that valuable time is not wasted on less urgent work which could be delegated or routinized .
Delegation does not , and should not , be used as an excuse to pass on the more boring work to your staff . This will not motivate them , nor play a part in their development . Nor will it really help you to save time because it is unlikely to be done well and in the end you may have to do it yourself anyway .
It is better to see delegation as an opportunity for staff development , giving other people more challenging and worthwhile tasks which will save you considerably more time than delegating boring and repetitious ones . One of the reasons managers don ’ t delegate effectively is because they are perfectionists and expect their staff to achieve unnecessarily high standards .
There are two main kinds of decisions which anyone is called upon to make . There are ‘ programmed ’ decisions which can be made for problems or events which have occurred before , such as processing a customer ’ s order , determining an employee ’ s holiday entitlement or carrying out any routine job .
And there are ‘ non-programmed ’ decisions which have to be made where there is no cut-and-tried method for handling the problem , either because it has not occurred before or because it is particularly difficult or important .
To help with the uncertainties of non-programmed decision-making , Simon developed a model of rational thinking which involved three stages – Intelligence , Design and Choice . The three stages could be broken down into a series of smaller steps .
At the Intelligence stage , the problem needs to be defined and clarified so that everyone is clear
‘‘ Setting priorities is an integral part of planning your workload . Like many managers , you may have several projects to look after at a time ; some are likely to be more or less urgent than others . Spending time on a daily or weekly basis prioritizing jobs for yourself and your team should help you to ensure that the more urgent jobs are carried out first and that valuable time is not wasted on less urgent work which could be delegated or routinized .’’
about what the problem actually is . Once the problem has been defined , then a criteria needs to be drawn up so that any solution can be evaluated against these .
In the Design stage , possible solutions should be generated and , in the Choice stage , these possible solutions should be evaluated against the criteria and the best option selected .
Part of your job as a manager is likely to involve listening to people ; listening to their problems , successes and worries , their reports on progress , their reasons for not progressing , their grievances and ideas . Listening is a skill and ‘ active listening ’ is a particular skill ; it is all too easy to listen without hearing what is being said .
Active listening involves more than passively absorbing what is being said ; it entails trying to understand what the speaker is saying and helping them to clarify what they mean for both of you – getting ‘ inside ’ the speaker and suspending your own judgement . One of the aims of active listening is to encourage the speaker to come up with their own solution , not to offer advice .
Another very important part of active listening is in its contribution to your knowledge of what is happening in your unit , and being an effective manager means knowing what is happening around you .
It is often not what is said that is important , but how it is said . Unless you can understand the nuances of what people are trying to tell you , you may miss the reality of the situation .
Gossip , jokes , and casual comments are part of the key to understanding the informal dynamics of your unit , and indeed the wider organization . The skills of active listening take time to acquire and need a lot of practice . As a manager , you have many opportunities for practice .
Next time someone comes into your office with a problem , try the following :
• Either give them your full attention at that moment or arrange a time when you can give them all your attention .
• Don ’ t take the words at face value ; encourage the person to expand on what they are saying .
• Watch the non-verbal communication ; is the person more or less worried than he or she appears – are there signs
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