District Administration - June 2007 - (Page 87)

SUPERVISOR’S OPINION • Eamonn O’Donovan Building Leadership Through Delegation The ability to delegate effectively increases productivity and builds leadership. I F LIKE ME YOU ARE FACED with a lengthy to do list and a shrinking window of time, delegation has an appealing allure. Of course, delegating is more than giving your stuﬀ to somebody else. David Peck, founder of Leadership Unleashed, a consulting company in San Francisco, succinctly points out that delegation helps you make the most of your resources, allows for greater overall productivity and builds the capacity of the people on your team. This you know, yet you still do too much yourself. Recently, I was faced with a daunting challenge. I was to investigate the rising costs of transportation for high school athletic events in our school district. This was a multifaceted issue with implications for students, families, school sites and various business departments at the district level. To compound matters, it was an area in which I was a relative novice in comparison to the personnel familiar with the nitty gritty details of getting high school athletes to sporting events on time. So I immersed myself in the task and formed a committee. As can happen too often, we talked in circles and then everybody looked to me for direction. I took on too much and quickly got nowhere. Delegation Does Not Come Easily Mark Ellwood, president at Pace Productivity, refutes some of the typical excuses oﬀered for poor delegation. He has worked with Starbucks, the YMCA and the Royal Bank of Canada, and suggests that in order to delegate tasks, you should assume the opposite of the following common excuses for failing to do just that: “I could do it better myself”; “I don’t have the time to show him/her how it’s done”; “They already have enough to do”; “I’m the only one who can do this; the others will mess it up”; “I have www.DistrictAdministration.com yet you still fail to take your own advice, perhaps you might look at this dilemma from another angle. Delegation involves more than management. Leadership is at the core of the issue. Richard Farson, co-author with Ralph Keyes of Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovation suggests that you look at leadership, and by implication, delegation, as a host would plan a successful party. A host creates the right So you read advice from people like environment for his guests to enjoy themGregory P. Smith, president of the manage- selves. As a leader, you create the context ment consulting ﬁrm Chart Your Course in which people can be successful. It is a International, who oﬀers the following type of social architecture where you build useful techniques about how to delegate: the right conditions for leaders to grow and • Determine what you will delegate. for people to work toward a common goal Make it a priority. dynamically and collaboratively. • Clarify the results you want and what In the narrower sense of delegation, success will look like. In general, let the this means creating situations where you employee choose the method. The end can coach and guide the people you work result will be the same as if you did it with to develop leadership capacity. It is a successfully yourself. way of thinking, an orientation or way of • Clearly deﬁne the employee’s scope for doing business, more than a list of quickmaking decisions and make sure that ev- ﬁx tips for lightening your load. eryone understands the level of authority As I look back on my experiences with assigned. the transportation committee, I realize • Establish a time limit and a monitoring that I had been practicing delegation lite. schedule for new or challenging tasks. I had retained too much control over the If you tell yourself to delegate more, and process because the task was new to me. Subsequently, I did more research, asked better questions and saw the light. I have RESOURCES since delegated the task of facilitating the Chart Your Course International committee to a site administrator. Roles, www.chartcourse.com tasks and timelines are more clearly deDoug Smart’s Smarter by the ﬁned. As we move forward, I act as a guide Minute on the side, not the sage on the stage. The www.smarterbytheminute.com committee is productive, I am comfortDr. Richard Farson able with the process, and the site adminwww.wbsi.org/farson istrator is growing as a leader. DA Mind Tools Bookstores nobody to whom I can delegate tasks.” You have probably rationalized your failure to “pass the baton” along these lines too –you can make the leap to delegation, and yet you can’t give up the reigns. I was faced with a daunting challenge. www.mindtools.com/tmdelegt.html Pace Productivity www.getmoredone.com Eamonn O’Donovan is director of middle school support at Capistrano Uniﬁed School District in California. June 2007 87 http://www.chartcourse.com http://www.smarterbytheminute.com http://www.wbsi.org/farson http://www.mindtools.com/tmdelegt.html http://www.getmoredone.com http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - June 2007

Contents
Editor's Letter
Letters
News Update
Security Update
Technology Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
Admistrator Profile
District Profile
Refreshing the ISTE Technology Standards
Action Teams
RE-Construction
Professional Development for the New Century
Multimedia LIT
New Products
Leadership Books
Problem/Solution
Online Edge
Speaking Out
Supervisor's Opinion
Professional Opinion
Research Corner
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - June 2007