Delegation

Not one person in this world is an expert in every single aspect of a companies function, nor can they accomplish many different tasks at the same time while still trying to manage a company or lead soldiers. To deal with multiple tasks at the same time effectively, a leader needs to know how to delegate responsibility to people that are experts in that one particular area and/or have the time to perform the task in question. Delegation is more then just assigning a task to a subordinate, it takes skill and knowledge of each person’s background to know who can accomplish the mission in question. In this paper we will discuss what delegation is and how it is effectively used in the US Army.

Before we can even start to discuss delegation we must first know what delegation is. Delegation is”the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person to carry out specific activities” (Delegation, 2005). When an activity is delegated to a person that person has the responsibility to take full control of the assignment until it is completed or assigned to someone else. Managers usually delegate tasks to subordinates because an employee has a better understanding of the assignment or has time to take on the assignment. Delegation allows the manager to devote more time to higher level issues and tasks. Delegation may seem like an easy task and anyone can do it, but it takes experience and skill to delegate tasks to others. A manager must know the employee that he is assigning the task to and know if they can accomplish the task that is delegated to them. There are some people, managers as well as employees, who abuse delegation leading to not only the managers being at fault when a project fails to be completed. For instance, in some cases mangers use delegation to pass off difficult jobs to others so that they themselves do not have to worry about completing them. This is perhaps the most important example of how not to use delegation.

Delegation can be a powerful tool when used correctly. It can be used to motivate employees by showing them that management has enough trust in them to assign them a task. Delegation can also instill a sense of accomplishment to managers when tasks that have been delegated to subordinates have been accomplished. It is this type of motivation that can help mangers and employees to excel in the work area and set new standards for others to strive for, this in turn increases productivity.

Delegation is possibly one of the most important tools available to managers and leaders. Looking back now during the time that I served in the United States Army I can see how delegation was used every single day by Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers. Delegation is essential to the daily operation that occurs every single day in the Army. If a person would look at the command structure of the United States Army they would see that it is filled with battalions, brigades, divisions, and sections. At the very top of the chain you see the Commander in Chief who also is the President of the United States. Delegation begins with the President and works itself down to the lowest Private who is stationed somewhere around the world. In the middle of this hierarchy are the officers and non-commissioned officers that make sure that the task that has been delegated to them is accomplished by the Private stationed somewhere around the world. An example of how the president delegates his authority, is when the decision is made to go to war. Currently the United States has soldiers that are deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq. Shortly after the attacks in New York City by a suspected terrorist group, the President made the decision to start a war against the people believed to have attacked the United States. The President then approached the Secretary of Defense and delegated the responsibility to initiate a war on terrorism. After reviewing the Commander in Chief’s