CHAPTER 16
Let Go of the Banana
(Delegate) or (Delegation Pitfalls)
Vignette: How to Catch a Monkey
In India, people catch monkeys quite often using hollowed coconuts. One end of the coconut is attached to a tree; the other end has a little hole just big enough for a monkey to put its paw into the hollowed coconut shell and to grab the food inside, usually a small banana. The monkey smells the treat, puts its paw inside, and takes hold of the banana. The monkey’s fist holding the banana inside the hollowed coconut is larger than the hole. Therefore, the monkey cannot pull its paw out of the coconut. The animal is “stuck.” Unless the monkey “lets go of the banana,” it will not be able to free itself from this deceiving “cage.” He is easily caught this way.
Obviously, to us but not to the monkey, the monkey is never trapped. All it has to do is let go of the banana.
This is one of the ways how monkeys are caught. Deceivingly simple, isn’t it? But how is the monkey freed? Simply by offering it another banana. This new banana treat motivates the monkey to let go of the one in the coconut shell. However, it is too late for the monkey to escape.
This story is often used as an illustration to motivate people to let go of their old perceptions or habits. In the context of this book, I introduce the same story to inspire the entrepreneur to delegate.
Vignette: Micromanagement
My son told me that they were talking about my role in the company. As a worker in my manufacturing plant, he often discussed the company’s daily operations with the other employees.
“The plant workers were complaining about what they felt was your constant presence in every activity of the company,” he said.
As the president of the start-up high-tech manufacturing company, I tended to oversee every aspect of the company’s operations. Each day I spent time with my marketing and sales staff, reviewing the results of the daily marketing activities and sales. I reviewed the engineering and research operations to assess the actual versus target deadlines of various projects. I inspected each workstation on the plant floor, and had a look at the production levels and the operating problems incurred during the previous shift. I checked the inventory levels and the shipping and receiving areas to ensure we were meeting our revenue targets and minimizing our expenses.
I had a significant personal investment in this start-up, both financial and emotional. I wanted everything to succeed, to be perfect. I believed that I was “managing by wandering around.”i
This “walking around” was perceived as interference by the employees, and had an adverse effect on the workforce, affecting their morale, and mostly, intruding into the responsibilities of my managers.
I needed to modify my behavior and demonstrate real leadership by trusting my managers and not circumventing them. I did not mean to retreat into my office, far from the workforce. I intended to stay in touch with the employees without intruding into their functional domain. If I had any cause to question what I saw or found, I needed to follow up on it privately with my managers, instead of trying to address it on the spot.
Genba walk alone.ii
Delegation is often one of the management challenges most neophyte entrepreneurs have difficulty with. Indeed, as paradoxical as it may sound, the main job of managers is “to do nothing.” Their job is to ensure tasks are done by others. If managers start doing what the people reporting to them need to do, they will achieve less than by letting others “do.” Furthermore, their managerial job function will suffer. Cloning is not an option.
How does one delegate? How can managers count on other people doing what needs to be done—at the same level of professionalism and dedication that they believe they would achieve? Impossible one would say. Not so. Delegation happens day in, day out, by all levels of management. Delegation requires leadership, confidence, support, and guidance.
Ineffective delegation can result in employee and management problems. If the message is not clear, the business objectives needing to be accomplished may not be achieved. Ineffective delegation can cause morale problems and result in an organization going in a downward spiral. Francie Dalton wrote, “Poor delegation can be categorized as either inadequate or disabling.”55
Entrepreneurs need to take the time to define precise tasks when delegating responsibilities to their staff. What is expected, what is the time frame for completion of the task, and how much authority is delegated?
Often, newly minted entrepreneurs have a hard time learning to delegate as well as delegating tasks. They firmly (and often unjustifiably) believe that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
A project’s success or failure is a direct reflection of management capabilities; hence, it is important to clearly define what is expected of the subordinate, give deadlines for the desired results, and follow up to make sure task goals are met.
Not delegating may result in feeling rushed; time to achieve all the daily tasks is in short supply.
Effective delegation requires the entrepreneur to trust his or her employees’ judgment and forfeit any preconceived notions about the process of how the task needs to be performed. Contrary to popular belief, delegation does not mean giving up control. If done effectively, delegation can provide more control. The key is to ensure that employees understand management’s expectations.
Mistake will happen. Learning from one’s mistakes is part of the learning process.56 Delegation can sharpen the entrepreneur’s skills and increase the employees’ commitment to the organization. In addition, the added employees’ responsibilities will probably assist them in developing their careers and boost their morale. These are the most important outcomes of delegation.
