Delegation can be a good thing for managers and leaders. It can free them up to do more important work and also serve as a way of developing team members. But delegation needs to be done properly and today’s ‘learnagrafic’ summarises five steps that can ensure you delegate tasks effectively.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
OpenNoviz is a company that specialises in publishing technology books and training videos, mainly in the area of open-source software. The company was started seven years ago by two computer science graduates and has grown to about 150 employees with £15 million in revenue annually. In the initial days of the company, it had a start-up culture with a flat organisational structure. There was no need for any hierarchy or line management. But as the company grew it became necessary to put some kind of structure in place after some unfortunate incidents and a decrease in performance.
The company set up teams with managers but things got worse because the managers could not manage. People had been promoted to managers because of their excellent technical performance and not because they knew how to manage. OpenNoviz has now brought in a temporary HR Manager and a temporary learning and development (L&D) manager to help. Below is a recent excerpt from a conversation between the CEO, HR Manager and L&D Manager on how to move forward.
CEO: You’ve been brought on board to help us formalise how we lead the company. We spoke last week and I asked you to think of what needs to happen.
HR Manager: To start with we need to run a management development programme for all managers to learn how to manage properly. We also need to write some policies and procedures to guide how people work. Then we need to put in place a proper performance management system.
CEO: Thanks for that (he looks in the direction of the L&D Manager).
L&D Manager: I think those are great ideas but I personally would want to start the managers off qyuickly by helping them practice some behaviour that can help them manage performance continuously. Putting in place policies, a performance management system, and implementing a management development program takes time and resources.
CEO: So, what are you suggesting?
L&D Manager: To help the managers develop some simple skills and behaviors that they can use daily to manage performance. The skills are setting expectations, giving effective feedback, and having coaching conversations.
CEO: Just that?
L&D Manager: To start with, yes. And we can start the training next Monday. We will start with setting expectations.
CEO: (to HR Manager) What do you think?
HR Manager: I do think things like this need to be done properly but she is right to say that policies, performance management systems and management development programmes do take time. It’s important to get the ball rolling and if he can start something next week, why not? I still do think that in the longer term, we should put in place what I suggested.
CEO: (talking to the L&D Manager) Go for it, get the ball rolling.
Just like that, the L&D Manager whom we shall call Ola has to roll out a mini-development programme for the managers at OpenNoviz starting with supporting them to set clear expectations.
Next up, Ola will write a performance goal for the setting expectations course.
INTRODUCTION
Larry is a new learning and development manager at XL Support, a health and social care company that provides services to people with mental health support needs. Having been on the job for just over six months, Larry is getting overburdened with work.
After discussing his work dilemma with his friend and former manager, Brian, he is advised by Brian that maybe he should be delegating some of the tasks he is doing to team members who are better placed to do them.
The challenge is that Larry has never delegated before and does not know where to start. Brian, who is much more experienced, agrees to show Larry how to delegate tasks to his team members effectively.
Through the discussion between Larry and Brian, you will read about what delegation is, its benefits to both the manager and team members, reasons why some managers don’t delegate despite the benefits of delegation, and steps we can take to delegate effectively.
We have come to the end of the session on effective delegation. In this part of the session, the participants will reflect on what they learnt during the session and then it will be brought to a close.
REFLECTION AND CONCLUSION
Direct them to the section in their workbooks titled – REFLECT – NOTE – ACT.
Tell them to do the reflection activity there and afterward be ready to share at least one thing from their reflection.
Give them 6-minutes for the activity.
When the time is up, stop them and get everyone’s attention. Then allow each participant to talk about one thing from their reflection. For those who want to talk about more than one thing allow them to do so.
When they finish, thank them for sharing their reflections and also engaging in the practice session.
After that move on to end the training session but first ask if they have any questions and/or comments.
Listen to any they have and respond appropriately.
Then display the slide titled – SESSION REVIEW.
Tell them that:
After that close the session.
In the previous part of the session (see the post about it here) the participants engaged in a practice session to demonstrate what to do during delegation. In this part of the session, they will become involved in another practice session, this time to demonstrate what happens after delegation.
PRACTICE SESSION – AFTER DELEGATION
Tell them that:
Put them back into the small groups using the ‘breakout rooms’ feature.
During the practice session join each room briefly to see what they are doing and where necessary, answer any questions they have.
Once the practice session time is up (60-minutes), stop them and bring everyone back to the main room.
Then ask them some questions not aimed at anyone in particular to get an overview of what they got from the practice sessions.
You can ask questions like these (or you can make up your own questions):
The participants have now finished the practice session and have also come to the end of the course. All that is left is for them to reflect on what they’ve learnt and will take away, then you can end the session. We will do that in the next post.
