Managers often have trouble delegating.
Effective delegation is key for any manager. It will free up your time, allowing you to focus on big-picture strategic activities. it can also lead to better decision-making, because it pushes decisions down the organization, meaning that decision-makers are often closer to the problems. It also helps those you are managing develop their own decision-making skills and prepares them for future promotion opportunities
Managers often have trouble delegating. Some are afraid to give up control, explaining, "I like to do things myself, because then i know it's done and it's done right." Others lack confidence in their employees or fear that they may be criticized for others mistakes. While you may be capable of doing the tasks you delegate better, faster, or with fewer mistakes, it is not possible to do everything yourself. However, you should expect, and accept, some mistakes by those you delegate to.
Mistakes are often good learning experiences. You also should put adequate controls and mechanisms for feedback in place so you will know what is happening.
ACTION POINT: Look for opportunities to delegate tasks to others.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Delegating Effectively
Empowering others through delegation is one of the most powerful managerial tools for increasing productivity.
Managers are responsible for getting things done through other people. you need to accomplish assigned goals by delegating responsibility and authority to others. Empowering others through delegation is one of the most powerful managerial tools for increasing productivity.
Managers delegate by transferring authority and responsibility for work to employees. Delegation empowers employees to achieve goals by allowing them to make their own decisions about how to do a job. Delegation also helps develop employees for promotion opportunities by expanding their knowledge, job capabilities, and decision-making skills. Delegation frequently is depicted as having four key components:
Managers are responsible for getting things done through other people. you need to accomplish assigned goals by delegating responsibility and authority to others. Empowering others through delegation is one of the most powerful managerial tools for increasing productivity.
Managers delegate by transferring authority and responsibility for work to employees. Delegation empowers employees to achieve goals by allowing them to make their own decisions about how to do a job. Delegation also helps develop employees for promotion opportunities by expanding their knowledge, job capabilities, and decision-making skills. Delegation frequently is depicted as having four key components:
- Allocation of duties. Before a manager can delegate authority, the tasks and activities that need to be accomplished must be explained.
- Delegation of authority. Delegation is the process of transferring authority to empower a subordinate to act for you as a manager.
- Assignment of responsibility Managers should assign responsibility to the empowered employee for performing the job adequately.
- Creation of accountability. Managers should hold empowered employees responsible for properly carrying out their duties. This includes taking responsibility for the completion of tasks assigned to them and also being accountable to the manager for the satisfactory performance of that work.
ACTION POINT: Develop your strongest team members through delegation.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Steering Your Team
Identify what each member's individual contribution to the team's work should be...
Team members should all share in the glory when their team succeeds, and they should share in the blame when it fails. However, members need to know what they cannot ride on the backs of others. Identify what each member's individual contribution to the team's work should be and make it a part of his or her overall performance appraisal.
To help monitor performance, select members of the team to act as participant-observers. While a team is working, the role of the participant-observer is to focus on the processes being used: the sequence of actions that takes place between team members to achieve the team's goal. Periodically, the participant-observer should stop the team from working on its task and discuss the process members are engaged in. The objectives of the participant-observer are to continuously improve the team's functioning by discussing the processed being used and creating strategies for improving them.
Create a performance agreement to record the details of what the team is aiming to achieve, what is required and expected of every team member, and what support will be available to them. Setting out the framework for team success clearly helps to ensure that there is a mutual understanding an common vision of the desired results and emphasizes the standards that you expect from every team member.
ACTION POINT: Create a mindset of shared responsibility for success or failure with your team.
Team members should all share in the glory when their team succeeds, and they should share in the blame when it fails. However, members need to know what they cannot ride on the backs of others. Identify what each member's individual contribution to the team's work should be and make it a part of his or her overall performance appraisal.
To help monitor performance, select members of the team to act as participant-observers. While a team is working, the role of the participant-observer is to focus on the processes being used: the sequence of actions that takes place between team members to achieve the team's goal. Periodically, the participant-observer should stop the team from working on its task and discuss the process members are engaged in. The objectives of the participant-observer are to continuously improve the team's functioning by discussing the processed being used and creating strategies for improving them.
Create a performance agreement to record the details of what the team is aiming to achieve, what is required and expected of every team member, and what support will be available to them. Setting out the framework for team success clearly helps to ensure that there is a mutual understanding an common vision of the desired results and emphasizes the standards that you expect from every team member.
ACTION POINT: Create a mindset of shared responsibility for success or failure with your team.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Joy
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Psalm 16:11
Joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure. Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self.
The way to pleasure is power and prudence. The way to happiness is moral goodness. The way to joy is sanctity, loving God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself.
