No Return on Delegated Work

Some managers delegate work only to later discover the work isn't getting done on time, or the employee is hesitant about what to do, or there are errors, missing pieces or less than satisfactory progress. Some managers then take the assignment back and do it themselves, and often reminding themselves that this is exactly why they don't like to delegate work. What they fail to realize is that taking the work back does not solve the problem. In fact it can make the problem worse as some employee's learn to return delegated work back to the boss, especially delegated work that is difficult and/or delegated work that the employee doesn't like to do.

When delegated work is not being done the way it should, the manager must get involved as a teacher and a coach. Give advice, counsel, additional information and even retraining as needed. Show and tell if required. Pitch in and work alongside of the employee as necessary. But never take back the delegated assignment or the responsibility for getting that assignment done. This approach allows the employee to gain knowledge and experience so that they are in a better position to do the delegated work in the future. And employees also learn to ask questions, clarify instructions, and seek help sooner because they know that wasted time and effort will place more burden on them.

Also note that this approach can work well for normal assignments as well. If an employee encounters an exception to a routine job, avoid taking the exception away and handling it yourself. By helping you handle the exception, the employee will learn from the experience. And that will put them in a better position to deal with (or at least help with) similar situations in the future).

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, particularly those at the first-line supervisor level. Topics include handling difficult employees, leadership, counseling, coaching, delegation, making work assignment, professionalism and time management. We welcome your comments on this post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Include Your Employees in Decisions

Within a set of guidelines or boundaries, most companies empower employees to make certain operating decisions on their own. Decisions beyond those boundaries are typically referred to the manager who then makes a decision (up to her or his authorization level of course).

Most managers are good at making these decisions at their level of authority. What many managers fail to do however is to involve their direct reports in the decision making process or to even tell their direct reports the reason or justification for their decision.

By leaving direct reports out of the process the manager fails to educate them and leaves them to speculate, guess or surmise why some decisions tend to go one way and other decisions tend to go another. The employee may guess correctly, or not, but in any case they don't know for certain the business policies and philosophies that underlie their manager's decision.

By explaining the higher level decision-making process, the manager expands the employee's knowledge of the factors involved in making those decisions. This positions the employee to have their own decision-making boundaries expanded in the future, as the manager confidently delegates additional decision-making to an employee who knows full well what the correct decision is and, more importantly, why.

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, particularly those at the first-line supervisor level. Topics include handling difficult employees, leadership, counseling, coaching, problem solving, lean thinking, motivation and time management. We welcome your comments on this post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

It's a Good Time to Delegate

Back in January I posted an article dealing with things to do when business is slow. Click here to see it if you wish.

Last weekend I reviewed a homework assignment from a manager who talked about the difficult economy and how people now seemed to be more receptive to learning new skills and working more independently. His focus was on upgrading technical skills so people could operate more efficiently now and, of course, when business picked up again.

After reading his work, I thought this would also be a good time to delegate more work. Yes, I know we're all looking for things to do. And delegating work will take some of those things away from you. But that's okay, because you can fill that time with the coaching, teaching and mentoring necessary to delegate work properly.

All too often delegation fails because we avoid it as much as we possibly can. When times are busy we absorb more and more work ourselves until we reach a crisis point that makes us delegate work on the fly. With quick instructions given under duress and pressure. With minimal training and little to no follow-up. Often times this process dooms the delegate to failure. We then take the work back, do it ourselves, and think: "See, I would have been better off doing it myself in the first place."

When delegation is done properly, the necessary teaching and training is done on a planned basis in a non-crisis environment that allows thorough training, follow-up and feedback. This of course takes time. And right now many of us have that time available.

About Pelleyblog: Pelleyblog is designed to be a resource for supervisors and other first line managers. Currently most of our readers are from Rhode Island (RI), Central Massachusetts (MA) and Eastern Connecticut (CT). But everyone interested in management topics is welcome. We also welcome your participation. Feel free to comment on this or any other post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley

All rights reserved.

Stay Late or Delegate

There's an old saying in management: "Stay late or delegate."

How true that is. And interesting how many managers avoid delegation. That avoidance may be for many reasons, but the most common is "I can do it faster and better."

What these managers fail to realize is they can do it faster and with fewer errors because they have experience. I'll bet when they were learning the task they weren't so fast and they made more errors.

"But I don't have time Dan." Then find time, because one of the duties of a manager is to train and develop subordinates. Look at the training time as an investment that will payoff quickly. After just one or two training sessions, you can start to reduce the training time commitment. Before you know it, the delegate will be up to speed and accuracy. The training time will cease. You'll now enjoy the time savings.

For example, if you spend 2 hours training a delegate in a job that takes you 15 minutes (with your daily training time investment ranging from 30 minutes at the beginning to 5 minutes near the end), you'll recover those hours in just 8 days!


About me: Dan Pelley teaches time management as part of his "Managing for Results" program, one of five programs leading to a Certificate in Supervisory Management. 137 companies in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York have one or more people who earned this certificate.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.