Mentoring and delegating
The practice of mentoring involves an individual acting as a guide, advisor and counsellor to another. Alongside leadership style, coaching and delegating, it forms one of the key development techniques. This theme looks at the function of mentoring, the benefits and drawbacks, and a mentoring model based on six strategies.
The theme also explores delegation. This is a process where one individual assigns responsibilities to a colleague. It is an approach you can take to develop the skills and confidence of your team members. Here we consider the reasons for delegating and you will examine the scope for delegating with your team.
In this theme you will:
Explore the role of mentoring and how it is linked to staff development and improved performance
Explore the concept of delegation and the links between delegation and staff development
Identify areas where your effectiveness as a delegator can be improved.
Mentoring
What is mentoring? There are a number of definitions and here are just a few of them.
Parsloe (1992) suggests that mentoring is:
…concerned with the longer-term acquisition and application skills in a developing career by a form of advising and counselllng.
Source: Parsloe (1992)
Caldwell and Carter (1993) state:
Most mentoring partnerships fall into one of two categories: those which emphasise professional development only, and those which include both personal and professional development.
Source: Caldwell and Carter (1993)
Mentoring differs from coaching and the two roles should not be confused.
Johnson (2001) states:
A coach provides specific suggestions about improving your performance; he or she is usually outside the team proper. The coach helps you play the game but is not in the game. A mentor is someone in the game who helps you develop your career. A mentor may have power in the system and can sponsor the protégé into opportunities.
Source: Johnson (2001)
Mentoring can vary according to the context and the purpose for which it is being used, but it has two unique characteristics:
It is a relationship built on mutual trust, respect and confidentiality
It facilitates a process of learning, development and experimentation.
Mentoring and its uses
Mentoring has been described as a form of professional intimacy in which the mentor and the protégé form a relationship that lies somewhere in the middle of the colleague-friend continuum. Mentoring can be used in a number of ways, for example:
in the induction of new staff
to offer support with educational programmes
to develop staff who have been identified as having high potential
to support staff involved in a career change or a significant change in their responsibilities.
There are two forms of mentoring:
in-line, where the mentor is in the protégé's direct reporting line – the mentor is usually the protégé's manager, but may also be a senior manager
off-line, where the mentor and the protégé do not have a formal reporting line to each other.
There are benefits and drawbacks for the protégé in both forms of mentoring, as illustrated in Table 3.1.
In-line mentoring |
|
Benefits |
The protégé is usually mil known to the mentor |
|
Easy access to mentor |
|
Mentoring is regarded as ongoing and is often informal |
Drawbacks |
The mentor may not be impartial |
|
There could be accusations of favouritism from other team members who are not being mentored |
|
Other discussions may be construed as mentoring and there will be insufficient time to discuss wider issues |
|
Mentor may develop the protégé to perform better in their role rather than for wider/higher positions |
|
Guarded disclosures – have to think about relationships/appraisals |
Off-line mentoring |
|
Benefits |
Encourages networking |
|
Gives a broader view of senior management, perhaps from other areas of the organisation |
|
Can speak frankly, openly |
|
Mentor is impartial and not involved with in-line issues |
Drawbacks |
Formal time is usually set aside for mentoring |
|
Limited opportunities to meet |
|
Mentor may haw no understanding of job-related issues |
|
Mentor may have little or no previous knowledge about the protégé |
Table 3.1 Benefits mid drawbacks of mentoring
Johnson (2001) suggests that if a mentor is only one level above the protégé, this can lead to a conflict of interest.
The protégé is a potential competitor for the immediate supervisor's position. It is in the selfish interests of the supervisor to keep subordinates from achieving too well, lest the supervisor be replaced … An effective mentor is at least two levels removed from the protégé The greater the separation, the greater the potential to the protégé. An effective mentor-protégé relationship has enough separation that the mentor will never feel threatened by strong progress by the protégé.
Source: Johnson (2001)
One of the particular attributes of off-line mentors is that they may look out for opportunities for their protégés beyond the confines of their current role. The mentor will balance the needs of the protégé's current department against the broader needs of the organisation as a whole.
What function does mentoring perform?