Everyone wants pleasure. More deeply, everyone wants happiness. Most deeply, everyone wants joy.
No one who ever said to God, "Thy will be done" and meant it with his heart, ever failed to find joy—not just in heaven, or even down the road in the future in this world, but in this world at that very moment, here and now.
In the very act of self-surrender to God there is joy. Not just later, as a consequence, but right then. It is exactly like a woman's voluntary sexual surrender to a man. The mystics often say all souls are female to God; that's one reason why God is always symbolized as male. Of course it's only a symbol, but it's a true symbol, a symbol of something true.
The symbolism is not "sexist" either. It holds for a man's soul as well. Only when lovers give up all control and melt helplessly into each other's bodies and spirits, only when they overcome the fear that demands control, do they find the deepest joy. Frigidity, whether sexual or spiritual, comes from egotism.
We've all known people who are cold, suspicious, mistrusting, unable to let go. These people are miserable, wretched. They can't find joy because they can't trust, they can't have faith. You need faith to love, and you need to love to find joy. Faith, love, and joy are a package deal.
Every time I have ever said yes to God with something even slightly approaching the whole of my soul, every time I have not only said "Thy will be done" but meant it, loved it, longed for it—I have never failed to find joy and peace at that moment. In fact, to the precise extent that I have said it and meant it, to exactly that extent have I found joy.
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— Jude 1:24
Joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure. Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self.
The way to pleasure is power and prudence. The way to happiness is moral goodness. The way to joy is sanctity, loving God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself.
Everyone wants pleasure. More deeply, everyone wants happiness. Most deeply, everyone wants joy.
No one who ever said to God, "Thy will be done" and meant it with his heart, ever failed to find joy—not just in heaven, or even down the road in the future in this world, but in this world at that very moment, here and now.
In the very act of self-surrender to God there is joy. Not just later, as a consequence, but right then. It is exactly like a woman's voluntary sexual surrender to a man. The mystics often say all souls are female to God; that's one reason why God is always symbolized as male. Of course it's only a symbol, but it's a true symbol, a symbol of something true.
The symbolism is not "sexist" either. It holds for a man's soul as well. Only when lovers give up all control and melt helplessly into each other's bodies and spirits, only when they overcome the fear that demands control, do they find the deepest joy. Frigidity, whether sexual or spiritual, comes from egotism.
We've all known people who are cold, suspicious, mistrusting, unable to let go. These people are miserable, wretched. They can't find joy because they can't trust, they can't have faith. You need faith to love, and you need to love to find joy. Faith, love, and joy are a package deal.
Every time I have ever said yes to God with something even slightly approaching the whole of my soul, every time I have not only said "Thy will be done" but meant it, loved it, longed for it—I have never failed to find joy and peace at that moment. In fact, to the precise extent that I have said it and meant it, to exactly that extent have I found joy.
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— Jude 1:24
Friday, September 25, 2009
Achieving Good Teamwork
As the manager for a team, it is your job to provide the resources and support that the members need to achieve success.
To help your teams perform to the best of their ability, create clear goals. All team members need to have a thorough understanding of the goals of the team and a belief that these goals embody a worthwhile result.
This encourages team members to sublimate personal concerns to those of the team. Members need to be committed to the team's goals, know what they are expected to accomplish, and understand how they will work together to achieve these goals.
However, these goals must be attainable; team members can lose morale if it seems that they are not. To avoid this, set smaller interim milestones in the pat to your overall goal. As these smaller goals are attained, your team's success is reinforced. Cohesiveness is increased, morale improves and confidence builds. As the manager for a team, it is your job to provide the resources and support that the members need to achieve success. Offer skills training where needed, either personally or by calling in specialists within your organization or outside training services.
ACTION POINT: Create clear goals with milestones along the way for your team to achieve.
To help your teams perform to the best of their ability, create clear goals. All team members need to have a thorough understanding of the goals of the team and a belief that these goals embody a worthwhile result.
This encourages team members to sublimate personal concerns to those of the team. Members need to be committed to the team's goals, know what they are expected to accomplish, and understand how they will work together to achieve these goals.
However, these goals must be attainable; team members can lose morale if it seems that they are not. To avoid this, set smaller interim milestones in the pat to your overall goal. As these smaller goals are attained, your team's success is reinforced. Cohesiveness is increased, morale improves and confidence builds. As the manager for a team, it is your job to provide the resources and support that the members need to achieve success. Offer skills training where needed, either personally or by calling in specialists within your organization or outside training services.
ACTION POINT: Create clear goals with milestones along the way for your team to achieve.
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