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When you delegate you should ensure that the individuals or team concerned understand: why the work needs to be done;

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what they are expected to do; •

the date by which they are expected to do it; •

the end results they are expected to achieve; •

the authority they have to make decisions; •

the problems they must refer back; •

the progress or completion reports they should submit; •

any guidance and support that will be available to them. •

You have to consider how much guidance will be required on how the work should be done. You don’t want to give directions in such laborious detail that you run the risk of stifl ing initia- tive. Neither do you want to infuriate people by explaining everything needlessly. As long as you are reasonably certain that they will do the job to your satisfaction without embarrassing you or seriously upsetting people, exceeding the budget or breaking the law, let them get on with it. Follow Robert Heller’s (1972) golden rule: ‘If you can’t do something yourself, fi nd someone who can and then let them get on with it in their own sweet way’.

You can make a distinction between hard and soft delegation. Hard delegation takes place when you tell someone exactly what to do and how to do it. You spell it out, confi rm it in writing and make a note in your diary of the date when you expect the job to be completed. And then you follow up regularly.

Soft delegation takes place when you agree generally what has to be done and leave the individual to get on with it. You still agree limits of authority, define the outcomes you expect, indicate how you will review progress and lay down when exception reports should be made. An exception report is one that only deals with events out of the ordinary. It is based on the principle of management by exception, which means focusing on the key events and measures that will show up good, bad or indifferent results – the exceptions to the norm – as a guide to taking action. This approach frees people to concentrate on the issues that matter.

98 Approaches to Management

You should always delegate by the results you expect. When you are dealing with an experi- enced and capable person you don’t need to specify how the results should be achieved. In the case of less experienced people you have to exercise judgement on the amount of guidance required. Newcomers with little or no experience will need plenty of guidance. They are on a ‘learning curve’, ie they are gradually acquiring the knowledge and skills they need to reach the required level of performance. You are responsible for seeing that they progress steadily up the learning curve, bearing in mind that everyone will be starting from a different point and learn- ing at a different rate. It is during this period that you act as a coach or an instructor, helping people to learn and develop. Even if you do not need to specify how the results should be achieved, it is a good idea when the delegation involves getting someone to solve a problem to ask them how they propose to solve it.

Monitoring performance

Delegation is not abdication. You are still accountable for the results obtained by the members of your team collectively and individually. The extent to which you need to monitor perform- ance and how you do so depends on the individuals concerned and the nature of the task. If individuals or the team as a whole are inexperienced generally or are being specifi cally asked to undertake an unfamiliar task, you may at fi rst have to monitor performance carefully. But the sooner you can relax and watch progress informally the better. The ideal situation is when you are confi dent that the individual or team will deliver the results you want with the minimum of supervision. In such cases you may only ask for periodical exception reports. For a specifi c task or project, set target dates and keep a reminder of these in your diary so that you can check that they have been met. Don’t allow people to become careless about meeting deadlines.

Without becoming oppressive, you should ensure that progress and exception reports are made when required so that you can agree any necessary corrective action. You should have indicated the extent to which people have the authority to act without reference to you. They must therefore expect to be criticized if they exceed their brief or fail to keep you informed. You don’t want any surprises and your people must understand that keeping you in the dark is unacceptable.

Try to restrain yourself from interfering unnecessarily in the way the work is being done. After all, it is the results that count. Of course, you must step in if there is any danger of things going off the rails. Rash decisions, over-expenditure and ignoring defi ned and reasonable constraints must be prevented.

There is a delicate balance to be achieved between hedging people around with restrictions, which may appear petty, and allowing them licence to do what they like. There are no absolute rules as to where this balance should be struck. Managing people is an art, not a science. But you should at least have some notion of what is appropriate based on your knowledge of the

Management Skills 99 people concerned and the situation you are in. It’s a judgement call but the judgement is based on a full understanding of the facts. The best delegators are those who have a comprehensive knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of their team members and of the circumstances in which they work.

Above all, avoid ‘river banking’. This happens when a boss gives a subordinate a task that is more or less impossible to do. As the subordinate is going down for the third time, the boss can be observed in a remote and safe position on the river bank saying: ‘It’s easy, really; all you need to do is to try a bit harder.’