Delegation of authority - a necessary evil or a blessing?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

When a new enterprise is created, at first, as a rule, its founders do all the work themselves. As the company achieves success in terms of increasing sales volumes, expanding the assortment and creating branches, the management of the company begins to understand that good assistants with the right skill level and trustworthy are required. In other words, delegation of authority is necessary.

These two conditions cause the main problems. While aptitude can be tested, although sometimes it can be a difficult task, the honesty of a hired employee is always in doubt, even if he has the best recommendations.

However, the volume of work can increase so much that the delegation of authority becomes an extremely urgent task. There comes a moment when it becomes objectively clear how good a leader is, because you can judge this by the results of his enterprise.

As a rule, the director, who in front of the whole team checks the work of the cleaning lady and himself makes comments to her, causes ridicule, even if not always obvious. Such "democratism" is unacceptable even in cases where the objectthe attention of high authorities becomes the rank and file of managers.

Signing ordinary supply contracts, personal "scoldling" careless employees, permanent employment with a general deterioration in the economic performance of the enterprise - these are typical symptoms that the delegation of authority in the organization is done incorrectly or it is simply out of the question.

The manager needs to deal with other issues, such as determining the strategic direction of the enterprise, making serious decisions on the purchase of goods or production equipment, increasing or decreasing the number of personnel, etc., and if he does not have these "little things" enough time, sooner or later financial collapse will come.

The problem of training and professional growth of employees is solved in the process of practical work, and if the initiative is constrained even in solving minor issues, then it is almost impossible to prepare qualified deputies, as well as to determine the degree of suitability of a particular member of the team to perform one or another tasks. And this is very important, because there are no people who know and can do everything in the world, and sometimes an ordinary manager can cope with a difficult task better than his leader, thanks to his special training.

Delegation of authority in management can be a great way of intangible stimulation, it will demonstrate the trust of the employee from the outsideleader, will be highly appreciated.

There is another point that speaks in favor of the distribution of workloads in the team. Not everything is visible from a high commanding chair, sometimes problems are much more objectively assessed by those who have simpler chairs. Delegation of authority will help eliminate bottlenecks effectively and, most importantly, do it faster. The manager must understand the essence of the task entrusted to him, independently decide how to perform it, then he will become a real worker. In all other cases, he will remain "office plankton" and "biorobot".

If you need to give the shortest possible definition of the concept of "enterprise management", then it will sound like "delegation of authority". But it is very important for all leaders to remember that it is the powers that are delegated, and not the responsibility.