Manager: a person in a role in which he or she is held accountable not only for their own personal effectiveness but also for the output of others; and is accountable for building and sustaining an effective team of subordinates capable of producing those outputs, and for exercising effective leadership. (Jaques 1998)
4 Minimum authorities that every manager must have in order to be an effective and trustworthy managerial leader.
- Part 1 Authority to reject a subordinate to fill a position
- Part 2 Authority to de-select a subordinate after due process
- Part 3 Authority to decide task assignments
- Part 4: Authority to decide personal effectiveness appraisal and merit recognition
If we are to hold a Manager Accountable for the output of their subordinates. Managers must have some control over the work their subordinates do.
3. Authority to decide task assignments.
Accountable managers MUST be able to decide what types of task assignments they give to subordinates. They must not be bypassed by their own managers.
If we are to hold a manager accountable for the output of their subordinates the ability to decide delegation and planning of tasks is necessary.
Now Your Turn;
How would this policy benefit your management? How would it hurt your management? Have you ever worked in a place where your direct manager was not able to decide your tasks? In what ways does that affect the communication and effectiveness of your work?
michael cardus is create-learning
Related posts:
- Part 4 of 4 Authorities That Every Manager Must Have: Authority to decide personal effectiveness appraisal and merit recognition.
- Part 1 of 4 Authorities That Every Manager Must Have: Authority to reject a subordinate to fill a position
- Part 2 of 4 Authorities That Every Manager Must Have: Authority to deselect a subordinate after due process
- Minimum Authority of Managerial-Leaders
- 4 Steps to Gathering Information for Manager Effectiveness
Good point. I’d add that how the manager decides to assign tasks a great deal. They can assign in an authoritarian way (good for short term results, but not alway high quality results). Or they can be authoritative, i.e., delegate effectively for better long term results.
Yes, Alan.
This ‘way to assign’ is not covered in these posts and is really important.
For both the examples you give you are right no as far as length of time for the assignment.
I wrote about this in ‘6 Steps for Delegation of Tasks‘