At a weekend residential course a group of junior and middle managers was attending a workshop on Indonesia delegation. They came from a wide range of backgrounds - heavy industry, public utilities, electronics, local government and manufacturing. As a warm-up session, they were asked to describe from their own experience what Indonesia delegation meant to them. Here are some of their responses:
1. I get the boring and dirty jobs my boss doesn't like doing.
2. When I was given a really interesting assignment that was in my spatiality, the boss was on my back the whole time telling me how to do it. I didn't really get a chance to get my teeth into it.
3. Every so often I get a heap of papers through the internal mail, mostly routine returns and requests which have sat on my supervisor's desk until he's noticed the deadline is long overdue and somebody had better do something about it - that's usually me, and I'm on a hiding to nothing before I even start.
4. I don't know - boss keeps everything to herself. I don't even know what she does most of the time.
The biggest work problem these people had was the boss. The sad thing is that the work overload and low morale cascade down the organization like an avalanche, crushing the poor blighters at the bottom. At each level people have little scope to do anything other than pass it down the line along with their resentment.
Proper Indonesia delegation is the keystone of effective management. There are good reasons why this should be so and like most good reasons they include a lot of self-interest:
1. It gives you time to do work only you can or should do, and lets you concentrate on priorities of you own, like thinking, keeping two steps ahead of the game, and looking down to see what you're about to step into.
2. It frees you to move about your patch, to network through the organization, and to demonstrate your availability for promotion.
3. It increases the pool of knowledge and experience in the team and build your reputation for having good people, which attaches other good people.
4. It optimizes the use you make of each of your subordinates' skills and initiative, and gives you a chance to assess their promotion potential.
5. It demonstrates trust in your staff and recognition of their worth. Both are prized rewards and powerful motivators.
6. It develops in them new skills, greater confidence and better understanding of what you are trying to achieve.
Indonesia delegation is not an optional extra: it is the only way to run and effective organization. But there are ways of doing it which, while not detracting from the other benefits, maximize the developmental aspects for your subordinates.
Delegating a task or function does not absolve you from responsibility for the outcome. You don't give your responsibility away, but you do have to share your power to enable the delegate to operate effectively. You lend it out, and if you want it maintained in good order, you must exercise sound judgment as to what each person can achieve and how much training, preparation and supervision are needed in each instance.
1. I get the boring and dirty jobs my boss doesn't like doing.
2. When I was given a really interesting assignment that was in my spatiality, the boss was on my back the whole time telling me how to do it. I didn't really get a chance to get my teeth into it.
3. Every so often I get a heap of papers through the internal mail, mostly routine returns and requests which have sat on my supervisor's desk until he's noticed the deadline is long overdue and somebody had better do something about it - that's usually me, and I'm on a hiding to nothing before I even start.
4. I don't know - boss keeps everything to herself. I don't even know what she does most of the time.
The biggest work problem these people had was the boss. The sad thing is that the work overload and low morale cascade down the organization like an avalanche, crushing the poor blighters at the bottom. At each level people have little scope to do anything other than pass it down the line along with their resentment.
Proper Indonesia delegation is the keystone of effective management. There are good reasons why this should be so and like most good reasons they include a lot of self-interest:
1. It gives you time to do work only you can or should do, and lets you concentrate on priorities of you own, like thinking, keeping two steps ahead of the game, and looking down to see what you're about to step into.
2. It frees you to move about your patch, to network through the organization, and to demonstrate your availability for promotion.
3. It increases the pool of knowledge and experience in the team and build your reputation for having good people, which attaches other good people.
4. It optimizes the use you make of each of your subordinates' skills and initiative, and gives you a chance to assess their promotion potential.
5. It demonstrates trust in your staff and recognition of their worth. Both are prized rewards and powerful motivators.
6. It develops in them new skills, greater confidence and better understanding of what you are trying to achieve.
Indonesia delegation is not an optional extra: it is the only way to run and effective organization. But there are ways of doing it which, while not detracting from the other benefits, maximize the developmental aspects for your subordinates.
Delegating a task or function does not absolve you from responsibility for the outcome. You don't give your responsibility away, but you do have to share your power to enable the delegate to operate effectively. You lend it out, and if you want it maintained in good order, you must exercise sound judgment as to what each person can achieve and how much training, preparation and supervision are needed in each instance.
