Delegating Issues to be Resolved
When there is a problem that arises within the department, don’t feel that you, as the manager, must solve it yourself. You may be able to delegate the problem to your team members, who may be closer to the situation and may have more expertise, to resolve it. Certainly you don’t want to delegate performance issues. But process improvement initiatives or customer issues may certainly be something you delegate to the team to be resolved. Enabling for team members to resolve problems that arise enables for skill development and learning opportunities.
Take these best practice steps when delegating problems for resolution:
- Assign a small team to resolve the issue, with the team lead being someone with the most expertise on the team to resolve it.
- Ensure that there is agreement on the problem and agreement on what the end goal should be and let the team determine how to get from A to B.
- If you are uncomfortable having the team develop the final solution, ask them to come up with 2 – 3 possible solutions – fully developed as to impact on customer, timeline to implement, budget, etc. – for a final decision to be made by you.
- Don’t invite yourself to every team meeting, but ask the team lead to update you on status on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, depending on the problem being addressed.
- Reach out to the team as a whole on occasion to check in and see how they are doing overall and how effectively they are working as a team. If they go off track, get them back on the right path.
When we enable team members to come up with solutions to issues or problems within their workgroup/department, we empower them and more effectively engage them in the work. This increases work satisfaction and motivation on the team. And it also takes a bit of pressure off you – why not leave resolving some problems to the experts – those who are likely closest to the customers and may have an idea of how to work better anyway.
