Choosing who does the work
Ideally, the person you choose to do the work should have the
knowledge, skills, motivation and time needed to get it done to
your complete satisfaction. Frequently, however, you will have to
use someone who has less than ideal experience, knowledge or
skills. In these cases you should try to select an individual who
has intelligence, natural aptitude and, above all, willingness to
learn how to do the job with help and guidance. This is how
people develop, and the development of your staff should be
your conscious aim whenever you delegate.
You are looking for someone you can trust. You don’t want to
over-supervise, so you have to believe that the person you select
will get on with it and have the sense to come to you when stuck
or before making a bad mistake.
How do you know whom you can trust? The best way is to try
people out first on smaller and less important tasks, increasingly
giving them more scope so that they learn how far they can go
and you can observe how they do it. If they get on well, their
sense of responsibility and powers of judgement will increase
and improve and you will be able to trust them with more
demanding and responsible tasks.
Giving out the work
When you delegate you should ensure that your subordinates
understand:
■ Why the work needs to be done.
■ What they are expected to do.
■ The date by which they are expected to do it.
■ The authority they have to make decisions.
■ The problems they must refer back.
■ The progress or completion reports they should submit.
■ How you propose to guide and monitor them.
■ The resources and help they will have to complete the work.
Subordinates may need guidance on how the work should be
done. The extent to which you spell it out will clearly depend on
how much they already know about how to do the work. You
don’t want to give directions in such laborious detail that you
run the risk of stifling initiative. As long as you are sure they will
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