By delegating, the entrepreneur is developing a team. Not only will the employees’ morale improve, but the delegation will also increase their loyalty by allowing them to complete tasks that they believe are important to the company.
Delegation helps develop effective team members, job enrichment, and job satisfaction.57
Checking continuously on the employees’ progress is important. Employees do not always do what their supervisor expects them to do; however, they do what their supervisors do.
By delegating, managers are giving themselves more time to manage the results instead of the process. They are also teaching, coaching, and developing their immediate subordinates.58
Entrepreneurs face two key organizational design challenges: (1) how much authority to delegate to lower-level managers and (2) how to develop incentives to ensure that these managers meet the company’s objectives.
Theoretical accounting literature emphasizes that top management makes these two choices jointly, but little empirical evidence for this assertion exists.59
One of the most appropriate opportunities to delegate a task is when the employee, rather than the manager, is the best person for accomplishing the task.
Delegating is not a negative reflection on the manager. Instead, it suggests that the manager is willing to put the available resources to their best use. In the management position, there will be many occasions when an employee has more skills in performing a specific task or knows more about the situation surrounding the task accomplishment than the manager. The employee is simply better suited for the job. The wise manager will take advantage of the employee’s capabilities in these situations by delegating the task to be accomplished.
Ineffective delegation may also result in problems. A manager who fails to delegate when it is appropriate is giving an employee an unspoken message: “I don’t trust you.” Perception of lack of trust may affect employee morale. On the other hand, a manager who overuses delegation may send other messages: “I’m not capable,” “I’m lazy,” or “I’m inconsiderate.”
One needs to distinguish between what is enough delegation and what is too much delegation. The effective manager must know the job demands and his employees well enough to know the amount of delegation needed. Effective delegation requires a clear definition of responsibilities. The employee needs to be aware of resources available to fulfill his or her responsibility and be given those resources. Feedback needs to be ongoing to ensure the task is completed as assigned.
Many second-stage entrepreneurs hire officers and rely on their executive team to delegate and manage the day-to-day operations of the company. Still, companies can further professionalize their management structure by creating a board to help guide the company’s progress. The board of directors has legally defined duties and fiduciary responsibilities and is well compensated.60
Delegation has both advantages and disadvantages; delegating frees up time for managers to work on other projects and gives employees the opportunity to learn new skills and demonstrate the potential for possible promotions. If the delegated tasks are not well defined, they may not be completed correctly.
A poorly done task also reflects that a manager may not know how to delegate. Some managers choose not to delegate because they do not want to “give up power” or they would rather do the jobs themselves to ensure the task is done “correctly,” which often means according to their specification.
Some of the reasons managers choose not to delegate include
• Knowledge that they can do the job themselves more rapidly than in the time it takes to explain it to someone else
• Employee distrust
• Lack of someone with the skills to perform the task
• Fear of failure and alas
• Management incompetence
• Personal insecurity
Some advantages of delegation are that the manager can spend more time on his or her managerial duties.
Delegating small tasks to other employees helps to give the employees motivation to do better, go further, and enjoy their work. Delegation also contributes to building employee skills.
Some disadvantages of delegation are that the delegated task may not meet the expected level of quality or require more effort (and expense) than expected by the manager. The manager may have to go back and redo the work, thus wasting time: an employee training opportunity. Not achieving expected quality levels might also be a training opportunity.
Lessons Learned: Delegate?
Some managers choose not to delegate tasks to their subordinates because they would rather do things themselves so that they know they are done right the first time. Or do they?61
Tasks an entrepreneur should not delegate include, of course, personal or confidential matters, crisis or emergency situations that may affect those who could perform them (like layoffs or promotions), politically sensitive issues (including topics at the board level), highly controversial decisions (outsourcing, for example), or tasks expressly delegated to the executive officer in charge (like market expansion, new plant relocation, and so on).62
Can you live with the results of other peoples’ actions even if they are not perfect? What is not acceptable to you? These are the questions you need to ponder.
Delegation is a small investment for greater gains later on.
iThe term management by wandering around, also management by walking around, refers to a style of business management that involves managers wandering around, in an unstructured manner, through the workplace(s), at random, to check with employees, or equipment, about the status of ongoing work. (Source: Wikipedia.)
iiGenba walks denote the action of going to see the actual process, understand the work, ask questions, and learn. It is known as one fundamental part of lean management philosophy. (Source: Wikipedia.)