Page 172 - Becoming a Successful Manager

Delegating Effectively and Empowering Employees to Take Risks 163

Minimize the Risks of Delegating

Making those lists in your manager’s journal is excellent prepa-
ration, but you may still be hesitant about putting someone else
in charge of a project. You may well feel that you can do it faster
yourself, but that’s not what managers do. Managers motivate
other people to carry out the tasks while they supervise.
You can reduce your anxiety by satisfactorily answering three
pairs of questions about the person you’re considering:

• Does this person have the abilities to handle this project?
How do I know?
• Does this person have the judgment to make the right deci-
sions? How do I know?
• Does this person have the emotional maturity to overcome
barriers that may be encountered along the way? How do I
know?

How can you measure and answer questions about these variables
objectively?
If you have been observing your employees regularly, you’ll
know when they are ready to step up to additional responsibili-
ties. If you don’t know, perhaps you should observe them a little
more closely before you set up any new opportunity. It is always
preferable to delay delegating and thereby increase the probability
of success than to guess and be wrong. An error here could hurt
both you and your employee, so don’t act in haste.
If your answers to the three sets of questions are positive, you
can be reasonably sure you will be delegating to the right person.
Your next step is to minimize your employees’ risk in assuming
the responsibility you are about to delegate.