fear of competition from those below
 Reluctance to take the risks involved in depending on others
 Lack of controls that provide early warning of problems with delegated duties
 Poor example set by bosses who do not delegate

Managers can go a long way toward effective delegation by recognizing and correcting these
tendencies both in themselves and in their fellow managers. Because successful delegation is habit-
forming, the first step usually is the hardest. Properly trained and motivated people who know how to
take initiative in challenging situations often reward a delegator’s trust with a job well done.

Once managers have developed the habit of delegating, they need to remember this wise advice
from Peter Drucker: “Delegation…requires that delegators follow up. They rarely do—they think they have
delegated, and that’s it. But they are still accountable for performance. And so they have to follow up,
have to make sure that the task gets done—and done right.”

What if I am not comfortable with delegating my work?

Many of us have very mixed feelings about giving away parts of our work to someone else. This is
partially explained by the fact that each job we undertake comprises three elements—responsibility,
authority and accountability:

 Responsibility. If we are responsible for the job it normally means that we are the ones who
actually carry it out.
 Authority. This is the decision-making part of the job. We make decisions about the way the job
is done.
 Accountability. This is the ownership part of the job. We are accountable, even if we didn’t
actually perform the task ourselves.

Therefore, effective delegation involves giving someone else responsibility for the job, the
authority to take decisions and, in the short-term, protecting them by retaining accountability. It is this
last element that helps us draw the distinction between delegating and “dumping”—allocating tasks that
we are not terribly fond of. There are several common barriers to delegation, generally stemming from
our concerns.

Statement 1: “What if something goes wrong?”

Quite frankly, there is no way of knowing whether your team colleagues will get it wrong if they
are never given the chance to get it right. Obviously, you will not delegate a task to anyone if you genuinely
believe that the risk of failure far outweighs the probability of success. In most cases, you will need to give
team colleagues the benefit of the doubt. You may even need to think back to times in your career when
your team leaders showed faith in you.

Statement 2: “I’ll be quicker doing it myself”

 It is quite easy for each of us to believe this. Undoubtedly, as a team leader, and by virtue of your
experience and the expertise gained over time, you will probably be more effective at many tasks than
your team colleagues. However, taking this approach will lead to a massive workload. Apart from your not
being in a position to spend more time on higher-level tasks that only you can and should do, how will
your staff ever become proficient if they are not given the opportunity? Try to think of the coaching that
you will have to do as an investment in your colleague’s future. Also, any coaching that you do need not
absorb a vast amount of your time if you spread it over two or three short sessions.

Statement 3: “I’ve always looked after this myself”

This is what we tend to say when we operate within our own comfort zone. We hang on to these
jobs for many reasons, e.g. they are high-profile jobs and get us noticed; they are areas of work in which
we have real skills and we get confidence from doing them well; to lose them might make us personally
and professionally vulnerable. Retaining too many of these areas of work could lead to fossilization—on
this basis you will not grow and develop. You may even be overtaken by events.

Statement 4: “My team members are overworked as it is”

The worry of overburdening team members is a significant barrier to delegation. Caring team
leaders will want to ensure that colleagues’ workloads are not excessive. It is difficult to delegate further
tasks to staff members who appear to be working to full capacity already. Rather than retaining these
tasks and feeling that you have to do them yourself, try to encourage your team to analyze their own use
of time and free up capacity for higher-order activities.

Statement 5: “I feel insecure about asking established team members to take on my tasks”

The challenge for inexperienced team leaders is to master the complex aspects of the process,
such as attaining an affective and appropriate leadership style. Frankly, delegation is a self-teaching
activity—you develop and perfect the skills through the process itself. Your confidence and abilities
increase the more you delegate.

Two kinds of delegation

There are basically two kinds of delegation: “gofer delegation” and “stewardship delegation.” The
former means “go for this, go for that, do this, do that, and tell me when it’s done.” The latter is focused
on outcomes instead of methods. It offers team members a choice of how to do things and responsibility
for whatever happens. It needs some investment of time to start with, but it is worth it.

