Delegation: the art and science

I was promoted as Factory HR Head of the first and largest electronics factory of the first electronics development corporation in the country of 1000 people. It was in my 7-year career and 29 years age. I asked my Board-member Director (Personnel) as to whether he has any brief for me. 2 things he said: not to be so much abrasive with unions and to practise delegating. On taking up the assignment at factory, I had to convert the (paper-heaped) table top by handing over documents to 3 Officers in Team HR: PAT (P Antony Thomas): Personnel, CSL (CS Lekshmi): Welfare and Training, and JJS (Jacob Japa Singh): Security and Administration. I informed Team HR that PAT and I will handle Industrial Relations (IR). (Next week, I started operating with 2 diaries-only; no papers on my relatively-large table. Unintended benefits: Stress-relief, mental hygiene and clarity of thoughts and productivity. New week's routine: from 8-9 AM in my cabin, 9-11 AM and 1:30/2-3 PM on a "Walk Through" of the Plant: 4 Divisions in a 15-acre factory complex: rest 2 hours, "my free slot". Experimented and piloted several firsts: Technical Training of plant operators, Deployment and Re-deployment policies, restructuring Time Office, Documentation management system etc.).

Eleven years later, in my second job, re-learnt the real practice area of "delegation". My team mate, K Vinaya Kumar (KVK) had some delegation/co-ordination issues. I enabled and mentored. He started working on 1-3weeks' advance planning-Check Lists. Delivered wonders. He followed. Daily 'fire fighting' was a begone story. I took a 'non-participant observer' role. I will call it: 'Lessons in Delegation'. Looking back, I see realise Delegation as an enigma to me. I became more wise through better insights on Delegation.

Lesson: Delegation means explaining role, responsibility, accountability and answerability to Role Holder. Hand-hold, empower and autonomy adequately. Role Holder discharged role. Mentoring delivered best results. Improved productivity. (Not only handing over papers and tasks to another, ensure that the one delegated doesn't slip in delivery. If done systematically, Delegation radiates unintended benefits to all in organisation. Advantage: One who delegates gets free and quality time (in my case, I got 2 hours 'free slot'). Office productivity and my leadership productivity went up. The one who gets work delegated practises 'development' in HR language, syntax and metaphor.

Delegation is more an art than science....; most