2-4 pages Business Assignment

Delegation is often a challenging task, and one that managers must do for many reasons. Some of these reasons may surprise you! You may think of delegation as simply a method of decreasing your own workload, but in reality it is much more important. Consider the following scenario:

You are a manager of a small organization with a staff of 10 employees. The company owners want to upgrade everyone’s computers, but does not know what model or what software applications will be needed for each employee. As the manager, you need to provide a list of each computer and each employee’s computer needs. This is just another item to go on your “to-do” list and you are feeling a little overwhelmed; however, it seems easier to just do it yourself than delegate the task to someone else. Why?

To prepare for this week’s Professional Reflection

· Review this week’s Learning Resources, especially

· Baker, J. A. (2016). Management tips: 10 reasons to delegate. Retrieved from http://www.bakercommunications.com/archive/apr13/management04013.html

· Chapman, A. (n.d.) Delegation: Delegating authority skills, tasks and the process of effective delegation. Retrieved July 11, 2017, from http://www.businessballs.com/delegation.htm

· Horstman, M. (2016). The effective manager. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

· Masie, E. (n.d.). Delegation [Video file]. Retrieved July 11, 2017, from http://ed.ted.com/on/kOiXC4fT

· Williams, D. K. (2016). Letting go: How to truly delegate [Blog]. First Republic Bank. Retrieved from https://innovation.firstrepublic.com/2016/12/29/letting-go-truly-delegate/

· Zwilling, M. (2013). How to delegate more effectively in your business. Forbes.com. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2013/10/02/how-to-delegate-more-effectively-in-your-business/#36a23d8a69bc  

· Document: Professional Reflection Assignment Instructions [pdf document]

· Review this week’s Discussions.

To complete the Professional Reflection Assignment, compose a cohesive document that addresses the following:

· Summarize the three most important items that you learned from your Discussions and the resources this week. Explain why they stood out to you and how you will apply what you have learned into your work as a manager. Be specific and provide examples.

· Describe a time when you either had to delegate a task—or had a task delegated to you.

· What did you learn from the experience?

· What would you have done differently, or had your manager do differently?

· Assess your own preferences for delegating or “just doing it yourself” including:

· Explain what you think the pros and cons of delegation are.

· Offer an assessment of your own delegating skills.

· Thinking about your role as a manager, evaluate why delegation is an important skill for you to develop, including:

· What you think makes delegation challenging for managers and why.

· The importance of delegation to the success of individuals/teams reporting to a manager.

· Develop a specific plan that you can use the next time you delegate a task, including:

· Specific steps that you will take to prepare to delegate, what important considerations you will need to make, and how you will stay informed and follow up and ensure that what you have delegated progresses well.

· Your ideas for how you will avoid micromanaging, once you have delegated.

· How you will apply your strengths to overcome challenges and ensure that you appropriately use delegation to accomplish goals and develop your people.

Be sure to support your Professional Reflection using this week’s readings or other credible and relevant resources.

General Guidance:  your Professional Reflection submissions will typically be 2–4 pages in length. 

Read the entire assignment before you start to prepare it this week.

Week 6's assignment focuses us on the art and science of delegation. Use the following subheadings and order of items for your submission. I will not grade this content until Week 7, but, you must it submit by Week 6, Day 7, (August 9, 2020) for credit.

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Title page

Summary of three most important items

Why these items most important

How you will apply them to the work of a manager

Description of time you delegated or someone delegated to you 

What you learned from the delegation experience

What you would do differently

Assessment of your own preferences for delegating or “just doing it yourself”

Pros and cons of delegation

Self-assessment of your delegation skills

Why important to develop delegation skills

Why delegation might be difficult for managers

How delegation impacts individuals and teams' success

Plan for your next delegation activity

Specific plan that you can use the next time you delegate a task, including:

Steps you will take and things to consider as you make this plan 

Ways you will stay informed and ways you will follow-up with the individual (including ways to avoid your micromanagement of the other person)

Other strengths that you have to help your success in delegation (accomplish goals; develop others)

References