Delegation Paper

Delegation Paper

One of the most difficult responsibilities as a manager is delegating work to subordinates. Most of us learn about delegation unknowingly from our parents at a very early age. Especially in families where there are more than one child. My parents had five kids to delegate responsibility to. My mother, the queen of the castle would divide the household chores among her five kids. I would normally have the kitchen to clean, Tabari would have the main bathroom, Jamil would have the family room, Rahsaan would have the living room, and SheShe since she is youngest would have her room to clean. Although parenting is one of the most difficult jobs anyone could have, delegating responsibility to there subordinates or children as we call them, comes with less reciprocity than a company manager. When anyone asks me what I do at work I usually tell them that I count people. The reaction to that is a look of wonder, as they think to themselves what does he mean. I like that answer because simply put that is what I do. My company installs cameras in our clients businesses, such as banks, to monitor customer behaviors. The cameras track each customer from the time they walk in until the time they leave. A sample of the recording, usually no more than three hours from any day we choose, is downloaded to our servers. I view these videos to make sure that the system is recording the correct information. I count each customer at the time they arrive and leave as well as how much time they spend in line as well as the time spent with a cashier/teller. My times are compared to the system's time and the more that they match the more accurate the information we send to our clients. My team consists of two implementation managers, one person in debugs, two people in validations, and two customer support people. I am one of the validators, our boss is one the Implementation Managers. Knowing this will help in understanding how the work we do is delegated and how it could be used more effectively in planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

A key aspect of management is delegation. Within the organization that I work managers delegate responsibility fairly easily. My boss who is the Senior Implementation Manager usually tells me which site or sites are ready to be validated. He informs me of the time frame to be validated and usually asks me how long it would take. Depending on the site and how busy they have been historically I give him my best estimation. From what he has told me previous validators have been less accurate and slower than me. It does not happen very often but sometimes other employees in the company may need some help with projects they are working on. In the event that this happens, if they come to me first I usually send them to my manager to get the OK to pull me off the project I am working on. If it has not been told to me I do not know which projects need to be worked on. I insist that my manager give me a list of several projects at a time so that I have something to work on when one is complete. I have turned to him many times and have asked what is next. Or if he is not in the office and I have nothing to do I have to go look for work hoping that someone in the company needs help with anything.

Delegation could be used more effectively in planning and organizing if there was a way for me to know what projects are ready to be validated. It would