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Management Tip of the Day for Busy Managers: Delegating Responsibility

By jamila jennifer abubakar · Comments (0) · Saturday, October 1st, 2011

It’s a all-too-common hazard of being a manager. You think you’ve delegated something, and then (seemingly by stealth) the monkey jumps back onto your back. How did that happen? Join Jed & Bob this week as they discuss how to keep delegated tasks delegated.

Monday’s Tip (Delegating Responsibility): Have regular one on ones. The best preventative measure for keeping delegated tasks delegated is to have regular and ongoing dialogue about various tasks and how they are progressing.

Tuesday’s Tip (Delegating Responsibility): Avoid perfectionist tendencies. If you have a high need for control, or are a perfectionist, then it’ll be hard for you to resist doing all the work yourself, or to redo other people’s work.

Wednesday’s Tip (Delegating Responsibility): Be wary about offering help. You should counsel, coach, and advise. When these activities stray towards doing part of the work for people, you need to take a step back and reassess. Be supportive, but leave the responsibility with your direct report.

Thursday’s Tip (Delegating Responsibility): Make sure the delegated project or task is perfectly clear. You can save yourself a ton of work if you make sure the expectations and requirements are absolutely clear. If they aren’t, you will no doubt end up buying part of the task back from your designate.

Friday’s Tip (Delegating Responsibility): Ask lots of questions. If you ask a lot of questions throughout the process of the task you’ve delegated, you will be able to effectively keep track of progress and take action before the monkey lands back on your back.

3 Things to remember about Delegating Responsibility:

1. It’s not your job to do their job.
2. Be vigilant about the Monkey’s whereabouts.
3. Helping with an employee’s Monkeys is best done during a one with one.

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Categories : jamila jennifer abubakar

Tags : delegate, delegating, delegating effectively, delegating tasks, leadership, responsibility

The Vroom Yetton Model: Leadership Tip of the Day for Busy Managers and Leaders

By jamila jennifer abubakar · Comments (0) · Thursday, September 29th, 2011

Some managers have a process for making decisions. Others flip a coin. This week the Bob and Jed discuss contingent decision-making using the Vroom Yetton Model that challenges managers to consider their situation to choose a style of decision making.

Monday’s Tip (The Vroom Yetton Model): Don’t assume people always act rationally. Lots of decisions get influenced by political considerations or other bias.

Tuesday’s Tip (The Vroom Yetton Model): Some decisions should be made autocratically. Managers are encouraged to involve their people, but sometimes a leader needs to act without consensus or input from others.

Wednesday’s Tip (The Vroom Yetton Model): Don’t always act without consultation. If a leader only ever makes autocratic decisions, she will end up making many mistakes and alienating people. Carefully consider the situation before selecting on a decision making style.

Thursday’s Tip (The Vroom Yetton Model): Consider whether you are working with good information. The first question a leader needs to ask when making a decision is whether or not he has good information, or whether more needs to be learned.

Friday’s Tip (The Vroom Yetton Model): Consider how important buy-in is for any decision. If you have a strong need to have good buy-in for any decision, you need to be more participative in your process. If buy-in is less important, the decision can be more autocratic.

3 Things to remember about the Vroom Yetton Model:

1. Don’t make it complicated. You should be able to run through the model in only a few minutes to assist you in choosing your style.
2. Realize some decisions should be autocratic. Well-intentioned advisors tell you to always involve your people in decisions. In reality, some decisions must be made by the leader alone.
3. Don’t over-rely on one decision making style. If you become over or under-participative in successive decisions, you will ultimately fail. Each decision must be assessed according to the environment.

Improve your leadership skills! Visit www.wilymanager.com for Just-in-Time Management Advice.Get our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection!

Watch our video about the Vroom Yetton Model.