Success at Work : Techniques : Delegation

By Stephen Bucaro

Many people don't understand delegation. When they think of delegation, they think of old slogan "shit always flows down hill". Proper delegation can make your team into a high performance machine. Poor delegation can result in mistakes, poor quality, and missed schedules. In this article, I'm going to reveal some powerful delegation techniques.

Most people think delegation always flows downward. An executive delegates a task to a manager, who delegates task to a supervisor, who delegates task to a worker. That is typically way delegation flows, but powerful advantages can be gained when delegation flows sideways and upwards too.

Responsibility Flow

Although sometimes there are advantages to sideways and upwards delegation, responsibility always flows upwards. Let's say a worker makes a serious mistake and doesn't meet schedule. Should worker be fired?

The supervisor was given a task along with authority and resources (the department's workers) to get task done. The supervisor's manager is not going accept supervisor putting blame on employee. The supervisor should have been monitoring task and taking action if it wasn't going right. Should supervisor be fired?

The manager was given a task along with authority and resources (the manager's department) to get task done. The executive who assigned task is not going accept manager putting blame on supervisor. A manager has responsibility to make and break supervisors in their department. If manager didn't select and train a supervisor they can rely on to get job done, it's managers fault. Should manager be fired?

The executive in charge of manager needs to explain to CEO or President of company that job did not get done right. I think you're beginning to see pattern. Although delegation usually flows downhill, responsibility always flows uphill.

That's not to say that an under performing employee can't get fired for making a mistake or failing to get work done on time. But somewhere up chain of command someone should have taken action to get task back on track before it became a problem.

- When you delegate a task, someone else does work, but you are still responsible for results.

Downward Delegation

One of biggest mistakes made with downward delegation is bypassing chain of command. For example, a manager bypasses supervisor and delegates a job directly to a worker. That manager has just made two mistakes.

The manager relieved supervisor of all responsibility for that task and all other tasks, because a supervisor can't be held responsible if they can't control their resources. The manager also removed supervisor's authority over worker because worker now feels that they report directly to manager, same as supervisor does.

- If you are an executive or manager, never bypass chain of command. This will destroy effectiveness of your department, and since responsibility always flows uphill, you will be cutting your own throat.

Sideways Delegation

Let's say you are given a task and a part of this task requires a skill in which you are not proficient. You might choose to sideways delegate task to a more proficient resource. Sometimes this is done officially via a multi- departmental project team. Sometimes a manager just asks manager of another department to perform that part of task. Even a worker may ask a co-worker to perform part of a task for them.

Sideways delegation can improve a company's performance if done properly. To be done properly, all parties involved must be informed of delegation and advantage to gained by company from sideways delegated task. Even when all these conditions are met, original owner of task remains responsible for task.

Upwards Delegation