Whether you delegate as part of your responsibilities in the magic club or whether you receive delegation as part of your responsibilities, this poster on effective delegation just might be of some help in clarifying where delegation might be positive for you and where it might be negative for you.
Excellent and effective delegation is always a delegation of authority not merely a delegation of tasks.
Many people think of delegation as: “Here’s a list of things I want you to do. In fact this is how I want you to do it. I’m giving it to you to do. I’m delegating the tasks to you to do. Go do it and then check back with me when you’re done.”
Delegating tasks creates followers.
Delegating authority creates leaders. Most of us want to create leaders. Most of us want to become leaders.
What does it mean to delegate authority?
When I delegate authority, I give the person to whom I’m delegating a forward look.
I work hard not to go into the “how.” I say, “Here’s what I need done,” and I’m very explicit about the end result that I want to see, and then I lay out for them the boundaries of their authority. “You can do this to get there, but if you happen to have to do this, then you need to check with me before you step over that line.”
You can see in this poster it’s like I’ve almost drawn the outer frame of a sandbox. And in this sandbox, they have a lot of room to move. When I delegate tasks, they will often come back to me and they’ll say, “Well, now what shall I do? Shall I do this? Should I do this? Should I do this?”
If I tell them, then I’ve taken all the accountability away from them, because I told them what I recommend they do. If it doesn’t work out they come back and blame me. I’m not building them by that method of delegation.
Instead I’m saying, “You have the authority to make decisions within this framework. The goal is this — go for it — go for it. You can do it.”
When you’re in a position where you’re receiving delegation (i.e. being delegated to) make sure you do not allow the person delegating to delegate tasks to you either.
Help him or her clarify for you the parameters of your authority in fulfilling those tasks. He or she might not know of this important concept of delegation.
When you already know what authority you have, then you can take action without having to come back and ask.
Make sure you give and receive authority, not just tasks, and you’ll be creating leaders not just followers.
Categories: Governance, Task Completion, Time Competency
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