Material for a 3-hour lesson, part of the First Line Supervision Course, developed by the Kosovo Academy for Public Safety and Educational Development, Management and Leadership Development Division
It is important to understand delegation because it is one of the most important tools a supervisor has for getting the job done.
The organisation has given the supervisor the responsibility and authority to complete assigned tasks. These tasks are delegated to him by the organisation and he is given resources to complete these tasks.
But no supervisor can personally accomplish or completely supervise all of the unit’s tasks. He/she will have to decide to assign duties, projects and tasks to his/her subordinates.
The supervisor will decide what to do, but will have other people do it. Therefore a supervisor must have some sense of the importance of delegation as well as some knowledge of how this can be done effectively.
Because a supervisor cannot make all of the decisions necessary to complete a task and cannot be with everyone of his subordinates all of the time, the subordinates who get a task delegated, must have the authority to make decisions that affect the task.
Caution: A supervisor can delegate his authority, but he cannot delegate his overall responsibility for the effective accomplishment of the task.
Before you can successfully delegate duties and tasks to someone, you as well as your team need to be prepared for that. Taking some time beforehand to consider how to plan and how to be properly prepared, will help you avoid a "delegation disaster."
The purpose of this lesson is to give participants an understanding for the need of effective delegation as an essential element of leading.
At the end of this lesson each participant will be able to: