Delegation is one of the management skills that is most emphasized when studying the performance of professional teams. It indicates a movement of responsibility from the top of the organization to the bottom. This transfer of trust produces an increase in motivation to undertake, directed toward common goals. Allen Woo, an expert in business strategies for professional development, explains how delegation can be a tool for growth among employees.
Group work is improved by applying dynamics of participation and involvement in the mission that identifies the group. The essential hierarchical relationships acquire with delegation a less rigid dimension and enhance the operational functions. Leadership manages these qualities for their planned and gradual expression with the progress of the projects undertaken.
“The popular term ’empowerment’ comes from political sociology and has two concurrent meanings,” explains Woo. “On the one hand, there is empowerment for collective autonomy and, on the other, a ceding of power or responsibilities. In business organizations, this idea pursues the involvement of everyone in an organization in a joint plan.”
The leader in the business world orients his actions with his collaborators in three ways. First, he opens channels of communication for a free dissemination of ideas, initiatives, and discoveries of opportunities. Regular meetings and personal attention cover this facet with a layer of protection and support.
Subsequently, he knows the qualities, knowledge, and skills of his collaborators for the successful assignment of tasks. This function is always present when responsibilities are unevenly distributed. But it is exercised with tact, discretion and is carried out according to the natural habits of daily work.
And finally, he transfers the plans and strategies of the organization to his team, not as a closed package of instructions. On the contrary, as a driving force that integrates individual or collective contributions that are in tune with the ultimate goals of management and the brand.
Leadership must apply delegation without confusing this technique with similar measures, but lacking the value it has for the organization. To identify the right delegation, Woo shares some of his essential notes.
“Delegation is always personal,” the expert comments. “It’s directed to specific workers. Functions are not diluted in the organization without a person in charge. Each employee must respond to this trust with a margin of autonomy that gives his or her decisions their own stamp.”
Delegation must be based on the responsible and committed trajectory of the employee chosen for a task. The appearance of arbitrariness must be avoided; organizations naturally recognize people who are qualified for certain tasks. Delegation rewards a previous professional track record or relies on a reasoned trust bonus.
Woo assures that the person who assumes the delegation must have the material means and authority to carry out his or her tasks successfully. “Empowerment is a transfer of authority and responsibility to the point where it is best exercised,” he adds.
In addition, delegation is subject to a review of achievements. It is not exercised as a simple control, but rather as a maintenance of the dialogue from which it was born and as a means of recognizing the effort made.
Time is one of the resources most appreciated by professionals who take on major responsibilities. There are a multitude of methodologies for valuing this irretrievable loss variable. They seek to lighten the agenda of company administrators and managers.
“Delegating is a way of concentrating management functions on tasks that are strategic for the business plan. It is also an effective tool for managing the time of professionals with maximum responsibility in their priority tasks,” confirms Woo.
The dynamism of the organization acquires its maximum performance when the issues are being dealt with by the most efficient part of the organization for this. The act of delegating uncovers these repositories of professional value in the organization.
Delegation increases the motivation of the employees involved in a process where trust is realized. The activity of the companies revives with new vigor the illusions placed in objectives already achieved in the past.
With these small changes, company structures echo market trends. They are constant changes that maintain the necessary tension to face the competition.