Inspect What You Expect
IF A TASK is important enough to delegate, it is important enough to inspect. Regular inspection is how you keep on top of the tasks that you have delegated. This doesn’t mean that you look over the person’s shoulder all the time. What it does mean is that you set up regular monitoring times when you (the delegator) and the delegatee meet to discuss progress.
When you keep on top of a job you have delegated, you convey to the staff member that it is an important job, which means, by extension, that the employee is an important person. The employee is doing important work and is therefore a valuable part of the team. When team members know that the job they are doing is important enough for you to check on regularly, they feel more valuable and important as individuals.
Because you care about the task and its progress, staff members will strive to do an even better job and accomplish the task even sooner than they would have if you had delegated it and then walked away from it.
You Are Responsible
Delegation is not abdication. Even though you have delegated a task to a subordinate, you are still accountable to your superiors for the results. If you fail to inspect the job you have delegated, you are actually abdicating the job. You are absolving yourself of responsibility—something that you cannot do in any case.
If you abdicate responsibility for a job by ignoring progress, chances are that mistakes will take place that will be expensive to correct in terms of time as well as money.
Wander Around Regularly
One of the most popular management techniques is called management by wandering around (MBWA). The reason MBWA is so effective is that it is the best way for you to get timely feedback on the activities of your staff. Timely feedback means that you can discover what is going on in real time, and act on it quickly, if necessary.
When you “wander around” you don’t have to wait a week or a month to know what exactly is happening in your business. When you walk around and talk to people, asking them how you are doing, they will give you regular and timely feedback that you can use to be a better manager.
When you practice management by wandering around, inspecting and controlling the work in person, you will see very quickly if people are in over their heads and need to be doing more or less to get back into balance. You may find that some people don’t have the ability to do the job as well as you require, or need the assistance of others to do a part of the job for which they are not competent.
If you find that a job is too big or too difficult for the person assigned to do it, be prepared to modify the task if necessary. In our dynamic economy and rapidly changing business life, things are happening so quickly that what seemed like an absolutely perfect delegation on one day may need complete revision the day after because of new information. Always be prepared to modify the task or reassign the individual, if necessary.