Blended Learning Resources

Facilitated Activity

General Delegation Planner Activity Guide

Delegating tasks isn't just a matter of going down a list and distributing jobs to your employees as
they come through your door. Successfully getting someone else to perform tasks for you requires a
degree of planning. Before you can begin to delegate, you have to consider which tasks can be
delegated, who you should delegate each task to, and what information you need to provide.
This activity will help you to plan for delegating tasks to your employees.

Planning Delegation
Decide what to delegate
Most managerial tasks can be delegated but some cannot. When deciding which can be delegated,
consider how factors such as time and quality come into play. Tasks that cannot be delegated fall into
three categories:

Critical tasks tasks that you and your superiors consider vital should not be delegated.

Management-specific tasks these include personnel and pay matters such as hiring, disciplining,
evaluating, promoting, and terminating employees.

Tasks involving confidential information many managerial tasks involve sensitive or confidential
information, so it would be inappropriate to delegate them to non-managers.

Choosing the person to delegate to

After deciding on the task to be delegated, you must select the right person to delegate a task to. This
is primarily a matter of analyzing these three factors:

Skills choose someone who either has the necessary skills and experience to get the job done or
who is capable of learning the necessary skills in time to complete the task.

Motivation delegate to someone who is motivated to complete the task, either out of a desire to
help or because of interest in the job itself.

Workload delegate to someone who has the time. Delegating can be counterproductive when a
persons current workload wont allow success.

Deciding on the information needed

The appropriate amount of information is easily defined. Provide enough information for the individual
to successfully complete the job to your satisfaction. As a rule you should always include the following
information:

Nature of the task provide a brief overview of what needs to be done and why.

Standards be clear about the results you expect and standards the work must meet.

Constraints let the person know about any limits on authority and resources, as well as the
milestones and deadlines for completion.

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Delegation Planner
Deciding what to delegate
Begin by listing the tasks that need completion, and use the table below to decide whether each of the
listed taks is either critical, management specific or confidential. Any tasks that does not meet any of
the three characteritics can be delegated.

Tasks
Task

Ctitical?

Management
Specific?

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Confidential?

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Choosing the person to delegate to

Now use the following tables to list the employees that have each of the mentioned skills, and to rate
employees motivation and workload. You can use these tables to match employees to the
requirements of the taks that you listed above.

Skills
Problem Solving/Analysis
Written Communication
Oral Communication
Specialist Knowledge
Planning
Quality & Organizing
Leadership
Creativity & Innovation
Flexibility
Resilience
Interpersonal Sensitivity

Motivation and workload

Scoring key: 1 = low motivation/workload 5 = high motivation/workload
Employee

Motivation

Worload

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Delegating and deciding on the information needed

Finally, use this planner to list the tasks you believe can be delegated, and then assign them to
particular people. Include the information youll need to convey to ensure success.

Planner
Task

Delegatee

Overview of the
task

Expected
results

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Deadline/Constraints