SUMMARY ON DELEGATING BY JANET AUSTIN.

DELEGATING
Delegation is the transfer of power or authority of making decisions, to another person. Delegating should not be t any point be confused with participation as it is not sharing of authority but transfer of authority. There are two types of delegators: effective and ineffective. An effective delegator would always use the following five behaviors:
1) Clarify the assignment. He would identify what is to be delegated and to whom. The delegator should choose only that person to transfer the authority, who he thinks is capable of making the right decisions. He should have full confidence in that person. It is his job to clearly transfer all information about what is to be delegated. He should also delegate the expected results.
2) Specify the employee’s range of discretion. An effective delegator would always clarify the employee that he is only given authority on specific tasks. And he needs to practice the delegated authority within specified norms.
3) Allow the employee to participate. The best way to decide what amount of the authority should be given is to let the person, to whom the authority is to be delegated, have a say in the decision. But the delegator should see to it that the employee doesn’t voice his own interest at any point.
4) Inform others that delegation has occurred. All the individuals involved in that project should be ware and well informed that the delegation has taken place. They should also know that how much authority is delegated so that any chaos is avoided.
5) Establish feedback channels. All the goals, results, and deadlines should be well defined by the delegator. The delegator should always ask for feedback reports from his employee so that he is well aware of the progress report and knows everything is going in the right direction and the task is completed on time.