The delegation process

The delegation process begins with analysis—selecting the tasks that you, the team leader, could
and should delegate. It will help if you think about the tasks that you are currently engaged in and ask
yourself the following questions:

1. Do I have to do this task?

2. Why do I do it?
3. Should I keep it and if so why?
4. Who else could do the job?
5. Who could I be training up to do it?
 Analyze your time. Time analysis should identify for you the proportion of time you spend on high-
level activities that only you can and should do. As a general rule, far more time will have been spend on
activities that are routine and could therefore delegated.

Break down your tasks. List your tasks and group them using the ABC analysis found in the Time
and Stress Management module: those that must be done by you and therefore cannot be delegated (A
tasks); those that you could and should delegate (B tasks); and those that do not really need to be done
(C tasks). Use this technique for reducing any unnecessary tasks, delegating some and concentrating on
tasks that only you can complete.
Fig. 1. Delegating effectively

Prioritize your tasks. Once selected, the parameters of the task need to be defined. This will enable
you to appoint a suitable team member and to provide him or her with as accurate a brief as possible. You
can only make this decision when you have assessed your time and that of your team, and grouped and
prioritized activities and tasks.

Estimate time for completion. When delegating tasks you need to have a fairly good idea of how
long each tasks is likely to complete. This is an estimate that you can often base on your own experience
or on that of others. Try to provide challenging but realistic schedules and deadlines.

Fig. 2. Deciding what to delegate

Group related tasks. It is likely that the list of tasks to be done will produce activities that are
related to each other. It is sensible to delegate groups of related tasks to one person. In this way, you can
play to team members’ strengths, as well as providing them with continuity and task progression.

Make your choice. Ultimately, the choice of what you delegate, however logical the analysis has
been, will have some element of subjectivity. Once you have selected the task and the individual, you
need to work with them to establish the parameters of the job and the level of authority that they will
have. They need to be allowed some freedom to carry out the job in their own way. If you just want them
to do it how you would do it, then this is another example of “dumping.”
Signs of delegating too little

Certain behaviors are associated with leaders who are reluctant to delegate tot their
subordinates. These behaviors are signs that a leader is delegating too little. Some of these behaviors
include taking work home, performing employee tasks, being behind in work, a continual feeling of
pressure and stress, rushing to meet deadlines, and requiring that employees seek approval before acting.
Leaders who can't disengage from the office and delegate authority and responsibility undermine
employees’ confidence to make decisions and take responsibility undermine employees’ confidence to
make decisions and take responsibility for their actions. Unfortunately, in many of today’s cost-cutting
environments, you don’t always have someone you can delegate some of your tasks to.

The links between people’s learning styles and delegation

Learning is a continual process—sometimes we learn without even realizing it, at other times we
make a conscious effort to learn something. In recent years research has reinforced our view that people
learn in different ways, and that this can have a significant influence on how readily people respond to
delegation. It has been suggested by Kolb (1984) that to learn, we must first have an experience (appeals
to activists), then reflect on what happened (appeals to reflectors). Following reflection, we must consider
what we have learned and what conclusions we can draw from it (appeals to theorists). Finally, we must
then consider how we can apply what we have learned in the future (appeals to pragmatists). Honey and
Mumford (1988), for example, demonstrated that there are four styles of learning.

Table 2. Four styles of learning

It appears that each of us has a preference for one, possibly two, of these styles. Each of these
styles is valid—there is no question of one style being better than the others. Whenever you delegate
tasks you will need to consider your own preferred learning style as well as theirs. For example, if you, an
activist, delegate a task to a team member whose preferred learning style is a reflector, s/he could easily
panic and feel out of their depth. Yet, as team leaders we also have a role in trying to expand our own and
our colleagues’ learning into areas in which we are less confident; for example, encouraging a theorist
(usually over-cautious) to have a go and take risks. A team member might view new tasks using the three
“zones of experience”:

 Comfort zone—Within the team member’s “comfort” zone are those aspects of their work in
which they are quite experienced and proficient.
 Stretch zone—In the “stretch” zone, team members are testing their ability to handle unfamiliar
tasks or trying to improve in some aspect of the job which they may not enjoy or value but,
nevertheless, cannot escape.
 Panic zone—The “panic” zone takes team members into skill areas that are far beyond their
capability.

