Effective Management: Roles, Skills, and Delegation

Manager's Role

The manager's role is to get things done through people. They are responsible for carrying out the vision, mission, and objectives of the company.

Management Defined

Management is a resource process that integrates previously unrelated elements to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

Elements of Management

• Planning: Strategic, operational, staffing, and daily planning.
• Organization: Distribution of work and delegation.
• Leadership: Motivating, giving orders, influencing, and fostering teamwork.
• Delegation: Transferring a specific task to another person for a specific activity.
• Control: Setting standards, measuring results, comparing results against standards, and taking corrective action.

Skills Needed in Managerial Levels

• Technical Skills: Ability to use knowledge, methods, and techniques.
• Human Skills: Ability to work through people, including effective leadership, motivation, and teamwork.
• Conceptual Skills: Ability to understand the complexity of the entire organization.
• Design Skills: Ability to design different models of operational and administrative management.

Conceptual Skills

Conceptual skills include determining:

• Where the organization or department is.
• What must be done to get there (objectives).
• How objectives were achieved.
• Who will help to achieve the objectives.
• When goals must be achieved.

Delegation

Delegation involves giving tasks or projects to people so that they can complete them.

Authority

Authority is the power to decide how something will be done. It can be delegated.

Accountability

Accountability is the ability to respond to events and activities in a given area.

What Do Managers Manage?

Managers manage behavior, or what people do.

What Is Not Management?

Not delegating is not management.

Why People Do Not Want to Delegate

• No time.
• Fear of criticism.
• Lack of confidence in subordinates.
• Desire to maintain control.
• Psychological reasons.

Benefits of Delegation

• Provides time to think and plan.
• Avoids pressure on the job.
• Develops trust.
• Fosters teamwork.
• Multiplies efforts through the division of tasks.

What to Delegate

• Routine work.
• Tasks that will increase job satisfaction.
• Tasks that develop subordinates.
• Tasks that will bring challenges.

What Not to Delegate

• Authority inherent in the job.
• Duplication of their work.
• Final disciplinary authority.
• Responsibility.

Who to Delegate To

• Immediate subordinates.
• Subordinates with unused skills.
• Subordinates who need experience.
• Subordinates who must strengthen their skills.

Ideas to Learn to Delegate

• As a manager, you must be convinced that your job is to do things through people.
• Analyze your current habits periodically at the office.
• Train others to do further work, including yours.
• Do not be afraid to give freedom of action.

The Process of Delegation

• Preparation: Specify the tasks to be delegated and to whom they are delegated.
• 1st Meeting with Subordinates: Inform the chosen subordinates of the project and ask for a plan of action, while requesting a longer meeting.
• 2nd Meeting with Subordinates: Revise the action plan and anticipate obstacles.
• Execution.
• Control: Monitor the progress of the project or the delegated task and make adjustments if necessary.
• Recognition: Accept if all is well and recognize the efforts of subordinates.

Leadership

Leadership is the ability to influence the behavior of people.

Types of Leadership

Authoritarian, democratic, and liberal.

Qualities of a Good Leader

• Trust.
• Vision.
• Action.
• Enthusiasm.
• Warmth.
• Calmness.
• Fairness and firmness.

Leadership Principles

• Rests, not coerced.
• Attracts, not pushes.
• Motivates and guides.
• Involves people.
• Management is uninspired leadership.