Delegating Skills

Delegating Skills
Delegating skill is a learned trait in which managers will use to confidently assign task to particular employees. An accomplished manager will be able to view the task at hand, select the most capable employee, and entrust the delegated employee with the planning, execution, and completion of the task. Delegating a task not only allows the employee to feel empowered and trusted by his or her superior, but also enables the manager to tackle other projects during the employee successful completes the assignment. Managers have many responsibilities; therefore, learning and improving delegating skills is necessary for a successful career as an effective manager. In most cases, managers with strong delegating skills will match the perfect task with the right employee. In this essay, Team B will analysis and discuss the Ricky Lee scenario using the five behaviors used by effective delegators.
Ricky properly chose and delegated the task of writing the department’s new procedures manual to the most capable person. There are three reasons the delegation executed was proper. The first reason is that Ricky went to his supervisor, Anne Zumwalt, asking permission to assign and entrust a third party with the responsibility of completing the manual (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). Secondly, the third party Ricky selected was Bill Harmon, who had three years’ experience in the contracts group (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). Lastly, Ricky set up a meeting with Bill to ensure he had all the parameters of the task and the time restraints that Bill would be up against (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). The meeting illustrates Ricky knows it is important for Bill to know what is expected and in what timeframe those expectations should be complete.
Anne illustrates the carefulness in delegating the project of the new procedures manual by inserting a cautionary “as long as Bill knew the parameters and the expectations for the completion of the project” to Ricky (Robbins & Coulter, 2012, p. 283). As a result, Ricky has set up a meeting with Bill to review the information for the parameters and the expectations for the completion of the department’s new procedures manual. Ricky is preparing for the meeting thus this shows he is ensuring he provides Bill with all the tools to successful complete the task on his own within the time limit. The appropriate channels are used in this scenario for delegating authority to Bill to complete the project. Each party involved followed the proper chain of command.
After corroborating with Anne that Bill has three years’ experience with the contract group, Anne grants Ricky permission to reassign the project to Bill. Ricky’s meeting will enable Bill to understand Anne’s expectations for the new procedure manual, his responsibility in the assignment, and timeframe of complete by the end of the month. As the delegated employee, Bill will organize the project including the development, engineering, operation, and release management. In some areas, Bill might ask for some assistance from his coworkers and may even need to delegate some tasks to those members. After Bill obtains some participation from the others, he will successfully finish the assignment. As an effective manager, Ricky will review the assignment before submitting to Anne for her input and the final decision.
After Bill acquires the responsibility of the new procedure manual, Ricky will tell every employee about that Bill is responsible for the new procedure manual. At which time, Ricky will ask Bill, who he would like to use to help complete the project. After some thought, Bill will choose who aids him in the completion of the task. As a result, Bill may call a short meeting with the other employees about the assignment, the expectations, and the time constraint. At this meeting, Bill will share what he has done and what needs to be done to get the assignment done successfully by the end of the month. After informing the group, Bill possibly will let anyone suggest his/her ideas about completing the project.
After Bill completes the assignment but before he submits it to Ricky, Bill plans to hold a small meeting with a coworker who participated ensuring everyone knows the project is finished and ask about any feedback for the assignment. As said by Robbins and Coulter, “in participative decision making, authority is shared” (Robbins & Coulter, 2012, p. 283). Therefore, Bill wants everyone’s feedback to make sure nothing is missing, and everything looks good before he presents the assignment the Ricky. Ricky will not ask for feedback about the process of the project from Bill because he delegated authority to Bill. According to Robbins and Coulter, “in delegation, employees make decisions on their own” (Robbins & Coulter, 2012, p. 283). In the same fashion, Anne will not want the feedback of the what, when, who, and how but merely want to see the completed project. In turn, Anne may provide Ricky with any changes and suggestions. Ricky will then take the information and pass it on to Bill. Bill will make the necessary changes for Ricky. Anne will want to view the proposal before it is enacted and make the final decision.
Learning how to delegate is an important trait for managers. Managers are unable to perform every task he or she is in charge of so he or she must rely on employees. A manager must entrust his or her employees with responsibility knowing who, what, and when to delegate is a learned technique. The manager can use the five behaviors: clarify the assignment, specify the employee’s range of discretion, allow the employee to participate, inform others that delegation has occurred, and establish feedback channels to improve his or her delegating skills. A manager can become an effective, successful manager by learning to delegate.

References
Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. (2012). Management (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ : Prentice

Hall.