FAILURE TO DELEGATE

Why do some supervisors fail to delegate as much as they should? The four basic reasons are all psychological in nature.

No Faith in Subordinates

Many supervisors do not see enough potential for success in the people who work for them and, as a result, never give their employees important and difficult assignments. Sometimes this kind of withholding happens because the supervisor has been burned in the past by poor performance; sometimes it is caused by unrealistic standards set by the supervisor. Most supervisors, however, simply lack confidence in the performance possibilities of employees. Unfortunately, this lack of confidence often results in poor performance when the supervisor is forced to delegate. To delegate successfully, you must have confidence in the results you anticipate and transmit this feeling to the employee.

Fear of Superiors

Every time you delegate important work to others, you risk failure and possible criticism from your superiors. You lay your personal reputation on the line, which is as it should be. If you are not sufficiently secure in your job and with your company to risk a few failures, then you should not be a supervisor in the first place. Fear is a powerful emotion that can tie you up in knots and cause you to be too cautious. You must conquer fear before you can delegate freely and effectively.

Desire for Personal Credit

Some supervisors with a strong need for ego fulfillment try to do all the important work themselves so that they will receive personal credit from their superiors. In taking this narrow perspective, they fail to see that by relinquishing personal credit to their employees they can (through motivation of individuals) increase productivity, which in turn will improve the reputation of the department. It is shortsighted for a supervisor to want personal credit when departmental success will ultimately be more beneficial.

Misjudgment of Time

Many supervisors are also shortsighted about time. They refuse to take time to delegate responsibility today to free themselves for more important work next week. Time is the supervisor's most important commodity. If you refuse to delegate because doing it properly takes too much time, you are guilty of poor planning. Skillful delegating saves time.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Before turning your desire to delegate into an action plan, consider the following questions:

• Have you clearly identified the work that you should delegate?

• Have you chosen the right person? Does the employee want to do the new task?

• Knowing you keep the responsibility, how much authority to make decisions are you willing to grant?

• What standards of performance will it take for you to be satisfied?

• What obstacles (if any) exist? How can they be overcome?

• Are you willing to spend the time required to train the person so that he or she produces at an acceptable level?

• Do you have an employee who has asked for more authority?