The participants have already been involved in one practice session which was done by the facilitator and two volunteer participants. Now they are going to be put into small groups to practice how to delegate.
DELEGATION IN ACTION – PRACTISING IN SMALL GROUPS
Display the slide titled – PRACTICE IN SMALL GROUPS.
Tell them that:
Display the next slide titled – GIVING FEEDBACK.
Tell them that:
Click the link below to see the instructions for the practice session.
Instructions for practice sessions
Preparation for practice – during delegation
Give them 3-minutes to read the information there. After they’ve read it, check that they understand what they need to do during the practice session. If you need to clarify anything for them, do so.
Next, use the ‘breakout rooms’ feature to put them into groups of threes to do the practice sessions.
During the practice session join each room briefly to see what they are doing and where necessary, answer any questions they have.
Once the practice session time is up (60-minutes), stop them and bring everyone back to the main room.
Then ask them some questions not aimed at anyone in particular to get an overview of what they got from the practice sessions.
You can ask questions like these (or you can make up your own questions):
In the next part of the session, they will do another practice session but this time for an after-delegation check-in.
In the previous part of this training session on effective delegation, participants were preparing to get involved in practicing how to do an ‘after-delegation’ check-in (read the post here). In this part of the session, they will do the actual practice.
PRACTICE SESSION ON DELEGATING EFFECTIVELY – AFTER DELEGATION
When the preparation time is up, stop them and bring everyone back to the main room.
As you did for the previous practice session, let everyone put off their cameras except those playing the roles of Danielle, Denzel and Amal then you can have the practice session. The practice session should not last for more than 10-minutes.
After the session let everyone put their cameras back on and ask for feedback in the following order:
Then ask the observers to give their feedback by first talking about what went well and what can be improved or done differently.
After listening to all the feedback, thank everyone for their participation in the practice session and then let them reflect by writing down up to three lessons they learnt and will take away from the practice sessions in the chat window.
As they write their answers in the chat window, read through them quietly so you don’t distract people. Allow them to go on for 3-minutes. After 3-minutes stop them and read out the information they wrote down.
When you finish reading, thank them again for their participation and then move on to review the practice session. To review the session tell them that:
Next, move on to the next set of practice sessions in which the participants will practice in small groups.
In the next part of the session, they will do some more practice but this time in small groups by themselves without including the facilitator.
Previously, in the session, the participants were preparing for a practice session on how to delegate effectively (see it here). This part of the session will focus on the first part of the practice session.
PRACTICE SESSION ON DELEGATING EFFECTIVELY
Now that the participants have finished preparing, let them know that you are now going to start the practice session.
To make it easier for the participants acting as Denzel and Amal, everybody else will put off their cameras apart from the three of you involved in the practice.
Remind the observers to take down notes. They can write down the notes in the section of their workbooks titled – OBSERVERS NOTES.
The practice session should take no more than 15-minutes.
After the practice let everyone put their cameras back on and ask for feedback in the following order:
Then ask the observers to give their feedback by first talking about what went well and then what can be improved.
Next, tell them that there is going to be another practice session for what happens after delegation. Remind them that delegation does not end after the task has been delegated and Danielle will need to check-in with Denzel and Amal about how the task is going. Just like the previous practice session, let them know that in their workbooks are two sections titled – DENZEL GROUP – THE CHECK-IN and – AMAL GROUP – THE CHECK-IN.
Put them back into their small groups using the ‘breakout rooms’ feature and let them prepare for the next practice session using the relevant information in their workbooks for each group. Give them 7-minutes for the preparation.
The facilitator acting as Danielle should use the notes in the box below to prepare for the practice session.
In the next part of the session, the participants will get involved in the ‘after delegation’ practice session.
In the previous part of this training session, the participants worked on an activity for a scenario to identify the right team member to delegate a task to. You see it here. In this part of the session, the participants will prepare for a practice session focused on how to delegate effectively.
PRACTICE SESSION ON DELEGATING EFFECTIVELY
Tell them that:
Give them 3-minutes to read the information. After 3-minutes stop them and verify that they understand what they are going to be doing. If necessary, explain it to them again and check to see that they all understand.
Next, let them know that in their workbooks are two sections titled – DENZEL GROUP – DURING DELEGATION and – AMAL GROUP – DURING DELEGATION.
When you split them into Denzel and Amal groups, each respective group will use the relevant information to prepare. Now, put them into two groups (Denzel and Amal groups).
Give them 10-minutes to prepare and nominate a volunteer participant (Denzel and Amal).
The facilitator acting as Danielle should use the notes in the box below to prepare for the demonstration.
When the preparation time is up, stop them and bring everyone back to the main room to do the practice. Let them know that you are now going to start the practice session.
In the next part of the session, the participants will get involved in the practice session and also give feedback.
LearnaBytes 