For the protégé, mentoring can facilitate:
career development through exposure to, and sponsorship by, senior management
personal development by providing a developed sense of competence, effectiveness and identity within the organisation, and through support in learning activities.
The benefits of mentoring
Mentoring benefits the mentor, the protégé and the organisation.
For the mentor
Being asked to act as a mentor is recognition of your leadership skills. If you are acting as an off-line mentor, the gains are particularly great since it will give you the chance to:
promote the organisation's vision, values and strategies and the wider environment within which the organisation operates
gain personal satisfaction through development of people who are outside your own immediate area of responsibility
interact with junior staff from other areas of the organisation
Protégés can also be a useful source of new ideas and provide assistance on projects.
For the protégé
The benefits of the mentoring relationship include:
enhanced knowledge and understanding of the wider issues affecting the organisation and the impact they have on policies and processes
greater awareness of organisational culture and politics
improved confidence and sense of worth
the provision of a safe learning environment through observation and advice rather than trial and error
a source or help, support and objective feedback and a sounding board for ideas
access and visibility to senior management, which offers a source of career and networking opportunities.
For the organisation
Successful mentoring arrangements within an organisation can:
speed up the induction process for new employees
develop a culture of co-operation
improve staff retention rates
facilitate internal communications
encourage the development of a learning organisation
bridge the gap between development and training theory and practice in the workplace
create a more profound understanding of the organisation's aims, objectives, culture and systems.
Identifying protégés
Someone who will benefit from their role as a protégé will demonstrate the following characteristics:
a commitment to their own development
flexibility in their approach to change and the role that they may play within a change situation
a willingness to be open about their feelings, motivations and ambitions
receptiveness to new ideas, including alternative career options
enthusiasm to understand better the broader environment in which they operate
a willingness to undertake extra study and effort to achieve their goals.
Minter and Thomas (2000) suggest a range of behaviours that potential protégés should display. Mentoring strategies should be initiated if the manager perceives that an employee is meeting approximately 70 per cent of the average performer assumptions that follow:
Exhibits standard or average performance behaviour on a continuous basis
Has the capacity and potential to improve the quality/quantity of performance beyond the standard, but needs additional training and experience
Has the potential to become a strong team player
Is not yet meeting performance expectations because they are new to the job or organisation
Requires specific instruction in skill/knowledge areas to develop the necessary abilities and willingness to meet performance expectations
Requires moderate to close supervision
Has difficulty assuming higher levels of accountability at this time due to their current state of knowledge or skill/ability levels
Is not effective at this point in time in managing key responsibilities
Has potential to be a high performance employee (HPE) in the department lorganisation
Has potential to achieve expected competency levels
Is unable to bring about improvement on their own initiative
Requires a manager or designated individual to work side by side with them on selected critical tasks, in order to bring about significant performance improvement
Needs to demonstrate improvement in selected area to be retained in the current job
Demonstrates performance concerns that relate more to their knowledge, skill or ability levels than to attitudinal or behavioural problems.
Source: Adapted from Minter and Thomas (2000)
Identifying mentors
A good mentor is someone who:
is recognised as a good leader and team player
has professional and personal respect from senior management and their peer group
is familiar with the organisation and its external environments, including network contacts
is committed to the development of people
helps the individual to explore possibilities and to develop their confidence.
A mentoring model
Mentoring can take place through an informal arrangement between two members of staff or through a more formal mentoring programme which has been set up to promote learning or support a development initiative. In the latter case, the success of the mentoring depends on support from the organisation.
Minter and Thomas (2000) suggest a mentoring model that can be used in both formal and informal mentoring, based on six strategies:
ifentifying critical ability,skill and knowledge deficiencies that require further development
determining whether the performance deficiencies can be addressd by providing training or non-training solutions
obtaining understanding and agreement from the employee to correct identified deficiencies
developing and Implementing an action plan to correct specific performance deviations
measuring performance improvement outcomes on a short and long-term basis
providing continual feedback to the employee on their progress.
