I am new to Manager Tools, and am trying to drink from the MT fire hose of knowledge. Thus far, I have scheduled my O3s for the year, and am listening to the podcasts. My question regards delegation, and is as follows:
I have a specific task that needs to be delegated. Should I delegate it to my direct report, or to a person on her team who would be equally qualified? (Note: I HAVE listened to the DELEGATION podcast, but HAVE NOT listened to the SKIP podcasts (yet)).
Thank you in advance,
Steve
Delegate to my direct, or to her's?
Do not directly manage your skips.
Delegate it to your direct. Do you expect her to delegate it further? (see the Juggling Koan podcast). This could be a coaching exercise in teaching your direct how to delegate.
John
Delegate to my direct, or to her's?
I agree with John. Don't undermine your directs by managing their people. Give it to your direct. If they need help with delegation, it's an opportunity, if they don't, you can forget about it.
I always like the quote that said: "Until you give someone the opportunity to fail, you're not giving them the opportunity to succeed."
I'm sure I'm messing up the quote, but you get the idea. :) Let your direct handle the delegation.
Delegate to my direct, or to her's?
Me too. Delegate to the Direct.
Of course, somebody pointed out elsewhere that the first thing you should be delegating to your Directs is the idea that they, too, should be working on becoming MT manager. So you might give them the task you want passed along at the same time you suggest they listen to this:
http://www.manager-tools.com/2005/08/the-art-of-delegation/
Wow, that's an old one, too. But a good one.
tc>
Delegate to my direct, or to her's?
Direct.
Mark