Delegation

• Work Environment—Establish a positive work environment where employees are not paralyzed by fear of failure or dismissive of tasks that they think is beneath them. Owners and managers need to emphasize tools of motivation and communication to nourish employee enthusiasm.
• Plan for Delegation—A company that is armed with a strong, clear vision of its future—and the role that its employees will play in that future—is far more likely to be successful than the business that does not plan ahead.
• Review Responsibilities—Business owners and managers need to objectively examine which tasks that they have previously taken care of can be delegated to others. "Reserve for yourself those tasks which require the experience, skill, and training which only you possess," wrote W.H. Weiss in the Supervisor's Standard Reference Handbook.
• Selection of Appropriate Employees for New Responsibilities—As every personnel manager knows, some members of the work force are better suited to take on new responsibilities than others. When reviewing potential candidates to take on additional responsibilities, business owners should consider level of employee motivation and ambition, skill sets, level of allegiance to the company, and emotional maturity.
• Established Policies—Detailed manuals of policies and procedures can go far toward eliminating the uncertainties that hamstring some delegation efforts.
• Prepare for Bumps in the Road—Even the best-planned delegation efforts can go awry, leading to short-term productivity/profitability losses. Indeed, risk is an inherent element of the delegation process, and some errors or misjudgments may occur as workers adjust to their new responsibilities. "Employees need to be reassured that the manager will be there to offer assistance or clarification, and that mistakes during the learning period are to be expected," said Carter. "Mistakes should be viewed as opportunities to teach, not punish."
• Training—Delegation of tasks and responsibilities is far more likely to be successful if the employees have the knowledge necessary to fulfill their new duties. "The fact that no one has the skills to complete a task you are handling doesn't mean you should avoid delegation—it means you should train," wrote Alice Bredin in Los Angeles Business Journal. "While building the skills of an employee requires an investment of time, that investment will pay off."
• Communication—"Be clear and concise when delegating," said Weiss. "Right from the beginning you must clarify what decisions you are delegating and what you are reserving for yourself. Delegating fails when the person to whom you have delegated a task fails to perform it or makes a decision beyond the scope of authority granted." Conversely, delegation can also fail if the business owner hands off a responsibility, but does not give his or her employee the necessary level of authority to execute that responsibility. "If you overlook this, you may cause the person delegated to suffer frustration and stress because he or she was given an assignment yet not given the authority and power needed to accomplish it properly," wrote Weiss in Supervision.
• Provide advisory role—Small business owners should make sure that they keep lines of communication open at all times after delegating responsibilities. Employee questions and uncertainties about their new responsibilities are perfectly natural, so owners should make themselves available for questions and maintain a nonjudgmental, helpful stance.

Ultimately, small business owners need to recognize that delegation can help a business grow and prosper, and that good employees, when used intelligently, can be a significant advantage in the marketplace. "The manager who wants to learn to delegate more should remember this distinction," wrote Thomas S. Bateman and Carl P. Zeithaml in Management: Function and Strategy. "If you are not delegating, you are merely doing things; the more you delegate, the more you are truly building and managing an organization."

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