2
Lesson 2:
Outcomes:
- Describe effective delegation to promote productivity, team development, team resiliency, and when choosing the right person for the job
- Summarize accountability and ways to avoid micromanagement
- Discuss a supervisor’s accountability when making decisions that affect others
Maximizing Delegation and Accountability for Effective Supervision
Delegation means to trust another person, or team of people, to do a job that you are responsible for. It is different from allocation, because allocating is simply giving a person, or team of people, work to do. Delegation lightens the load of a supervisor and allows them more time to do tasks that employees cannot perform.
Here are the 4 steps to delegation:
- Make sure the employee understands the assignment and agrees to do the work.
- Tell the employee how you will check his or her work, or how he or she is to report completion. Check back later in the way you have said you would.
- Make sure that everyone involved knows that the employee has the authority to carry out the work.
- Review who does what
To effectively delegate tasks, a supervisor must make sure that the employee takes on the responsibility of the task, outlines how they will be held accountable, has the necessary authority to complete the task, and keeps track of the progress and completion of the task.
Note: CC0 BY 1.0 Universal
Watch: Management Training: Delegating Effectively – YouTube
Note: (Anthony Donovan, 2016)
Supervisors hold ultimate responsibility for the work carried out by their teams, including the effectiveness of tasks delegated to employees. When tasks are delegated, employees must accept responsibility for completing them and report on progress as required. To effectively delegate, supervisors should break down the work into manageable tasks for individual employees and ensure that they are appropriately challenged. When accountable for delegation, it’s important for supervisors to know who is doing each task.
Positive Advantages of Delegation
There are many advantages of delegating tasks to a person or team of people as a supervisor. Four important advantages are:
Note: Digits.co.uk Images. (2022). Teamwork [Illustration].
Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/195219893@N08/51924309260/
Journal Question:
Using the forum labelled “Course 1: Chapter 1” make a journal entry responding to the prompt below. Ensure that you title the entry “Lesson 2”. After writing a journal entry, go and make a comment on two other posts from your classmates. It can be about anything you noticed, liked, agreed with etc. The idea is to continue the dialogue about the topic.
Prompt: After reading the information in this lesson on the positive advantages of delegation and accountability, discuss what accountability a supervisor has when making decisions that affect others.
*View the journal entry and journal comment rubric to see how they will be marked
| Criteria | Exemplary 4 |
Accomplished 3 |
Developing 2 |
Beginning 1 |
| Purpose | Strong voice and tone that clearly addresses the purpose for writing. | Appropriate voice and tone. The purpose is largely clear. | Attempts to use personal voice and tone. Somewhat addresses the intended purpose. | Demonstrates limited awareness of use of voice and tone. Limited evidence of intended purpose. |
| Understanding | Many interesting, specific facts and ideas are included. | Many facts and ideas are included. | Some facts and ideas are included. | Few facts and ideas are included. |
| Conventions | All grammar and spelling is correct. | Only one or two grammar and spelling errors. | A few grammar and spelling errors. | Many grammar and spelling errors. |
| Reply | Made two significant contributions to the online forum. Highly supportive of others. | Made one contribution to the online forum. Supported group members. | Attempted to contribute to online forum but was vague and unclear in the writing. | Minimally involved. Offered limited support to online group members. |
Works Cited:
New York State Department of Transportation. (2005). Basic Supervision Participant’s Guide [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://www.dot.ny.gov/programs/trns-maint-train/files/basicsupervision05.pdf
Digits.co.uk Images. (2022). Teamwork [Illustration]. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/195219893@N08/51924309260/ (CC BY 2.0)