Time Management - Marc Mancini
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
How to Delegate Effectively 71<br />
Outsourcing<br />
Another form of delegating is outsourcing—hiring vendors<br />
for a fee to do certain jobs instead of assigning them to staff<br />
employees. Corporate downsizing has made outsourcing an increasingly<br />
powerful management tool. Many self-employed professionals offer<br />
their services, including such skills as clerical, computer programming,<br />
graphic design, and technical or management consulting. Often, firms<br />
will hire consultants to head a specific project or to create a new<br />
product.<br />
Temporary and part-time workers are easy to locate through agencies<br />
that specialize in their services. If a time-consuming task will take<br />
valuable time to complete and will be worth less to your company<br />
than warranted by your salary, perhaps it’s time to consider outsourcing<br />
the project.<br />
contract. You find dealing with this individual very trying<br />
and time-consuming, because you find him overbearing<br />
and unfocused. However, one of your colleagues finds the<br />
client delightful.<br />
Why not delegate the meeting to your colleague? You can<br />
always return the favor another time, perhaps when<br />
you’re less pressed for time.<br />
This section has identified two directions of delegation:<br />
downward and lateral. But there’s a third, unexpected direction,<br />
as well: upward (see Figure 6-1 on the next page).<br />
Sometimes someone above you assigns you a responsibility<br />
that shouldn’t be yours. Other times, someone delegates to you<br />
so incompletely that you can’t possibly perform the task competently.<br />
Should you try to delegate the job back? Yes, if you do it<br />
very diplomatically. Here’s the trick. Go to the person involved<br />
to seek “guidance.” Express your enthusiasm about the project,<br />
but say that you feel you don’t yet fully grasp the intent, procedures,<br />
or goals. Clarification might eliminate your need to delegate<br />
upward. Or your feedback may make the other person<br />
realize that he or she shouldn’t have delegated this task, that he<br />
or she is the appropriate person to do it. You might even sug-