Empowering People Skills

Developing Your Empowering People Skills

Delegation is vital to tackling his or her own increasing responsibilities and meeting objectives. Our team was given a scenario where Ricky, the manager of the contracts group, was asked by his boss, Anne, to prepare a new procedures manual regarding negotiating contracts for manufacturers who supply the organization's products. As Ricky was consumed by other projects, he identified Bill as an appropriate employee to take on the task. We will identify how our team would handle Ricky's need to delegate the task to Bill. Successful delegation must include clarifying the assignment, specifying the employee's range of discretion, allowing the employee to participate, informing others that delegation has occurred and lastly establishing feedback channels. The authors of this paper will outline these five behaviors of delegation in further detail.

In the scenario provided in the text, our team determined that in clarifying the assignment, it is important for a delegator to understand what they are asking someone else to do and to whom it will be given. Ricky has already completed an important task: identifying the most appropriate employee for a job, Bill, who has worked in the contract groups for around three years. Ricky needs to inform Bill about the expectations regarding deadlines, performance and end results. In delegating the task to Bill, an agreement needs to come from both parties, but allow Bill discretion on how to complete the assignment.

Now that Bill has been assigned the tasks of creating the procedures manual, Ricky needs to clarify his authoritative position on the assignment. Although, Bill can make impactful decisions regarding the manual, it may not give him overall authority. Our team acknowledges the importance of clarifying the employee's range of discretion. Ricky will need to determine and specify which decisions Bill will be responsible for in completing the project to eliminate any...