They champion the use of hands-on instruction as an effective teaming approach to facilitate improvement:
Research on employee retention during training reveals that, if a manager tells an employee what to do, he or she will remember approximately 10 per cent of the job instructions. When the manager tells and shows the employee what to do, the employee will remember approximately 60 per cent of the infornation. When the manager combines tell and show with the employee demonstrating what was observed, the employee will retain approximately 90 per cent of the instructional effort.
Source: Minter and Thomas (2000)
This principle can be used in developing a wide range of both hard and soft skills. For example, if a protégé observes you regularly practising time management skills, and you periodically provide feedback about time management practice and its benefits, the principles will be reinforced and your protégé. will be encouraged to practise these skills for themself.
The mentoring life cycle
A mentoring relationship will follow a cycle of birth, growth, maturity and conclusion. The key elements of these phases are shown in Table 3.2.
Birth |
Mutual identification of mentor/protégé |
|
Gaining commitment to the process |
|
Establishment of objectives, processes and ground rules |
Growth |
Getting to know each other better |
|
Focusing on strategies and tactics to achieve objectives |
|
Working together |
|
Building/achieving trust |
Maturity |
Learning together |
|
Reviewing progress |
|
Re-evaluating objectives |
|
Redefining processes and fine tuning roles |
Conclusion |
Final review of achievements against objectives |
|
Summary of learning gained |
|
Ending of the relationship on a positive note |
|
Development of protégé independence |
Table 3.2 Key elements of the mentoring life cycle
Delegating
Delegation involves:
giving responsibility to another person for the completion of a task for which you are accountable
giving that person the authority and resources to carry out the task without constantly referring back to you for approval or clearance.
It is important to distinguish between delegation and abdication of responsibility. We can delegate authority to others to act on our behalf, for example by signing orders and invoices, but ultimately we can't delegate responsibility or accountability for tasks that are within our remit.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter (1988) highlights this difference:
Delegating responsibility to other people does not mean abdicating managerial responsibilities for monitoring and supporting the process. Some managers assume an either/or world where either they are in complete control or they have given up all control. But delegation – whether by a management team to a set of employee teams or by a single manager to his or her subordinates – means that the manager not only sets the bask conditions but also stays involved, available, to support employees, reviewing results, redirecting or reorienting the team as necessary.
Source: Kunter (1988)
An example of poor delegation was the ‘burying bad news’ incident in the UK in September 2001. Transport Secretary Stephen Byers delegated authority to brief the press to his special adviser, Jo Moore, but when she made an error of judgement he found that he was accountable for what she did – and his job was under threat. Ultimately managers are always responsible for the actions of their staff, even though they give staff the authority to take action.
Thomson (1998) cites a number of factors that affect how much authority you, as a manager, should delegate:
The size of the organisation – the larger the organisation, the more decisions have to be made and the more tasks undertaken; managers in large organisations have to delegate to get things done
The importance of the decision – the more important the decision, the less likely it is to be delegated
Task complexity – complex tasks which require expert or technical knowledge need to be delegated to those who can best perform them
Organisational culture – there needs to be a culture of mutual trust between managers and subordinates to support effective delegation
Quality of subordinates – delegation requires subordinates with the skills and ability to accept delegation.
The emerging trend in delegation
In recent years, the delayering of organisations into flatter structures with fewer layers of management has increased the need for effective delegation. Delayering has hit the ranks of middle managers hardest and, in an effort to protect themselves, the survivors may feel they need to hold on to their responsibilities and authority rather than delegate. Taking this approach has two main drawbacks:
Managers quickly become swamped by their responsibilities and do not work effectively
Valuable development opportunities are lost as junior staff have fewer chances to take responsibility.
The components of effective delegation
There are three strands to effective delegation.
1 Knowing what to delegate
Some managers may delegate simple, routine tasks and then closely supervise the people undertaking them. At the other end of the continuum, managers may delegate tasks and responsibility to staff and pay very little attention to how the tasks might be achieved.
There are some areas where a manager has to retain authority in order to comply with policies and with regulatory and legal requirements. If you are unsure about how much authority you should delegate, the best approach is to delegate in stages. Provided staff meet all objectives for previously delegated tasks, then their levels of responsibility and authority can be increased. Giving people more responsibility and authority than they are comfortable with can be counterproductive since too much of your time will be spent in coaching, reassuring or checking them.
