Archive for the ‘Human Performance and Potential’ Category
When a business owner or leader is crowded with operational issues that could have been effectively handled by the subordinates, chances are strategies are at amiss. They are either not fully developed yet, fully developed but not clearly understood, or are given secondary importance.
It is because a leader who fully understands the company’s strategies knows when a practice is supportive or contrary to business priorities. When growing the business, outcompeting rivals, and developing the organization’s assets are among a company’s priorities, a strategy-driven leader will act with the goal of minimizing pressure from attending to countless responsibilities that can potentially weigh down the company’s performance.
The classic approach is always a team effort. Solomon knew this, and in applying the principle of task delegation, his whole household and all of Israel lived in an era of wealth. It is this simple: when every member of an organization is delegated responsibilities appropriately, each can produce results and provide for the company paving to the achievement of the company’s productivity goals.
As it was pointed out in the first part of this article series, there are three elements to effective delegation namely appropriateness, evaluation, and non-interference. These three elements deduced from Reagan’s words is discussed below:
1.) Delegate Task Appropriately. Delegating tasks is not a random act. It is a well-thought-out plan carried out after the assessment of a prospective subordinate’s strengths and weaknesses. The needs of the task should match with the subordinate’s technical, personal, and relational skills. Will a subordinate function as a project leader for six months? In this case, a specialist (an employee with specialized skill) may serve the purpose of the task delegation better than a generalist (an employee whose skill set is broad but is less specialized).
Specialists usually do better on tasks with limited timeline and a very specialized need while generalists do better in long-term tasks because they may need some time to have the expertise of a specialist. They, however, have the foundation in almost all functions of the business operation. The Christian business owner and leader should identify their goal for the task delegation. If a responsibility will rest on the shoulder of the subordinate for a long-term and may entail attending to various business functions, a generalist may be the best fit for the responsibility.
