Tag Archives: authority

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Delegate or Transfer Accountability

Leave a comment

Managers delegate, leaders transfer accountabilty.  The objective of delegation is to get work done through others.  It is based on a prescriptive (do this, do that) principle.

Transfer of accountabilty enables others to do the right work at the right time in the right way.  This encourages initiative, innovation and builds confidence in others.  That is both their confidence and, based on the outcomes, potentially your own confidence.

Delegation

Good delegation requires a high degree of clarity around requirements and strong agreement to them.  Based on the directions the outcomes or results are also clear.

In conformance with the principles of the Stacey matrix typically the management styles associated with delegation are rational, judgemental or political.

The manager or supervisor focuses on conformity to instruction which should lead to the expected results.  This is very much a command and control methodology.

Transfer Accountability

In this case the assignments are task driven.  The goals and objectives are largely related to deciding the best way to solve the problem, issue or achieve the goal, and then execute.

The progress expectations are not closley monitored.  Failure is an option and when it occurs it is both a reason to celebrate (you tried) and a learning opportunity.

The exercise of accountability requires some authority and the granting of this to others typically results in a rise in personal confidence (something like you have faith in me so I should have faith in myself)

Getting things done through others

Both delegation and transfer of accountability are approaches with benefits and risks.  The context is often important in determining the best approach, or balance thereof, in any given situation however in the long run enabling others to take accountability where feasible will lead to more innovative, creative and higher quality results.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Accountability without authority

Leave a comment

I stumbled onto one of my pet peeves today.  Accountability for achievement of a goal was assigned to an individual who does not have the authority needed to execute.

Authority can be granted or earned or a combination of these.  In most cases achieving success requires some exercise of authority.

Consider a grocery store cashier.  These days mostly they are authorized to accept cash,credit or debit in payment for the goods being purchased.

If a check is offered they cannot accept it, although they are accountable for completing the purchase transaction, this would be a case where they do not have enough authority to personally complete the task for which they are accountable.

In this example, the cashier would escalate to a manager for a decision thereby facilitating transaction completion.   The authority level is clearly defined as is the the operational procedure for exceptions.

My Pet Peeve

My issue is around those cases where accountabilty is assigned without any authority.  The expectation is the accountable individual will somehow be able to earn and exercise the authority needed.

This does pose the real danger though of contravening organizational expectations around the level of an individuals empowerment.  This could be a problem for the individual, the organization or both.

Avoiding the issue

Organizational leaders have the capability to resolve this issue by defining empowerment and authority boundaries (clearly documented) as well as ensuring checks and balances are in place to ensure they are not abused.

No one should be given accountability for a task for which the authority parameters (whether earned or granted) are not sufficient to get the task completed.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Empowerment starts with communication

Leave a comment

Employee empowerment has long been considered a key practice in the leader’s toolkit to be used to increase motivation, efficiency  and personal satisfaction with work.  This approach can be used as a great morale booster.

What is Empowerment?

I have always found empowerment a great buzz word of the day.  One of those uses of the English language where changing the label of a thing can elevate it’s status and gain attention.

Empowerment is simply the practice of clearly defining,  and then most importantly, communicating the individual workers accountability and the box of authority around those accountabilities.  That is to say, you are accountable for this and here is your latitude for discretionary decision making around these responsibilities.   If something comes up outside these boundaries this is how it is handled.

Basically the more discretionary latitude, the greater the level of empowerment.

What’s the problem?

Where most organizations fall down is with the definition and clear communication of accountability and associated authority latitude.  This came to be defined as the “empowerment” challenge by many organizations.  In fact the problem was simply a lack of clear direction – both what you are supposed to do and what the limits are and  the expectations associated with this.

A number of highly motivated individuals I worked with over the years used to get around the empowerment problem by acting and then asking for forgiveness later.  As long the actions did not bridge on criminal activities or have significant costs associated with them (six figures) then this approach worked pretty consistently.

So to all you organizations with perceived empowerment problems take a look at you accountability profiles and authority limits.   You might be able to solve the problem more easily than you thought.