2 Trusting your staff and being willing to show this trust
As the responsible manager, you ultimately ‘carry the can’ for anything that occurs or does not occur within your area of responsibility. Therefore, although you may delegate the task, you retain overall responsibility for its completion. Managers therefore tend to delegate to people whom they trust, and the degree of control they exercise is directly related to the level of trust they have in the individual or team to perform the task effectively.
Delegation is about relinquishing control and showing trust in others. Managers often ask others to do a task but retain authority for it, suggesting that they lack confidence or trust in their subordinates. This approach is taken so that staff understand that the power still lies with the manager – this is not true delegation.
3 Timing
Staff do not all operate at the same level and will be at different stages of personal and professional development. Consequently, the timing of delegation is important. Managers must gauge each individual's capacity to receive additional responsibilities and the manner in which these responsibilities can be handed over. Experienced members of staff may need no more than an informal chat and agreement on what is expected, whereas other members of staff may need detailed written instructions and coaching before they can accept new responsibilities.
The benefits of effective delegation
Effective delegation can benefit you, your staff and the organisation as a whole:
You gain more time to complete tasks that you cannot delegate
You can reduce your workload and stress levels
You can take a broader view of the work of your department and the ways in which your staff interact
Your staff develop their own skills, judgements and sense of responsibility
Your staff become more involved in their work and thus better motivated
Increased motivation can lead to a reduction in staff turnover and costs related to recruitment and induction
The organisation can identify potential managers and high-flyers.
Barriers to effective delegation
Delegation involves risk. If you delegate a task and the person who takes it on does not complete it adequately, then you will carry the responsibility for its failure.
The amount you delegate reflects your management style. Some people will feel more comfortable with little delegation, perhaps because they don't trust people or they have a high need for power,whereas others will be only too happy to delegate a large slice of their responsibilities across their team.
This list suggests some common barriers to effective delegation. You could use it as a checklist to identify your own willingness (or reluctance) to delegate.
You lack confidence in your staff and feel that there is no one to whom you can delegate
It's quicker to do the job yourself than to train or monitor others
You fear that your staff are too inexperienced and will not cope with the responsibility of delegated tasks
You are afraid of losing control and being declared superfluous
You work in a hierarchical culture where delegation is not encouraged or where managers are seen as controllers
You want to delegate, but your staff need training which isn't readily available
If you recognise any of these barriers to delegation in your own performance, think about how you can overcome them. You may need to address training needs in your department; you may also have to address your own beliefs about yourself and your colleagues. Talk to your own managers about ways in which levels of delegation can be improved.
The delegation process
To delegate effectively, you need to follow a structured approach. This is not something that can be done on the spur of the moment. If staff to whom you delegate are inadequately prepared or unclear about what their new role involves, they will not perform satisfactorily.
In setting up a system for successful delegation, Mullins (1999) suggests that managers should consider these questions:
What tasks could be performed better by subordinates?
What opportunities are there for subordinates to learn and develop by undertaking delegated tasks and responsibilities?
How should the increased responsibilities be implemented and to whom should they be given?
What forms of monitoring control system would be most appropriate?
Mullins also states:
In order for a delegation system to work effectively, staff should know exactly what is expected of them, what has to be achieved, the boundaries within which they have freedom of action and how far they can exercise independent decision-making.
Source: Mullins (1999)
The following steps form the basis of an effective delegation process.
1 Identify the tasks that can be delegated
Start by considering what you can delegate. Factors to consider include the following:
Avoid delegating tasks that are urgent or have to be completed in a hurry since you will not have time to work through the delegation process
The task should be worth doing, so that the person you ask to complete it develops a sense of ownership and pride in carrying out the work
You should not delegate any task that carries statutory or legal implications, or which your superiors expect you to do yourself
Do not delegate tasks that could create dissent within your department, for example it would be inappropriate to ask one team member to take on a job that involves dealing with the confidential files of other team members.
