Effective Delegation – How to Do That in A Business?

Effective delegation is one of the most important skills of modern managers. They need to delegate some of the tasks to workers in a lower level of the organizational structure. It is impossible to deal with every single task by themselves due to limited time, lack of expertise and other constraints.

What is delegation?

Delegation means distribution of associated control for decisions from a manager or supervisors (who has the right to do so) to others – subordinates. The transfer of authority to perform a task and accountability for a task to be completed to another person happens from higher to lower levels in the organization.

The manager does not delegate responsibility which remains with the manager although the actual work is done by the authorized person. Although delegation of authority frees the manager from use his time on high priority activities, it does not free him from accountability for the actions and decisions of subordinates. Any blame for underperformance of his team or mistakes within the department should rest fully with the manager.

Example 1: Marketing Director delegates authority for specific tasks to the two Sales Managers. They, in turn, delegate authority for the performance of certain tasks to the sales staff. However, it is important to know that responsibility for the successful completion of a task remains with the manager. If mistakes are made, or the task is not completed, then the manager who delegated the task will have to take the blame.

Detailed questions to ask before delegating

Here are main questions that should be asked before delegating any of the tasks:

Who is delegating? (e.g. manager, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), doctor, department head, etc.)
Who is being delegated to? (e.g. specialist worker, direct, subordinate, nurse, teacher, etc.)
What is being delegated? (e.g. specific tasks, authority, decision-making power, etc.)
What are the relevant boundaries or limitations? (e.g. time, budget, resources, ethical considerations, etc.)

Scope of delegation

The scope of delegation refers to the boundaries and limitations of the authority transferred from one person (the delegator) to another person (the delegate). It defines the specific tasks, responsibilities, and decisions that the delegate is empowered to handle.

While a manager might be able to control the work of five or six employees, it may be impossible for him to closely control the work of each of 15 subordinates every day.

Generally, the wider the span of control, the greater the degree of delegation that is undertaken. And, the narrower the span of control, the lower the degree of delegation.

Why is delegation important?

As a business grows, managers will pass on roles, responsibilities, control and authority to others in the organization because they are not able to effectively control all aspects of the business organization. Effective delegation is a very important principle that can have far-reaching benefits for both managers and employees:

Delegation saves time. Because it not possible for managers to complete all business tasks single-handedly, delegation allows them to focus on more complex tasks of greater importance. When a manager does not have to tackle every single task by himself, he can focus on more complex strategic issues of greater importance facing the organization.
Delegation motivates employees. Delegation can develop employees who feel that they are more trusted and see that their talents have been recognized. Without delegation, there will be confusion and a feeling of inadequacy leading to demotivated staff, resulting in a failure to achieve the tasks set as tasks will not be completed.
Delegation empowers workers. Empowerment can be achieved not only by not only delegating tasks and authority to individual employees and groups of workers, but also by assisting workers with developing their abilities. Allowing workers to decide on the best method to use to complete the job gives them even more chance to show initiative.
Delegations develops workers’ skills. Delegation can motivate workers who are given the opportunity to take on responsibility for tasks. It is a way to improve workers’ knowledge and skills increasing the flexibility of the workforce. In this way, quality of the work an be improved because lower-level workers have better skills than their managers for completing certain tasks.

Key principles guiding delegation of authority

Let’s take a look at some key principles of delegation:

Exception principle. Someone must be in charge. A person higher in the organization handles exceptions to the usual. The most exceptional, rare, or unusual decisions end up at the top management level because no one lower in the organization has the authority to handle them.
Scalar chain of command. The exception principle functions in concert with the concept of scalar chain of command meaning that formal distribution of organizational authority is in a hierarchical fashion. The higher one is in an organization, the more authority one has.
Decentralization. Decisions are to be pushed down to the lowest feasible level in the organization. The organizational structure goal is to have working managers rather than managed workers.
Parity principle. Delegated authority must equal responsibility. With responsibility for a job must go the authority to accomplish the job.
Unity principle. Ideally, no one in an organization should report to more than one supervisor. Employees should not have to decide which of their supervisors to make unhappy because of the impossibility of following all the instructions given them.
Line and staff authority. Line authority is authority within an organization’s or unit’s chain of command. Staff authority is advisory to line authority. Assume a crew leader reports to the garden store manager who in turn reports to the president. Further assume that the crew leader and store manager can hire and fire, and give raises to the people they supervise. Both the crew leader and store manager have line authority. To contrast, assume that the president has an accountant who prepares monthly financial summaries with recommendations for corrective action. The accountant has staff authority but not line authority.

Advantages of delegation

Let’s take a look at advantages of delegation:

Lowers workload for managers. By delegating authority to staff and entrusting them to perform, delegation gives managers and supervisors more time to focus on making important decisions. Otherwise, they would have not time for more strategic matters.
Higher motivation. When a supervisor shows trust in subordinates. It encourages staff to be accountable for their work-based activities. And, this can motivate and challenge workers to achieve fulfillment through their work helping with self-actualization.
Additional staff training. When delegating a task or project to be completed, it helps to develop and prepare workers for taking over more senior positions in the future.

Disadvantages of delegation

Let’s take a look at disadvantages of delegation:

Meaningless tasks are delegated. For the task that not well-defined, or if inadequate training is given to complete them, then delegation will most turn out to be unsuccessful. Very often, managers will tend to only delegate the boring jobs that they do not want to do by themselves.
Insufficient authority. When not sufficient power is given to subordinates who are now responsible for performing the tasks, delegating will be unsuccessful. The workers will not have enough of what it takes to accomplish the job.
Poor outcomes. While employees are accountable to the manager for their good performance, it does not mean that the quality of the job done will be very high. And, at the end of the day, it is the manager who retains ultimate responsibility for the work done in the department whether it was delegated to others or not.

How to make delegation SMARTER?

Delegation to be effective needs to be specific, measurable, agreed, realistic, time bound, ethical and recorded. Here is how to make delegation smarter:

(S) Specific. Tasks must be clearly defined so that subordinates can carry them out.
(M) Measurable. Results must be quantifiable to measure the extent to which the delegated task has been achieved.
(A) Agreed. Both managers and subordinates must agree to the delegated task to avoid any potential conflict. They should also agree on the amount of power and freedom that goes with the assigned work.
(R) Realistic. Delegated tasks must be reasonably achievable, otherwise workers will not be dedicated to completing them.
(T) Time-bound. A time-frame must be set so that tasks are completed in a timely manner.
(E) Ethical. Tasks must be delegated fairly to prevent dissatisfaction and resentment. Delegating only dull and not challenging tasks simply demoralizes and demotivates staff.
(R) Recorded. Tasks should be documented to provide guidance and to aid recognition of them being accomplished. This also allows staff to be credited for their achievements.

Why managers are not willing to delegate?

Managers are sometimes not keen to delegate tasks. Here are two reasons why?

The job will not be done properly. Many managers believe that employees will not be able to accomplish the tasks up to the standard. There is a famous saying that ‘if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself’. Additionally, some supervisors may not trust their subordinates to do a good job.
Fear of losing control of decision-making. By delegating tasks some, managers may fear that they will lose control over decision-making. It is because they feel threatened when subordinates complete a task to a better standard than the manager. However, once these issues of trust are overcome, then delegation can mutually benefit both the manager and subordinates.

In summary, delegation is giving the authority to subordinates to make decisions regarding the completion of tasks. Successful delegation requires the worker not only to be given the authority to complete the task, but also the resources and cooperation of other workers.