Delegating? It’s Not All Up To You!
Delegating responsibility
Delegating |Ronald Reagan|The Fellas One afternoon in 1983 just ahead of the Group 7 summit meeting chief of staff James Baker dropped in on Ronald Reagan to deliver a set of briefing notes. The United States was hosting the conference. Baker was worried about his bosses notorious lack of preparation and was aware that “Reaganomics” was not universally well liked. He had spent a great deal of time to ensure that the briefing was concise and comprehensive. Next morning , Baker was amazed to find the papers exactly as he had left them and admonished his boss with his failure to do any preparations. Reagan was totally nonplussed and replied” Well Jim, the Sound Of Music was on last night.” Reagan had the gift of likability always prepared with a crack or a smile. He was a master of delegation and imagination. He adhered firmly to a few clear objectives- decreasing the size of government, facing down communism and restoring American pride and then left the implementation to the “Fellas” Reagan is remembered as a transformative president. He restored confidence after the malaise of the Carter years, re-energized the presidency after the trauma of Watergate and revolutionized assumptions about what the government could and could not achieve. New economic policy supercharged incentives for entrepreneurs and his huge arms build up put timely pressure on a crumbling Soviet Union. All this and the man who presided over such
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dramatic change was often out to lunch. Ronald Reagan didn’t so much do things as persuade other people to do them for him. Why am i telling you this? Simply because you will be setting yourself up for failure in the event that you try to do everything yourself. It’s not all up to you. In the present day independent world there is a shared responsibility to getting things accomplished. How often we think “I’m able to do that much better than anybody else and so I may as well do it myself.” Understanding the need for delegation allows you to focus on things that will make the biggest difference. Nobody is efficient at everything. Delegating makes it possible to allow the member of your team most capable of performing the job show his stuff. The higher you rise in any business the more vital it will be to delegate responsibility. The readiness to delegate demonstrates to superiors that you are capable of handling large complex projects Inability to delegate will consign you to the lower ranks. Here are a few tips that will help when yo are delegating responsibility. 1. Don’t abdicate: If things fail, ultimately it’s your fault. Before you delegate any task access the chances of failure. 2. Excellent tasks to delegate: Distinct, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. Fuzzy vague jobs are impossible to accomplish and the mess that results will take up more time that you would have saved by delegating. 3. Pick the right person for the job: Pick someone who has the talent and skills and will perform the job very easily even though they may need a little direction. 4. I say “Tomato” and you say “Tamata”: Make sure that there is clear understanding of the tack and some of the steps required to complete it. Communicate due dates, checkpoints the tools needed and the complexity of the job. 5. Do not interfere: You can set up report backs where you’ll have the opportunity to give suggestions and answer questions but let the person or team you assigned lead the discussion. 6. Review after the job is completed: What worked what did not work. What would you do differently next time. That way everybody learns from the experience.
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By delegating top performers avoid becoming embroiled in the day to day operational aspects of the organization so that they have the time to perform a more strategic management function.
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