2 Allocate the tasks to the right people
The next step is to identify to whom you can delegate a task. A large part of successful delegation rests on matching the right person to the right task. Consider whether the person you want to take on the job:
has a workload that allows them to carry out extra work
has indiacted that they want more responsibility
has some background experience that is appropriate to the task
is willing to undertake training if necessary to complete the task.
3 Brief the person or people involved
When you have selected the task and the person to whom you want to delegate it, you need to prepare a brief that states clearly what should be achieved. The length and comprehensiveness of the brief will depend on the confidence and experience of the person who is taking on the task.
When you explain the task, make it clear:
why the task is necessary
what should be achieved
what the person you have approached will gain from it in terms of experience and satisfaction
what authority and resources are being delegated
where they can get help if they need it.
Although the brief should be clear, you do not need to spell out how the job should be done. Delegation involves letting people take ownership of a task and therefore finding their own ways in which to complete it. You should, however, be willing to offer suggestions if they are asked for, discuss ideas and provide feedback.
4 Support and monitor performance
During the period when the task is carried out, you should offer support, if it is needed, and monitor the task or project to make sure it stays on track. The extent to which you get directly involved will depend on how much you trust your staff, how well they are responding to the challenge and how much you can bear to stand back. Ideally, you will keep your distance and only get involved if you are asked to. Constant interference negates the whole delegation process.
5 Give feedback
Once the task is completed, review it with the person to whom it was delegated. In this way you ‘close the loop’ by using the experience as a learning exercise. In particular, consider:
what went smoothly
any problems that arose
how the person you delegated to responded to the challenge
further opportunities for delegation that could arise in the near future.
Delegation and decision making
Objective
Use the case study in this activity to identify opportunities for delegating.
Task
1 Read the following case study.
Sarah had recently been promoted to the operations manager of a very busy call centre, providing 24/365(24 hours per day, every day of the year)cover to bank customers.The centre employed 650 call operators on shifts.Her previous job was administration manager. The call centre dealt with a wide range of routine enquiries, mainly relating to customers’ accounts and also dealing with potential customer enquiries from people responding to advertising campaigns. New customers were especially valuable, as the company knew it could eventually sell them at least three other products, in addition to the product which had caused them to phone in, thereby exponentially increasing income over the customer life cycle. Although no outgoing canvassing calls were made to customers, every incoming call was also treated as an opportunity to sell more products and services. Every call operator and supervisor had challenging weekly targets which they had to achieve, including passing on callers to sales staff.
The role of the operations manager was to ensure that all support functions ran smoothly,and also to provide constant cover to the call centre operators.The prime responsibilities were for the computer and telephone systems.Sarah was responsible for two managers and eight supervisors, who ran the telephone and computer maintenance teams,as well as a premises manager, an administration support manager and three supervisors for the administration team. Her key customer is the call centre manager,who is her peer and they both report to the national calls division director,who is located in the same building.The call centre manager is responsible for product and service delivery,including customer services, and the profitability of the call centre. Both managers have quality and service delivery standards which they must meet.
The job was hectic and,although Sarah normally worked days, she was often in early and still at her desk late in the evenings; the long hours were taking their toll on her and she was beginning to feel tired all of the time. She kept telling herself that once she got the hang of it, she would cut down on her hours and phone her friends whom she had ‘put on hold’.
Because of the state-of-the-art telephone and computer systems, very little planned maintenance was undertaken, but the wear and tear on the building from the 24-hour staff coverage meant there was always a part of the building or phone and computer equipment under repair or refurbishment. Where possible, much of this work took place between 10.00pm and 6.00am when the call load was lighter and fewer staff were on the night shift.
Tuesday began as a normally busy day, with a team briefing with all of her managers.Sarah knew she still had a lot to learn about running team briefings. Hers had always been a bit haphazard and she knew she talked too much,the result being that she didn't receive as much information as she should about what was happening around the department. No special incidents had been reported by her managers, other than the computer manager reporting that the three-second access time to retrieve a customer record after asking for their postal code was not being achieved and the incidence of longer time taken was increasing. Furthermore, both his and the product supplier's software engineers didn't understand why this was happening. This really worried Sarah as the company made great play about this response time in its marketing campaigns.The meeting was then interrupted by a telephone systems supervisor to say that the system had gone down and no incoming calls were being received. Although he wasn't certain, it appeared the fault was in the call queuing system which was rejecting rather than stacking calls. This was a serious situation, especially with potential new customers – people would be likely to take their business elsewhere if they couldn't get through to the company. Sarah abandoned the meeting and went with the telephone manager and the supervisor to find out more about the problem. At the same time, her PA was trying to get hold of her because her boss needed to talk with her urgently – maybe someone had already told him about the problems with the phone system.
