Key Management Skills

Delegating
  In management, delegating refers to sharing or transferring
responsibilities, and typically happens from a superior (or an
employer) to a subordinate (or an employee). Delegating is a
What is critical skill for supervisors at any level and can be a major
challenge for them to learn, due to concerns of giving up
Delegating? control or the lack of confidence in the abilities of others.
Delegating is an important trait for those who work in teams,
and trust plays a critical role for its success.
  #1 Efficiency
The  By delegating work to others, the individual is
Importance of transferring work to people whose skills better fit the

Delegating task(s).
 Therefore, it improves the efficiency of the individual
delegating the work and lessens their stress.
 #2  In a case where the delegation of work is to someone
who is not well versed in doing the task, delegating can
Development play a major role in coaching and teaching others. It is
one important way to help them build new skills.
  Delegation of tasks to others offers the following benefits:

Benefits of  Gives you the time and ability to focus on higher-level tasks
Delegating  Gives others the ability to learn and develop new skills
 Develops trust between workers and improves communication
 Improves efficiency, productivity, and time management
  1. Delegation is a two-way process. It is necessary for both
parties to work carefully and sensitively towards full
delegation of a task.
 2. The delegated task is defined so that both parties are clear
Guidelines for about expected outcomes, time, legal and financial constraints,
Delegating and available resources.

Tasks  3. Thorough preparation is essential for both parties. At the

planning meeting there needs to be explicit agreement about
programs of action, timetables and future monitoring
discussions or meetings.
 4. Regular support and encouragement should be available in
addition to the planned meetings.
The Difficulty  Although there are clear benefits to delegating work, many

in Delegating choose not to do so. In fact, many people feel that it is more
efficient for them to just do everything by themselves. There
Work are several reasons as to why an individual may not want to
delegate work to others:
#1 Delegating  Although you give up the responsibility when you
does not delegate a task, the delegator is ultimately accountable

eliminate for the success or failure of the task. However,

transferring the success to the person who did more of
accountability the work is a good strategy for supportive leadership.
#2 Delegating  Many people believe that they can do the job more
results in a effectively than others. The sense of loss of control of

loss of control the task prevents many from passing off work to
others.
  Delegating requires training on how to do the task. The
#3 Delegating delegation of work to someone else requires the
requires manager to mentor and ensure that the person
mentorship and completes the task. The delegator may need to spend
time as much time teaching the other individual how to do
the task as to complete the task himself.
  Managers who believe that they have responsibilities which
cannot be shared with colleagues (in the case of
headteachers the claim is ‘ultimate responsibility);
 Managers who are concerned about their prestige—if they
are very status sensitive they will ‘hang on’ to tasks and

Barriers in the responsibilities because they convey to colleagues,

governors and parents significant symbols of power and
effectivity of authority in school.

Delegation  Managers who demonstrate a lack of confidence and trust

in colleagues when they are perceived to be incompetent
and poorly motivated.
 Lack of trust is probably one of the biggest barriers to
allowing colleagues to develop new skills through learning
delegated tasks;
 - Managers who feel and say they are too busy and don’t have enough time
and don’t want the hassles of sharing a task or entrusting a task to someone
else;
- Managers who are workaholics and want all the work they can ‘get hold
of’. They are as reluctant to let other people have parts of their job as they
Barriers in the are to have holidays or weekends free from work;

effectivity of - Managers who may be unwilling to reduce their workload in case the
governors or the headteacher begin to believe that they are less essential to
Delegation the school’s development plan and less indispensable than they were;

-Managers who feel that nobody else can do the job, or any part of it, as
well as they can and so perceive delegating as being too risky; managers
who believe that they should know everything and should have a finger in
everything that is happening in their team, department, subject or school.
  Colleagues who believe that senior and middle managers
There are also should earn their high salaries by doing the work

barriers caused themselves: ‘managers are paid to manage’;

by staff attitudes,  Colleagues who have been exposed to autocratic styles of

management for a long time and are unwilling to change
such as: their expectations of senior and middle management.
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skills/delegating/