Delegation

What is one of the most important questions asked in any organization or business today? How do you decide what needs delegating and how can you trust your team to handle things? How will you handle situations that will determine your success for years to come?

There comes a time when you have to look in the mirror and inventory your skills and how best to utilize them with the needs of your organization and yourself. As you grow, the people you manage become a large version of yourself, but they all have there own dynamics which make them unique.

With the Department of Labor, the organization had to embrace change or fall along the roadside with other organizations that were not willing to change. There is an old expression in any business: "Change or die." We thought that was too simple because many businesses fall apart because too much emphasis is placed on growing and not enough on quality employees. So we assumed that rather then recruit more people, recruit less people that could get the job accomplished without someone constantly having to look over their shoulders and really do what our organization wanted to do. Help people secure employment!

We were delegated more authority to recruit more people with personal strengths in customer relations. Somewhat like a salesperson that could sell the services that the Department of Labor was providing. They delegated more authority for local managers to take time to recruit the best person that could fit into not only the place, but also fit in with the people they were assisting. In a perfect world, you want to hire the person that has the credentials for the position. But in a not so perfect world, you have to hire the person who has the experience and personality to accept delegation and be a team player. Many managers within the organization were frightened by this idea of delegating more authority for local office managers to hire what they wanted and not what they needed. Many local office managers wanted someone to share their vision of where the Department of Labor should be 10 years down the road. Providing excellent service and respect to the people on the other side of the counter.

When we talked about hiring the best person, we did not necessarily mean the person with the greatest paper resume or the one who attended the finest university. What we suggested is that you have your eyes open for the person who most impresses you with his or her understanding of your vision and what the road ahead looks like.

We were delegated the responsibility and confidence to hire someone who could face the challenge and become a great team player. While we were not looking for someone to disrupt our successes, we needed someone who would be able to help take our organization to the next level. That's not easy, especially in the government. Many managers were afraid to delegate authority to hire someone that could "fit", but we have found that it is more of a success than failure.

We had to start trusting our team to perform new duties that we had to delegate. In order for this to take place, we had to trust each other. We had to trust that, in all of our positions, we were going to get new responsibilities to perform and also the authority and the tools to perform with. We also had to learn that we were given the opportunity to learn from our failures. In the military there is a term, "lifeboat leadership," that states, your employees must have the confidence that you trust them, but everyone must also have confidence that the leader will throw them a rope when they get in over their heads. If they can trust you, you will be able to trust them, which you already do.

To use delegation more effectively in planning, leading, or controlling your organization, it is important to choose duties and responsibilities suitable for delegation, it may be important to create a checklist in to maintain manageability.

1. What