Delegating, Empowerment and Strategic Alignment
July 12, 2007
"Delegating means letting others become the experts and hence the best."
- Timothy Firnstahl, American Business Executive
There are good habits that we hope all of our supervisors and managers have to help them handle the often powerful and complex challenges of leadership. Bill Gates once said:
"Virtually every company will be going out and empowering with a certain set of tools, and the big difference in how much value is received from that will be how much the company steps back and really thinks through their business processes, thinking through how their business can change, how their project management, their customer feedback, their planning cycles can be quite different than they ever were before."
Delegating with clarity and purpose might be considered an art by some while others find it completely difficult. Leaders who regularly delegate are strategically aligned with their employees to improve business processes and provide feedback. This engages employees so that they are reciprocally aligned with their leaders.
Delegating demonstrates trust and encourages development. When you have these two factors at work in your organization, you have a positive environment in which empowered employees are focused on organizational goals.
Delegating Breeds Strategic Alignment
Strategic alignment, therefore, is a two way street. If you could express the power of delegation in a formula for success it might look like this:
By delegating responsibilities and projects with clear communication, the bonds of the team are strengthened, manager-employee relationships are improved and a synergistic relationship results. This ties managers and employees together in strategic alignment for the achievement of business goals.
The Power of Communication Tools
One of the most powerful tools a leader will ever have is communication. There is no replacement for being able to communicate well in the delegation process. Leaders must be able to communicate the "what" and the "why" of every task they delegate. Without taking the time to communicate correctly, misunderstandings occur, workloads become imbalanced, bonds are broken, processes stall and strategic alignment with goals never occurs.
Therefore, to delegate and empower appropriately, managers and supervisors must learn the following skills:
- Explain the need for delegation.
- Use delegation of tasks to motivate.
- Explain tasks and ask team member's view (getting feedback).
- Specify responsibility and authority (empowerment).
- Confirming team member's understanding and set up time review (process improvement).
Why Delegating is So Important
In a perfect world, everyone is going out and empowering as our quote from Bill Gates alludes to. But delegating does more than that. It develops people who are able to work through processes and make things better. And, as people develop, they move through the corporate ladder. Delegating expresses confidence in team members and motivates them to achieve strategic goals and redefine their own potential. Delegating creates your leaders of tomorrow who already are strategically aligned with leadership and goals.
About the author:
Don Bowlby is the Vice President, Operations at Corexcel, a company specializing in online continuing education and workforce training. For more information about Corexcel and the training materials they offer, visit www.corexcel.com.