do the job without breaking the law, exceeding the budget,
embarrassing you or seriously upsetting people, let them get on
with it. Follow Robert Heller’s golden rule: ‘If you can’t do some-
thing yourself, find someone who can – and then let him do it in
his own sweet way.’
You can make a distinction between hardand softdelegation.
Hard delegation takes place when you tell someone exactly what
to do, how to do it and when you want the results. You spell it
out, confirm 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 achieved and leave your subordinate to get on with it. You
should still agree limits of authority, define the decisions to be
referred to you, say what exception reports you want (see
Chapter 7), and indicate when and how you will review
progress. Then you sit back until the results are due and observe
from afar, only coming closer for periodical progress meetings,
or when the exception report suggests that something needs
looking into, or when a problem or decision is referred to you.
You should always delegate by the results you expect. Even if
you do not need to specify exactlyhow the results should be
achieved, it is a good idea when delegating a problem to ask
your subordinates how they propose to solve it. You then have
the opportunity to provide guidance at the outset; guidance at a
later stage may be seen as interference.
Guidance and development
Delegation not only helps you to get your work done; it can be
used to improve your subordinates’ performance and therefore
your trust in their ability to carry out more responsible work.
Instruction, training and development are part of the process of
delegation.
Monitoring performance
At first you may have to monitor your subordinates’ perform-
ance carefully. But the sooner you can relax and watch progress
informally the better.
You will have set target dates, and you should keep a reminder
of these in your diary so that you can ensure they are achieved.
62 How to be an Even Better Manager