Ability to Set Expectations, Delegate Work Assignments and Monitor Outcomes.
As part of my current position, as retail manger the ability to set expectations, delegate work assignments and monitor outcomes is an instrumental part of my daily operations. Aside from work experience of doing aforementioned task, during my formal education at Michigan State University, I completed a Management and Organizational Behavior course that teaches the ability to do these tasks. As a result I have formulated an approach to set expectations, delegate work assignments and monitor outcomes. First, one must decide which task(s) you want to delegate and keep in mind that delegating is different from simply assigning someone a task that is already a part of the normal job requirements. When you delegating tasks, one is giving someone else one of your job tasks; but you maintain control and responsibility. One must clarify the results and methodology; they want from the employee and give authority necessary to accomplish the task but not so much authority that he or she can create a major disaster before anyone discovers the problem. Also, make clear the resources available and the limitations. A very critical limitation may be time so establishing if you want portions of the work completed by certain dates or time, needs to be established from the beginning. Monitoring the progress or following up can come in the form of meetings to see the progress or see if there is assistance needed in completing the task. A key to successful delegation is avoiding “reverse” delegation. An employee may try to "dump" the delegated task back on the manager. A manager may feel tempted to "take it back" if the employee seems to be struggling with the task. In extreme circumstances, a manager may have no alternative other than to take the task back in order to avoid permanent damage to his or her own performance record. However, this should be only in extreme cases. When you take back a delegated task, the employee loses the opportunity to learn and grow. This can also