LEADING AND MANAGING PEOPLE
Delegating and Empowerment
The behaviours in the table below show how you can demonstrate the skill of Delegating and Empowerment at each of the competency levels in which it appears. Click on the plus sign to show the behaviours at that level.
Level 1
- Allocates tasks to the most appropriate person, agrees methods, clarifies levels of authority and empowerment, gives relevant information, and supports those carrying out delegated tasks.
Level 5
- Sets appropriate and clear levels of accountability and governance to facilitate and encourage empowerment.
Resources
Below you will find learning resources to help you develop the skill of Delegating and Empowerment. Click on the links to access the resources.
This PDF will take you through a process to make it easier to delegate tasks, taking into account your frame of mind, the purpose of the delegation, what information you need, and how you might structure the discussion. It will help you delegate more consistently and effectively.
What's Expected of Me?
The performance management question covered in this PDF focuses on clarifying responsibilities and priorities, and is particularly useful for team members who are struggling with overwhelm or uncertainty about what part they play in the wider team or organisation. It is also useful for clarifying objectives for a team or organisation.
Understanding Rights and Responsibilities
This PDF covers the difference between a right (something you have the freedom to do taking only yourself into account) and a responsibility (something you are required to do to take other people into account) and how to maintain a fair balance between the two. It will help you reach a constructive outcome if there are problems and disagreements.
Rights and Responsibilities at Work
This PDF builds on the information outlined in ‘Understanding Rights and Responsibilities’ and gives some examples of managers’ and employees’ rights and responsibilities, and how they compare to each other. This is a good PDF to use if you are doing this exercise with your team or manager and need some examples to get you started.
Enabling Autonomy - Role Profile
This PDF provides a template for you or someone you manage to take stock of your/their role and responsibilities. Use this technique to identify the areas of a job that are most affected by lack of autonomy in order to make a case to enable more. Increasing autonomy can facilitate your own or someone else’s development, drive engagement, and reduce stress.
VIDEOS
Delegating in a Matrix
This video will provide you with a strategy for effectively delegating tasks when working in a matrix structure. It will help you to delegate in a way that motivates and empowers your team and leaves you reassured and with more time to focus on tasks that are more appropriate for your role and level.
Rights and Responsibilities
This video explains how clarifying rights and responsibilities can lead to a more assertive mindset and approach and how, when out of balance, they lead to aggressive or non-assertive states of mind and behaviour. You can use the technique to help yourself to handle difficult or unfamiliar situations better, and coach anyone in your team who also needs support to become more assertive and effective.
ON THE JOB ACTIONS
Delegating
Use as a guiding principle the fact that managers get work done through others. Review your workload and anticipate future workload. Consider what you absolutely must do yourself and that which others could or might do. Develop your approach to delegation and use the 'Delegation Checklist' when delegating big tasks.
Updating Priorities
Review the individual’s pie chart of objectives using the technique in What’s expected of me? when you delegate something so that you can discuss and clarify their priorities. Maybe it’s possible for them to stop doing something?
Empowerment
Speak to each member of your team regularly so that you can ensure they have the information they need to carry out their role. Ensure the information is at the right level of detail for the person.
Empowerment
Don’t expect people just to act in an empowered way. Sometimes people need to know formally and specifically what the boundaries are of what they can and can’t do. Then they will move into the space with confidence. The notes Enabling Autonomy - Role Profile show how using the pie chart technique and some good questions can help create greater autonomy and empowerment.
Understand your rights
If you are unsure about whether you can delegate, read and/or watch Rights and Responsibilities at Work to use a technique (with examples) for building your clarity and confidence when delegating.