M. Dana Baldwin, Senior Consultant, CSSP, Inc.
Strategic Planning Expert
Note: This article is part of a series taken from Dana Baldwin’s article Improve Morale-Increase Motivation originally published in Compass Points in January 2003. Although this article was written in 2003, these tips are timeless.
In Part One, we defined morale and motivation and said that one way to improve morale is to build trust between employees and the management. In Part Two we will discussed one way to build trust. In this post, we will discuss effective delegation.
Another important area is proper and effective delegation. Many managers are overworked and under-trusted by their employees. This often happens because they do not know how to delegate, or they are afraid to delegate because they will be held accountable for the results and they do not trust others to do the action as well as they can do it. The result of not delegating means that the manager is not responsive to the requirements of his/her subordinates. How to overcome? First, inform your team or your employees that more delegation of responsibility, authority and accountability will be coming. Then, as you delegate a problem, set the expectations out clearly and concisely. Third, be sure that each person to whom you are delegating a specific task understands three things: The scope of the task, the expected results and the time in which the task is to be accomplished. Be very clear in what you communicate. Too often, managers enunciate goals, but do not establish clearly what the expectations are. The result is that too many subordinates do not have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. The outcome of this mess can be a task which is poorly done, not accomplishing the objectives. This ends up with everyone feeling badly about the whole process. The subordinate feels picked on because he/she did not get clear instructions and expectations from the boss. The boss feels that his/her instinct to do it him/herself was right after all, because the outcome was not as it should have been.
In Part Four, we will discuss several reasons that managers don’t delegate.
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M. Dana Baldwin is a Senior Consultant with Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, Inc. He can be reached by email at: baldwin@cssp.com
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