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Thèmes du document : Télécommunications et internet, Grandes et moyennes entreprises, Fiscalité,
Ó 2021 Business English Pod Ltd. All rights reserved: www.businessenglishpod.com 1
Skills 360 – Time Management 3: Delegating
Discussion Questions
1. Are you good at asking other people to do things?
2. When your supervisor delegates a task or responsibility to you, what kind of support do you expect to receive?
3. What happens when a manager tries to keep too much control over how his employees’ do their work?
Vocabulary
To delegate: to assign work or responsibilities to someone else, especially someone junior to you; “If you can’t get to that web copy this month, could you delegate to another writer?”
Indispensable: absolutely necessary; “We can’t put Jonas on the Chicago project because he’s really indispensable to us here in Cleveland.”
To check your ego: to consider the whole picture, not just your own role or importance; “Yes, you made a little mistake in your presentation, but check your ego here; your little mistake isn’t going to ruin the deal.”
To free up: to make something available to use; “If we postpone our website refresh until next year, that’ll free up more time for the Murray project this year.”
Routine matters: simple regular tasks; “Staff meetings are usually taken up with discussing routine matters, but this time I’d like us to talk about more strategic issues.”
Suited: right or appropriate for a purpose or situation; “I’m not surprised Cam isn’t thriving in sales. As a shy person he’s not really suited for the job.”
Skill set: a combination of skills required for a job or task; “Executive assistants require a unique skill set that combines attention to detail with excellent soft skills.”
Handle: understanding; “Give the new guy some time to get a handle on our processes before giving him a big project to oversee.”
To play to someone’s strengths: to assign work to someone based on their abilities; “I really think joining the marketing team is a good idea, since that kind of creative work really plays to your strengths more than operations does.” Ó 2021 Business English Pod Ltd. All rights reserved. www.businessenglishpod.com 2
Direct report: a person who reports to and is managed by the person above them; “With fifteen direct reports, I find I spend a lot of my time just doing regular check- ins with the people I manage.”
Intern: a student or recent graduate who works in a job to gain experience, often for little or no pay; “This kind of basic market analysis work would be great for that intern who’s just joined us for six months.”
To aspire: to try to be or achieve something; “I hear that Maria is happy as a regional manager and doesn’t really aspire to the executive level.”
Word of caution: a warning; “Sounds like this is a question for Marty. But a word of caution: he’s really busy right now and might not respond well to requests for help.”
To be on someone: to be someone’s responsibility; “Ah yes, organizing the product launch is on me, so please don’t worry about it.”
Expectation: a belief that something should be done in a certain way; “I thought I was doing what Hal wanted, but it turns out his expectations were different from what I understood.”
RFP: a request for proposals, or public call for companies to bid on a project; “We released the RFP last Tuesday, we are taking questions until the end of the month, and the final deadline for proposals is May 15.”
To handle: to deal with; “Brad I know you have lots of experience handling difficult employees, so I’m wondering if you could give me some advice?”
To put together: to assemble or create from different parts; “If you need help putting together a good PowerPoint for your presentation, Ryan would be a great person to ask.”
Draft: a version of a document that will have changes made before it is final; “I’d like to send this draft policy around to the other managers for feedback before making any changes.”
To submit: to formally give something for consideration; “If we don’t submit this safety report by end of the week, we’ll likely be faced with fines.”
To pop: to send or move something quickly or briefly; “I think Friday at 10:00 will work, but I’ll have to pop you an email to confirm once I’m back at my desk and can see my schedule.”
In the long run: not now but at some time in the future; “I think this office layout will work for now, but in the long run we’ll have to consider getting more space.”
To back off: to stop criticizing or giving feedback to someone; “I wish Kelly would just back off about this construction project. Doesn’t she understand I can’t control all these delays?” Ó 2021 Business English Pod Ltd. All rights reserved. www.businessenglishpod.com 3
Control freak: someone who tries to control everything, at the expense of other people; “After working for a real control freak for five years, it’s so nice to have a supervisor that just trusts me to get the work done.”
To micromanage: to try to control every aspect of a situation or another person’s work; “I don’t mean to micromanage you Vanessa, but I’m wondering about the choice of fonts here, and this image could be moved a little to the right.”
To abandon: to leave someone or something or stop supporting it; “When head office moved to Seattle, our engineering team in Vancouver felt kind of abandoned.”
To check in: to ask someone how they are or how things are going; “Hi Nora, I just wanted to call and check in on our paper order. When do you think it might arrive?”
To empower: to increase someone’s ability or confidence to do something; “Rather than trying to do everything yourself, how about empowering your amazing employees?”
Coaching: providing support and guidance to someone; “I like working for Wendy because she takes a coaching approach to management, never yells, and just listens to what I’m going through.”
On an ad hoc basis: done only when needed, and not based on a plan; “We’ve been having project meetings on an ad hoc basis, but I think we need to schedule something every week.”
To knock it out of the park: to do something – such as a task or project - extremely well; “Did you see Zack’s amazing presentation? He really knocked it out of the park!”
To give someone a pat on the back: to tell someone they’ve done a good job; “I don’t need my boss to praise me constantly, but a little pat on the back every once in a while would be nice.” Ó 2021 Business English Pod Ltd. All rights reserved. www.businessenglishpod.com 4
Transcript
Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host, Tim Simmons, and today I want to talk about time management and how to delegate effectively.
As a manager, have you ever felt bad about adding tasks to an employee’s workload? Or have you ever thought that it’s easier to do something yourself than explain how to do it? Or do you like the feeling of being indispensable because you’re the only one who knows how to do something?
If any of these things are true, then I’m sorry to say you’re setting yourself up for failure. And you need to check your ego. Great managers on great teams don’t try to do everything themselves. They build their team’s skills and confidence through effective delegation. And this frees up time for more strategic work.
The first step in delegating effectively is figuring out what to delegate. And the key here is to keep the highest-level tasks, and those that can’t be done by anyone else. But routine matters, or important things that are suited to someone else’s skill set, these should be delegated.
Next is figuring out who to delegate to. And that requires you to have a good handle on your team’s skills and goals. Play to their strengths. And give them opportunities to learn new skills that will help them develop in the direction they want. Don’t feel guilty for adding to someone’s workload. Your whole job is to assign work effectively.
Here’s a little example for you: say you’ve got four direct reports plus an intern that you have to manage. The intern is important, but he is taking up a lot of your time. So, delegate supervision of that intern to the person on your team who aspires to be a manager some day. So you’ve not just freed up more time for yourself, you’re also developing that employee’s management skills.
But a big word of caution: you can’t just say to someone “okay, this is on you now.” You need to clearly define what the task is and your expectations for its completion. Don’t just tell someone “I’m too busy to respond to this RFP that just came in. Can you handle it?” Be clear and provide some instructions. That might sound something like this, “I’d like you to put together a proposal for this RPF by the end of the month. If you can get me a draft by the 20th, that’ll give us a week to review and revise for final approval by the 27th.”
Once you are clear about your expectations, then you need to ensure the person has the right support and resources. For instance, you might say “if you need some examples, you can have a look at the proposal Simon submitted last month.” Or you might say “if you have questions, you can always pop me an email.” And if something needs budget, then by all means give the person budget. In fact, handing over full responsibility, with support and resources, is better than handing over one part of a responsibility. It’s more meaningful to the employee. And it will serve you better in the long run. Ó 2021 Business English Pod Ltd. All rights reserved. www.businessenglishpod.com 5
If you’ve chosen the right person, explained your expectations clearly, and provided resources and support, then it’s time to back off. We’ve all had managers who are control freaks and can’t stop themselves from micromanaging. This type of person will always struggle with time management.
But backing off doesn’t mean abandoning the person. Check in with them. See how things are going. Ask if there’s any additional support needed. Good managers empower people through coaching. Sometimes that can be done on an ad hoc basis, and sometimes that requires regularly scheduled check-ins. Either way, ask yourself “how can I support this person to be effective,” rather than “how can I make sure this person does things the way I would do them?”
Finally, if the person has succeeded, let them know! Say something like “Really great work on that proposal! You really knocked it out of the park!” That’s all a part of the regular, ongoing feedback that is part of management. But it’s especially important when we’ve asked someone to take on something new. And you can finish off by giving yourself a pat on the back as well, for being an effective delegator.
That’s all for today. If you’d like to test yourself on what we’ve just covered, have a look at the BusinessEnglishPod.com website. There you’ll find a quiz about today’s show as well as a PDF transcript.
So long. And see you again soon! Ó 2021 Business English Pod Ltd. All rights reserved. www.businessenglishpod.com 6
Review
1. Great managers on great teams know that delegating will…
A …free up time for them to do strategic work.
B …enhance the managers’ own feelings of being essential.
C …build team members’ skills and confidence.
D …increase their guilt about adding to employees’ workload.
2. As a first step in delegating, what should you determine?
A What to delegate.
B When to delegate.
C Where to delegate.
D Who to delegate to.
3. Two considerations when deciding who to delegate to are your employees’…
A …dislikes.
B …strengths.
C …perceptions of you.
D …career direction.
4. Delegating effectively should involve providing which of the following?
A General instructions on how to do the work.
B Very close management.
C Small tasks rather than larger ones.
D Support to get the work done.
E Just telling someone what the responsibility is.
F Resources.
5. What should you be asking yourself when checking in on tasks you’ve
delegated?
A How can I make sure this person does things the way I would do them?
B Who could I ask to do this task instead?
C When do I need this done by?
D How can I support this person to be effective?
6. As a final step in the delegation process, it is important to…
A …give a bonus.
B …tell your own boss what you’ve done.
C …ask for a summary of learning.
D …offer praise. Ó 2021 Business English Pod Ltd. All rights reserved. www.businessenglishpod.com 7
Review Answers
1. Great managers on great teams know that delegating will… A … free up time for them to do strategic work.
C … build team members’ skills and confidence.
2. As a first step in delegating, what should you determine?
A What to delegate.
3. Two considerations when deciding who to delegate to are your employees’…
B … strengths
D … career direction
4. Delegating effectively should involve providing which of the following, if
required?
A General instructions on how to do the work.
D Support to get the work done.
F Resources.
5. What should you be asking yourself when checking in on tasks you’ve
delegated?
D How can I support this person to be effective?
6. As a final step in the delegation process, it is important to…
D … offer praise.