DELEGATION: HOW TO FORM THE HABIT

MOST MANAGERS BELIEVE THEY SHOULD DELEGATE AND ARE CONVINCED THEY DO DELEGATE. MOST MANAGERS THINK THEY KNOW WHEN TO DELEGATE.

WHY SHOULD YOU DELEGATE? Delegation lends to increased efficiency… In the long run In crisis situations (failure may lead to managerial failure and burnout)

WHY SHOULD YOU DELEGATE? 1. Judged by what your unit does. 2. Enables you to have time for thinking, planning, and communicating. 3. Enables you to assume greater responsibility from administration. 4. Professional growth.

“DON’TS” OF DELEGATING A. Don’t delegate to the extent you are frequently having to take back authority. B. Don’t delegate responsibilities without allowing freedom to use initiative and without proportionate authority. C. Don’t allow subordinates more freedom of action than his/her ability or experience can justify. D. Don’t delegate responsibility and then make advance decisions.

“DON’TS” OF DELEGATING E. Don’t criticize your subordinates so frequently that he/she finds it safer and easier to go back to you for the decisions. F. Don’t delegate authority and then constantly check up on the person to see how he/she is getting along. G. Don’t give too little information to keep your subordinate coming back to you. H. Don’t appear to be delegating when you are only getting rid of routine.

STEPS IN DELEGATION 1. Analyze work expectations. 2. List of duties you perform. 3. Establish a priority order of tasks for delegation. 4. Delegate a single function. 5. Determine operating instructions and authority. 6. Select the appropriate person. 7. Instruct and motivate the person. 8. Maintain reasonable control. 9. Integrate the “habit” of delegation into departmental and employee activities.

COMMON TIME WASTERS 1. Scheduling too much time for a task. 2. Being overwhelmed by the amount of work and conflicting demands. 3. People have a tendency to procrastinate doing things that they do not like or want to do. 4. Fear of losing control, or fear that it will not be done right if someone else does it are two of the biggest reasons underlying supervisor’s failure to delegate.

COMMON TIME WASTERS 5. Lack of plans, objectives, goals, and priorities on a daily, weekly, monthly, and longer periods. 6. Poorly defined or ambiguous plans, goals, objectives, priorities. 7. Poor organization of thoughts and activities. 8. Fear of loss of status, prestige, and even one’s job are significant causes of wasting time. 9. Inability to say NO.

COMMON TIME WASTERS 10. Poor habits are another major time waster. 11. Too many interruptions. 12. The telephone is a very useful instrument for communication, but it is also a major source of interruption and time wasting. 13. Many supervisors who have offices keep their door open all the time. 14. Time is often wasted by too much socializing.

COMMON TIME WASTERS 15. Receiving and reading unnecessary mail. 16. Meetings on the job are a fact of life. While some meetings are essential, many are unnecessary. 17. As has been shown consistently by various tests and observations most people are poor readers. A poor reader wastes time because he reads slowly and is slow to comprehend what he has read.

COMMON TIME WASTERS 18. Failure to measure and assess how time has been spent is another time waster. 19. Indecision is another time waster. 20. Wasting time attending to details that could be handled by others or should be disregarded.

COMMUNICATION AS A MANAGEMENT FUNCTION Communication as a management function is a conscious effort to shape (maintain and/or change) the behavior of employees through the assembly, interpretation, and transmission of information (ideas, feelings, facts, and thoughts) in the attainment of unit and organizational goals.

OVERVIEW Over 80 percent do it; only 5 percent believe in it. Over 80 percent do it; only 5 percent believe in it. Become conscious of your existing management skills so you can consciously practice better ones. Become conscious of your existing management skills so you can consciously practice better ones. Develop a “managerial lifestyle” Develop a “managerial lifestyle” Situational leadership Situational leadership Depersonalize process and personalize implementation Depersonalize process and personalize implementation

ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOR That behavior which enables a person to act in their own best interests, to stand up for themselves without undue anxiety, to express their honest feelings comfortably, or to exercise their own rights without denying the rights of others. (Alberti & Emmons, 1974)

ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOR IS DIRECT, HONEST, AND APPROPRIATE

OBJECTIVES OF ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOR 1. Saying what’s on your mind. 2. Being reasonable but persuasive. 3. Taking responsibility for your actions. 4. Coming to the point.

By virtue of your position, you have a right to express yourself without fear of alienation.

AIMS OF ON-THE-JOB ASSERTIVENESS 1. Putting you in an active orientation. 2. Increasing your ability to do your job. 3. Controlling anxiety. 4. Developing good interpersonal relations. 5. Maneuvering through the system.