On her way to the telephone systems computer, Sarah was asked by the administration manager, who was walking along with her, about the supervisor interviews which she and Sarah were due to conduct later in the morning. Sarah said that she would be available, While in the telephone systems office, Sarah received a call from her PA asking her to ring her boss and also asking her to speak urgently with the premises manager.The PA was frustrated because Sarah wasn't using her properly and she often didn't know where Sarah was in the building. It seemed that the premises manager needed an urgent response to a query which he Read been going to raise at the abandoned meeting – he needed to shut off mains power for five minutes and this would mean cutting in the emergency power system. Although the company had a special system in place to smooth out power fluctuations on changeovers from mains to emergency power, the last two times this had operated, severe computer problems had arisen and it had taken two days of hard work to recover the situation.
It never rains, but it pours. On her way back from the telephone systems department, still with no solution in place, Sarah bumped into her boss who said he needed to speak with her regarding her draft budget submission which was overdue, and which he needed to fit into his divisional budget. He also asked Sarah if she was OK as she looked tired and worried. Just then, the call centre manager appeared and asked, ‘What's happening?’ which really meant, ‘Nothing is happening and what are you doing about it?’
Sarah explained her current problems to her boss and said that she would get the budget to him soon, but overriding operational issues were taking her time at the moment. Much of the budget work had been undertaken by Sarah in her previous role of administration manager and she had taken this task with her on the basis that she knew more about the budgeting process than her successor. The boa's response was to tell Sarah that, having promoted her into the position, he expected her to deliver results and manage her problems. Having said that, he calmed down and suggested he and Sarah take time out to review the current situation and her workload to see what she could and should do.
2 What do you consider Sarah's manager may suggest? Write your suggestions below. Put yourself in Sarah's position, think about the issues she is facing and provide sound, common-sense suggestions relevant to her situation and work environment.
What Sarah could and should do: |
Feedback
This case study is about delegation and decision making. Sarah is working long hours because she feels she needs to get to grips with the broad scope of her job, or perhaps because she is not getting to grips with her new job! However, you may agree that being tired at work and dropping friends because of work are not the answers. Sarah seems to be keen to take control, but can't do it all. She should delegate most operational issues to her managers and their teams; from what we know, they all appear to be competent individuals.
The job of Sarah's managers is to run their areas of responsibility, keep Sarah informed and, on important issues, present her with options and recommendations. Sarah can then make a decision or, if necessary, discuss the issue further with the manager and team involved, and possibly with her manager or the call centre manager.
Here are some specific suggestions.
Sarah could:
Ask the telephone systems manager to provide her with a current update and present her with a worst-case scenario which she would need to take to her manager. The company should have a contingency plan for such occurrences, including re-routing calls to other centres, Her manager will probably need to be kept fully informed of developments because of the implications of workloads on other centres and absence of work for local staff. She should also discuss the situation immediately with the call centre manager.
Ask the computer systems manager to continue to liaise with the product engineers to find and rectify the fault in accessing customer files. The computer systems managers should also ascertain whether this was a local, one-off fault or whether it had occurred elsewhere, maybe within another company using the same software.
Keep the call centre manager informed of developments and determine how the call operators are dealing with disgruntled callers who mention the delays.
Brief the new administration manager and let her complete the budget, otherwise she will not be well placed to complete next year's budget. Sarah should be available to offer advice and support if needed. She should then scrutinise and approve the budget submission before passing it to her manager.
Speak with the premises manager to find out why he needs to shut down mains power. Unless this is a critical issue, it should be deferred until other problems have been rectified. Furthermore, she should determine what had occurred to rectify the previous power fluctuations when transferring to standby power. Was this likely to reoccur and would the implications be the same as before? Until she knows the answers to these questions, the power must stay on.
