Delegating

Delegation

The first part of organizing is to subdivide the work and to assign it to others in the group. This is the work of delegation. Delegation of the work is a major part of the task of organizing.

Definition

 Delegation is the assigning and entrusting of responsibility, authority, accountability, and freedom for the performance of a part of a leader’s work. It is the pushing down of authority from superior to subordinate. It is distributing the work and authority in such a manner that the skills of subordinates will best be utilized in terms of reaching the objective. Theodore Roosevelt said, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” That is what delegation is all about.

In a broader sense, delegation is the assigning of tasks to subordinates, but it must be viewed as more than just giving orders. Giving orders would be like telling a person to turn the thermostat up or down. Delegation is when a person is told to monitor the room temperature and adjust the thermostat as needed. That person is put in charge.

The larger an organization becomes, the more necessary it will be for the leaders at the top to delegate. The more responsibility a leader has, then the more of his work he must delegate. The larger an organization becomes, the more an administrator must concern himself with long-range planning and major policies and procedures, and the less he will concern himself with specific details. A chart, prepared for business men, can easily be adapted to the large church staff situation to show how much should be delegated:

1. Pastor (president) – 95% of the work to be delegated
2. Minister of Education (vice president) – 75% of work to be delegated
3. Junior Pastor (department head) – 50% of work to be delegated
4. Maintenance Supervisor (foreman) – 25% of work to be delegated.

The pastor in a large church today can delegate almost all of his work to associates, except for the preaching. A church business administrator can do much of the administering. Associates can do the counseling and visitation. The preaching part is a part that the senior pastor is expected to perform in today’s society.

Advantages

 There are many advantages to using delegation. Delegation will:

1. Relieve the pressure on the leader as he passes responsibility downward as Moses did in Exodus 18
2. Allow the leader more time for planning and evaluating
3. Make the leader more promotable because he can do more demanding tasks, and is training a replacement
4. Ensure the work continues when the leader is absent. Jesus delegated to his disciples to carry on His work at the ascension (Matthew 28:19–20).
5. Develop leadership in subordinates as they accept the responsibility and the authority and are given the freedom to do a job. It prepares them for a more responsible future position
6. Make a routine job more satisfying to the workers
7. Increase motivation, challenge, and interest

Delegation is a sign of good leadership. In one study the leaders that were rated as excellent made the most use of delegation.

Leader is still responsible

 One important concept to keep in mind is that the leader is still ultimately responsible for the part of his job which he has delegated. Therefore, delegation must always include some type of reporting back. The leader should always be available and ready to give help as needed. The leader should never relinquish the total control through delegation. He should give the
subordinate as much freedom as he deserves and can use wisely.

A person can give freedom or authority by degrees. At least three levels can be identified.

(1) The person may not act until he has been given approval.

(2) The person may have authority to act, but must report his actions to his supervisor.

(3) A person may have enough authority to act without prior approval, or even a report of progress. The third type is an extreme. If a worker reports back a number of times and the action is accepted, then he may assume it is permissible to go to the third type. His action is viewed as a policy action.

One way to give freedom and yet maintain control is to set follow-up dates along the way. These check points are built in during the initial planning. They should be displayed in a way that everyone can see progress. This reporting system should be built in so that people can follow-up on themselves. Some workers will require a lot of follow-up, and others will require only a very little. Always remember the old maxim, “people do what we inspect, not what we expect.”

Reasons delegation is not used

 If delegation is so good, then why is it that every leader doesn’t do it? This question has many answers. Some leaders think all their job must be done by them personally. They may think that no one else can do anything good enough. Some leaders think that it will take more time and effort to find someone, train them, and check up on them doing a job than it would take them to do it in the first place.