The Art of Delegation

The process of handing over a job to a person along with all the power necessary to deal with the job without turning towards you for approvals. The power you have given the person will make a 'Delegate' of yours.

Why Delegation is necessary

People have a wrong notion about Delegation of powers or authority. Many are under the impression delegation means surrendering. No, its not so . Delegation means simply transfer of certain responsibilities to your subordinates. The whole idea behind delegation is to achieve a fruitful participation and cooperation of all concerned people actively.

Active participation makes people feel that they too count in the organizational day to day functioning. It goes without saying that such feeling in an employee creates a sense of 'Belongingness'. And this sense of belongingness strengthens a corporation beyond measure.

Delegation of power and authority enables a superior officer to get freedom from routine responsibilities which can be very well be handled by a junior or a subordinate.Thus the superior can devote this gained time due to delegation to a more important work pertaining to organizational excellence.

Most important thing that should not be  ignored.

The superior who delegates the power  will never divorce his responsibility or authority. The idea behind delegation is transferring a job to another person, If he or she commits a mistake, you are accountable to it.

What it all amounts to

It all amounts to stopping of 'Passing of Buck.'

What's Passing the buck

It's an idiom which means "to pass the blame (to someone else)". In any organization it's not uncommon to see several examples of "Passing the Buck."

"Not here, next counter"

"Second counter"

Are some of the examples we all are conversant with 'Passing the buck.'

What Passing the Buck speaks of.

Passing the buck points out to refusal to take responsibility. The root cause for this is absence of delegation. A superior's unwillingness to delegate some of his responsibilities and authority with the fear that his sub-ordinates dominate him.

Don't forget, Delegation is a vital component in the art of Time Management. Delegation boosts the confidence and morale of the Sub-ordinates. This in its turn helps the subordinates grow their stature. Those who reaped the fruits of delegation would describe Delegation as a powerful motivational weapon

What cannot be delegated

Responsibility can be shared, but not accountability.  It all amounts to the fact that the Delegator should have enough control over his subordinates  in order to protect the Delegator's accountability. That is, the Manager, the leader of the group, who acquired the skills of 'Team Building/ and developing the individuals should not delegate.In a nutshell, tasks which are absolutely form the core of the organization, which only you can be sure of delivering in time in tune with the stipulated norms of the organization, should not be delegated.

Common Time 'Bottlenecks.'

If you want to acquire a good knowledge on  "Time Management habits",first get acquainted with " Time Bottlenecks."The first and foremost of the Bottlenecks is, "procrastination." Here is a beautiful example to illustrate what's procrastination.In the famous book, "Three men in a Boat" written by JeromeK.Jerome, note the following lines uttered by a character.

"I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me. The idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart."

In all , if some one puts off attending or doing a task or job is defined as 'Procrastination'  Here it's noteworthy to examine 2 quotes by Benjamin Franklin and Kabir. Benjamin Franklin said,"Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today."

Kabir said, "The task scheduled for tomorrow should be done today. The task intended for today should be attended now."Though these two quotes were quoted long ago. we can understand and realize the importance given by these visionaries to Time and the avoidance of procrastination.

 It should be borne in mind that every winner treats the present as precious. Because every Present is treated as a "Present" from the God.Realize that by not doing today's job and transferring it to tomorrow, you are burdening yourself with more load which you are not able to  handle it. In addition to this, no body knows if tomorrow comes or not.

Procrastination  is a  word that owes its origin to Latin. It means 'Tomorrow'. Appropriately the word Procrastination earned a name, "The thief of Time.". The foremost thing that all achievers of the world bear in mind is, "Banish procrastination".

Poor Delegation, is the other Bottleneck

Delegation implies transferring a few agreed jobs or tasks along with authority to save time.It is understood that the subordinate has the requisite capability and competence to do the assigned task or job. Its not only the competence but also the subordinate's willingness to take up the job counts and the purpose of delegation is fully served.

Disorganized Managers

Ramanathan is a manager of a fertilizer manufacturing unit in Thiruvanantapuram. Never a single day passes without fretting and fuming on his staff. He is in the habit of attributing all his office management failures to his subordinates.. "This office looks like a municipality garbage container.". He sighs looking around his office files littered allover the floor.  "Ah, there is the file  of Gujarat fertilizers contract. let me reply their queries. Now where is my pen. It was somewhere here, Sakuntala, where s my pen,  Gosh, nothing i can find the things in their proper places in this office."

In the mean time a phone call puts a break on the flow of curses of Ramanathan.Ramanathan answers all the phone calls himself .When the last phone call was attended, Ramanathan's colleague Somanathan who works as a manager in the other wing of the same office comes for his usual cup of coffee and chat on the latest share market . Ramanathan conveniently forgets about the Gujarat fertilizers contract and welcomes his friend Somanathan. And the usual exchange of pleasantries and coffee will last for an hour or so.

Ramanathan thinks he's the busiest manager on earth.Ramanathan is busy in creating confusion in his own disorganized way. Most amazing part of the story is, Ramanathan's main problem is his inability to identify his lapses. Rather he thinks that having just only 24 hours in a day is the reason for his chaos and confusion in the office.. Besides, he never realises the importance of identifying the 'Time- wasters'.

Striving for good order s the best way to reduce the  Time wastage. The time thus saved can be easily utilized for facing the unpredictable situations and happenings.

Inefficient CEOs.

Many CEOs have a fancy for meetings. Without their knowledge they waste the most valuable time of the organization as well as the employees'. Calling for meetings sans any purpose will invariably result in to postponement of the meetings. Agendas are deviated and drastically chopped. And the discussions are off the agenda and unending. And what about the minutes of the meeting? God knows. And where do you think it leads to? Yes you guessed it right. Everything ends in confusion.

Such CEOs should make habit of of asking a few questions to themselves as under.

Is this meeting necessary?

What's the purpose of this meeting.?

What are the points and issues to be decided?

Check if your answers are satisfactory. If your answers are in negative don't hold the meeting.

Don't forget the purpose of a meeting is to save the time. You being the leader, it's your bounden duty to see that each meeting has a purpose and each purpose is achieved in the most time-effective way.

To sum it all

The aim and purpose of Time Management should revolve around only one single point, "How to make Best use of your Best time." What's your Best time. Every one of us will have 'Best Time'. If a work or task is undertaken during this 'Best Time'. a hundred percent best results are achieved. For example for some 'Early Morning' time is the Best time. The 'Best time' of an individual has to be found out by experiment.This is the time when you get waves of thoughts in problem analysis and problem solving in the most effective way.

Whatever may be your best time, utilise it with the sole purpose of saving the precious time. And know that there are many ways to save the time that leads to give an edge of excellence in all the spheres of your activity besides Delegating. Explore all the possible ways to save time.