Plan to get some support in developing her team-briefing skills.
Delegation in your workplace
Objective
Use this activity to:
consider the reasons for delegating and for accepting delegated tasks
explore the scope for delegation in your team or department.
Task
1 Give three reasons why you should accept delegated tasks from your manager.
1
2
3
2 Now consider which tasks your manager currently delegates to you and whether there is scope for more delegation to you.
Manager delegation |
Tasks currently delegated |
How much responsibility/authority is assigned to you for this task? |
Tasks that could be delegated |
How much responsibility/authority could be assigned to you for this task? |
3 Finally, consider the tasks you delegate to team members and whether there is scope for further delegation.
Delegated tasks |
|
|
Tasks currently delegated to team members |
Name of team member |
How much responsibility/authority is assigned to the team member for this task? |
Tasks that could be delegated |
Name of team member |
How much responsibility/authority could be assigned to the team member for this task? |
Discuss the above issues with the team members involved, and also with other team members who do not currently have delegated tasks to determine their willingness to accept them. They may also have some insights as to which tasks they would willingly accept – or not!
Feedback
There are a number of good reasons why you should accept delegated tasks, including:
The task may be unusual or different. It may broaden your understanding and capability in another area (i.e. it is developmental)
The manager may want to see how you respond to the task – both your demeanour and how well you perform it. (They may be checking you out for other possibilities.)
Your manager may have a heavy schedule and the only way he or she can achieve multiple tasking is to delegate. Provided you achieve a positive outcome, your willingness to help out will be well regarded.
Your manager may have decided to concentrate on other tasks and believe that this particular task is within your capability.
You may possess special skills or knowledge (perhaps not shared by your manager) which makes you the obvious choice for a particular task.
Finally, your willingness to accept delegated tasks will indicate that you are a good team player, able to cope with additional, sometimes ad hoc, work and are able to work beyond your normal job – all good indicators of potential.
If you have completed this activity conscientiously, you should have clarified a few issues and perhaps made life easier for yourself and others. Remember that in delegating new tasks, you should take the time to explain clearly what the task is and why you are delegating it, together with the outcomes you wish to achieve. Most people react well to effective delegation – give them the opportunity to show you what they can do.
Recap
This theme examines the key processes surrounding mentoring and delegating.
Explore the role of mentoring and how it is linked to staff development and improved performance
Mentoring is the longer-term acquisition and application of skills in a developing career by a form of advising and counselling.
Mentoring is used to develop the careers of individuals by increasing their competence, effectiveness and identity within the organisation through learning activities and support. The mentor, the protégé and the organisation are all likely to benefit from the experience.
Explore the concept of delegation and the links between delegation and staff development
Delegation involves giving responsibility to another person for the completion of a task for which you are responsible, whilst providing them with the authority and resources to carry it out.
In order to delegate you need to know what to delegate, be able to show that you trust the person you delegate to and be sure the person you delegate to has the capacity to receive additional responsibilities.
Delegation means briefing the people involved, supporting and monitoring performance and giving feedback to ensure that any learning points are captured and worked on.
Identify areas where your effectiveness as a delegator can be improved
Barriers to effective delegation include:
lack of confidence in staff
the feeling that it's quicker to do the job yourself
fearing that staff are too inexperienced and not recognising the potential for development in team members
fearing that you might lose control
organisational culture.
More @
Parsloe, E. and Wray, M. (2000) Coaching, Mentoring: Practical Methods to Improve Learning, Kogan Page
This text focuses on two key techniques for managers today: coaching and mentoring. In all types of organisation, whether public or private sector, authoritarian styles of management are giving way to the use of managerial techniques that help staff to learn by the use of guidance and example.
American Society for Training and Development – www.astd.org/astd
Try searching for mentoring and delegating on this website. The site includes articles, discussion boards and surveys on key training and development issues.
Bized – www.bized.ac.uk/homeinfo/sitemap.htm
Try searching for articles and learning resources on this business education website.
Full references are provided at the end of the book.