Conducting a successful briefing meeting

Once you have reached agreement, in principle, to delegating aspects of your work, the time is
right to set up a meeting at which you will be able to brief your team colleague. This meeting is vital since
it provides team leaders with the opportunity to communicate effectively and ensure the team member’s
full understanding of the task. This is best achieved by being methodical in your approach and will allow
you to:

 Explain the task objective clearly

 State your expectations in terms of deadlines and levels of measured achievement
 List the steps you think will need to be taken to ensure completion of the task
 Be clear about areas of the brief where flexibility is acceptable, even encouraged, and those which
must be followed strictly
 Check your colleague’s understanding of the brief

You will need to be aware, however, that even the most carefully prepared and well-
communicated brief can still result in a lack of full understanding. You can try to avoid this situation by:

 Checking with your colleague, throughout the briefing, that things are clear
 Inviting your colleague to check the clarity of his/her understanding with you
 Checking his/her body language, e.g. your colleague’s lack of eye contact may indicate that s/he
is not in agreement with you, or is having difficulty understanding
 Summarizing the key points of the delegation
 Reassuring your colleague by building in dates for supportive follow-up meetings

Your choice of briefing approach will depend on the nature and complexity of the task, the
relationship between yourself and your team colleague, as well as your personal style. Don’t forget to
thank your colleague for taking on the task.
Table 3. Team briefing styles

Effective and responsive monitoring and support

Monitoring is crucial, but in a coaching and controlling form, rather than as interference. Failure
to monitor and support, especially at the beginning, may mean that the tiniest of errors could result in a
whole job being completed wrongly. In your role as team leader you are then left with having to manage
that failure, sort the task out and re-motivate the individual member of staff. Effective monitoring enables
you to spot the error early on and correct it before things go awry.

An effective monitoring system needs to find the right combination of “light rein” and “tight
hand.” It needs to be done with firmness, tact and sensitivity. An important factor in determining whether
to adopt a “hands-on” or “hands-off” approach to monitoring is the level of experience of your team
member. It is probably self-evident that, if your colleague has a considerable level of experience and
expertise at handling similar tasks, he or she will require less monitoring than someone with little or none.
Make use of the monitoring process to provide opportunities for assessing and extending your colleague’s
abilities and to provide the necessary coaching and training. Delegating tasks to first-time or less
experienced staff requires careful briefing and closer monitoring especially during the early stages. Take
every opportunity to build their confidence by focusing on, and praising, good performance. If errors are
made, coach your staff in ways of avoiding them in future. Don’t be reluctant to utilize experienced team
colleagues to help you monitor.
 Maintaining an appropriate distance between yourself and those undertaking delegated tasks is
never easy. Because others are unlikely to work in exactly the same way as you do, try to resist the
temptation to intervene the minute you judge the task is not being performed “your way.” Simply set up
a system of regular checks, meetings and reports (formal or informal) to satisfy yourself that the task is
on track. The progress review should fit very neatly into your school’s performance management
arrangements—planning, monitoring and review—so that you are not duplicating effort. Where the
review reveals difficulties or problems encountered during the delegation, it is important that the team
leader identifies the causes.

Fig. 3. Delegation summary chart

Role of coaching in delegation

In the mind of some people coaching is restricted to situations where things have gone wrong
but, such is the strength of the coaching process, it can also be used to support the delegation process. A
coach, after all, helps others to perform more effectively. This could mean achieving a higher output, or
completing a task in a shorter time or with less effort, or with better relationships with team members.
Coaching is not telling someone how to do something, but helping them to find the best way for
themselves—unlocking potential to maximize performance.

REFERENCES

Management Skills in Schools: A Resource for School Leaders by Jeff Jones

Management (11th ed.) by Robert Kreitner

Leadership: Theory, Application and Skill Development (4th ed.) by Robert Lussier and Christopher Achua