This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Playing Risk, Management Edition

The right amount of risk in a management style can bring big rewards.

 

Find out what's happening in Toms Riverwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Do your employees run everything by you? Or seem afraid to take initiative? If you answered yes to either question you may benefit by taking an inventory of your managerial skills.

 

Find out what's happening in Toms Riverwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Whenever I hear a manager complain that his or her employees are incompetent or have to ask how to do every little thing my delegation alarm goes off.  Those two items are the biggest cues that the manager may be lacking a critical skill, delegation. And not just delegating but delegating effectively.

 

Management positions in business come with appealing rewards including movement up the organizational ladder, greater exposure, and usually an increase in the manager’s compensation package. But they come with special challenges and frustrations, too. One of the most difficult aspects of management is delegating—mastering the art of accomplishing objectives through others versus jumping in and doing them oneself. And yet delegation is the most important skill for a manager to master.

 

Why?

 

Because managers who can’t let go of the tasks will by default take on all of the jobs they are responsible for: their own and those of their subordinates. The oversight tasks of a manager, such as setting objectives, budgetary planning and monitoring, hiring, training, and reporting to name a few, make a full time job in and of themselves. Managers who don’t use effective delegation techniques will find themselves drowning in a sea of tasks their subordinates should perform so that they can get on to the business of managing. Which, after all, is the job that scored them the title, office, and increased compensation.

 

Delegation simply put is assigning tasks and projects to subordinates. That seems easy enough to do but a surprising number of managers have difficulty with it. Kind of like the parent who can’t let go of the bike to let her child ride free, on his own steam. Fear of seeing the child fall can lock a parent’s grip on the bike seat, just as it can lock a manager’s grip on assignments.

 

In the parent’s case a fall may cause a scraped knee that can easily be treated with a little antibacterial salve and a bandage. The stakes for a manager letting a subordinate fall can be a little greater, as each underling’s successes and failures will reflect on his abilities, too.  But those who don’t foster a sense of independence in employees will suffer the same disastrous result as parents who don’t help their children learn from little mistakes. Kids and staffers, who are smothered by parents and managers doing everything for them, including making all of their decisions, remain forever dependent upon their overseers and unable to function on their own.

 

Effective parents guide their children to greater levels of independence by explaining what’s expected of them, coaching, training, picking them up when they fall, and helping them get back on the bike with a little corrective instruction. Managers who use the same techniques develop capable staff members who learn from mistakes and help to carry the load to goal attainment.

 

Risk’s Role in Managing Others

 

Employees can easily sense risk-averse environments—ones in which mistakes or errors come with severe penalties, even release. And they act accordingly by checking with managers before taking even the smallest action. What they see as being careful to avoid punishment can be labeled lack of initiative by their manager.

 

There is always some risk in giving employees the freedom to independently carry out a project or assignment. But fostering a risk-averse environment creates bottlenecks that prevent efficient workflow and stifle creativity. Good managers find a middle ground.

 

Baby Steps

 

Managers who are new to a staff and unfamiliar with each members’ strengths and developmental needs may want to hedge their risks with a regular reporting process through which employees can check in along the way. Potential problems can be caught, and this method provides teaching and mentoring opportunities. Once all members become familiar with each other, staffers should be able to function more independently because they’ve benefitted from the learning process.

 

As in parenting, business delegation should follow a maturation continuum. Successful managers dole out low profile/low risk assignments first so they can gauge employees’ abilities. This method of delegating lets employees learn from small mistakes. As they master their jobs and become more effective, increasingly more complex and important projects can safely be assigned.

 

Sink or Swim

 

Would you throw a person into the deep end with his hands and feet bound to see if he will sink or swim?

 

The person being tossed can pay a deadly price because it’s almost impossible to move without the use of limbs. That’s what delegating responsibility without authority does to a staffer. Effective delegators give staff members the responsibility along with the authority to make things happen. And then they see if the staffer will sink or swim.

 

I know a manager of a small sales group within a company that paid minimum wage in an overcrowded market. Her responsibilities included, among other things, hiring, training, and managing staff; purchasing inventory; creating marketing events; tracking inventory; achieving 6-figure monthly sales goals; and reporting daily receipts to the owner. Although she was held accountable for sales results she was denied the authority to advertise for staff openings, advertise the products or marketing events, provide input for sales goals, increase pay, create sales incentives, or select inventory based upon what sold best. Consequently it took several months to hire a stable and capable staff, make the community aware of the company’s presence, and grow a customer base. Lofty sales goals—much hirer than competitors’—were not achieved during this ramp-up period, but she was still held accountable for the shortfall and her compensation and performance review reflected this.

 

This manager was thrown into the deep end without the use of her limbs and she figuratively drowned. What happened to her? She found a job in a similar company with a risk-friendly environment. There she had the authority to make important decisions and exceeded her sales goals each month. It was an unnecessary waste of the original employer’s time and resources, and of her own. And it cost both parties money.

 

Do you inadvertently hamstring your employees?

 

If you’re experiencing bottlenecks, continual incompetence of your staff, or constant requests for your approval of mundane tasks, take a look at your delegation style and see if it could benefit from a taking a little risk.

 

Find more informative articles by Colleen and other specialists here.

 

Featured Image Courtesy of renjith Krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?