Delegation

Delegation is an important factor in managing any type of business or organization. But what is delegation? According to Google dictionary Delegation is "The process by which an object passes on a message it has received to a sub-ordinate object." To me, delegation means telling someone to do a task and expecting them to be able to complete that task on their own. In this paper I will be illustrating how managers in my organization use delegation skills effectively in planning, organizing, leading and controlling. I will describe what skills are necessary for effective delegation.

A manager is always looking to use all possible resources available to them and one of the skills necessary to use is delegation. During the planning stage of any project a manager will effectively use his delegation abilities to complete that task at hand. Define the task, conform in he own mind that the task is suitable to be delegated. Giving employees task that are considered foundations for the entire project is very important since with out this type of support the project manager will be over whelmed with the various task that have been laid out at the planning stage.

At the organizing stage of a project a manager needs to see what will be the best way to organize the available resources which can include giving delegation authority to the subordinates. A manager needs to be able to visualize outcomes with different employees in delegating position. Select the individual or team; confirm the reason for delegating to this person or team. Giving an employee this type of authority is very important since the outcomes will reflect back to the manager. The project manager makes the delegating decisions to improve his availability to do other tasks that need more attention than others.

Managers need to show leadership by having the ability to delegate responsibilities that otherwise would be neglected. A manager needs to recognize when he cannot accomplish tasks on his own and during this stage of a project being able to realize such a deficiency is demonstrating to subordinates that delegating authority is a tool that everyone needs to be skilled. A manager will always show his strengths by being able to view the need to delegate task to the appropriate people who are in the position to carry them out in a timely manner.

During the controlling stage of the project a manager will need to constantly view the progress of each assignment being carried out. This is accomplished by assigning employees to conduct company wide audits that will yield the stages of assignments and employees that are running them. A manager will be involved in these audits; however, he will not conduct all them. Informing all parties lets them know how they are doing, and whether they have achieved their goals. If not, one must review with them why things did not go to plan, and deal with the problems. One must take the responsibility of failure, and pass on the credit for success. Delegating such tasks will save the manager time that he can be using to concentrate on other projects.

Skills necessary to be an effective delegate are as follows: Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, Time bound, Ethical and Recorded. Specific, be specific with the task that is to be delegated this will ensure that the individual performing it will not be confused or mistaken about the desired results. Measurable, make sure that the task being delegated is measurable this will give the project manager the ability to view the progress and performance of the desired task. Agreed, all

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