Learn about reverse delegation and understand how it takes place. Study the types of reverse delegation and see tips for reverse delegation of employees.
Reverse Delegation | Definition, Issues & Employees
Table of Contents
- What is Reverse Delegation?
- Issues with Reverse Delegation
- Responding to Reverse Delegation of Employees
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
What is over delegating?
Over delegation is the act by which managers burden employees with many assignments. This may cause burnout as the employees don't have an excellent work-life balance.
How do you deal with reverse delegation?
Some ways to mitigate against reverse delegation include coaching, self-awareness, being approachable, and understanding employees' strengths. These tactics help address both forced and unforced reverse delegation.
Table of Contents
- What is Reverse Delegation?
- Issues with Reverse Delegation
- Responding to Reverse Delegation of Employees
- Lesson Summary
Reverse delegation describes a scenario whereby a manager takes back a task they had delegated to other employees for various reasons. This action may be forced or unforced. Under unforced, the manager voluntarily wishes to correct mistakes or add information; thus, they take the task back. In contrast, under forced, the takeback emanates from the direct report that had acquired the delegated assignment.
Consider a manager who delegates verification of invoices to his/her junior. After a week, the employee has yet to work on any invoices. Subsequently, the manager decides to verify the invoices as the deadline is fast approaching. This example illustrates an unforced reverse delegation as the manager took back the assignment willingly. However, if the employee rejects the assignment after three days, that would have forced reverse delegation as they would have pushed it back to the manager. This example also shows how a manager takes back an employee's assignment. Often, it involves identifying ineffectively delegated areas and deciding upon areas of improvement or efficiency.
Types of Reverse Delegation
Reverse delegation takes place through forced and unforced delegation. Forced delegation occurs when employees complain or push back a task to their manager for one reason or another. Conversely, in the unforced delegation, the manager willingly takes back the delegated assignment and works on it without necessarily having informed the person they had delegated to.
An example of unforced delegation is when a manager provides a well-structured list of instructions to subordinates and informs them what to do to complete a particular task. After giving out the instructions, the manager realizes he may have missed some crucial information and decides to take back the initial instructions before the subordinates can work on them. This makes it a voluntary takeback, hence an unforced reverse delegation.
In contrast, forced delegation is when a manager pulls together a team for an upcoming project, and the manager provides all the necessary information to complete the project. A team member later appears with claims of inability to perform the assigned task. The manager takes back the project and handles it himself. This makes an involuntary takeback, hence a forced reverse delegation.
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Regardless of the type, reverse delegation can cause negative issues such as:
- Subordinates may become lazy: Laziness may emanate from employees thinking it is okay to refuse tasks assigned as the manager will ultimately handle them.
- Employees become unproductive: Reverse delegation may reduce the level of productivity as some employees shun away from their responsibilities. Subsequently, some tasks may become uncompleted or delayed, negatively impacting overall productivity.
- Reverse delegation may cause resentment in the workplace: Some subordinates may be inefficient as they rely on the manager to solve their problems. Consequently, they may drag down the other hardworking team, creating resentful feelings and breeding conflicts.
- It may bring trust issues: Some managers may think that things should run their way and that no one is competent enough to complete the tasks as they would wish. This lack of trust lowers employee morale and job satisfaction, resulting in high labor turnover.
Some of the ways to address the delegation of employees include the following:
- Being approachable. This is through establishing clear communication channels and active listening. This provides an opportunity to understand various concepts and accords employees the chance to ask questions or assistance. These variables reduce instances of reverse delegation.
- Self-awareness. A manager must know how to avoid being drawn into reverse delegation by being aware of his subordinate's performance and determining their strengths and weaknesses. In so doing, they will be able to assign tasks based on one's strengths, reducing instances of reverse delegation.
- Coaching. A manager should provide guidance and support instead of delegating authority through team empowerment. The manager should clarify each employee's role and responsibility and train them to complete tasks. Subsequently, this prevents over-dependency on the manager, resulting in reverse delegation.
- Understanding employee strengths. Employees should be assigned tasks based on their strengths to mitigate incomplete assignments and the tendency to refuse to undertake tasks.
A manager can use active listening to combat reverse delegation. They can do so by fully helping an employee work through a solution. This entails active listening, paying attention, and being ready to help employees handle various tasks. Besides, with active listening, employees will be motivated to express their issues more freely. Also, it will enable a manager to understand the subordinates' strengths and weaknesses, helping him/her delegate task based on one's strengths. This reduces instances of forced reverse delegation whereby employees push assignments back to the manager for various reasons.
Workplace coaching ensures employees have the tools and training to succeed and perform their jobs amicably. With proper coaching, the employees will not have the need to push back tasks to the manager. Moreover, having coached his/her subordinates effectively, the manager will be confident about their skills and competency, thereby reducing cases of unforced reverse delegation.
Reverse delegation is when managers take back assignments they had delegated for one reason or another. Reverse delegation is in two forms, forced and unforced. In forced reverse delegation, the managers take back the assignment when employees fail to do them for one reason or another. Conversely, the manager willingly takes back his delegated tasks in the unforced reverse delegation. Reverse delegation could cause issues such as other team members becoming resentful, laziness, trust issues, and low productivity.
Reverse delegation can be mitigated by managers being approachable through active listening, self-awareness, practicing coaching to enhance employees' skills, understanding employees' strengths, and allocating tasks based on employees' abilities. For example, workplace coaching can aid in mitigating reverse delegation by ensuring employees have the tools and training to be successful. Subsequently, they will not have to send back tasks assigned to them. Moreover, the managers will not have to take back tasks they had delegated as they will be confident of their subordinates' capabilities. Reverse delegation may cause burnout in the managers, thereby affecting their performance. On the other hand, the manager may over-delegate tasks to their subordinates, which will also cause burnout and increase the tendency of forced reverse delegation. Therefore, it is important to balance the delegation of tasks so that both parties can have an excellent work-life balance.
Video Transcript
What Is Reverse Delegation?
Jerry has pulled together a work team for an upcoming function at work. The team has met to get a better understanding of Jerry's goals for the event, with each member of the team being delegated a task to complete. Two weeks later, one of Jerry's employees, Rebecca, has yet to complete her assignment, which is holding up the rest of the team. Rather than giving Rebecca any more time to take care of her task, Jerry calls another meeting and announces that he is taking Rebecca's task over and will have it done by the end of the week.
While Rebecca has gotten off scot-free, Jerry has fallen victim to the classic trap of reverse delegation. Reverse delegation happens when a manager who delegates a task ends up taking that task back at some point. Reverse delegation can happen through forced or unforced actions. In the case of our opening example where Jerry took Rebecca's task back, it was unforced because he voluntarily agreed to it. Forced reverse delegation happens when a member of the team complains about an assignment or pushes it back to the manager in some way.
Issues With Diverse Delegation
Whatever the reason, reverse delegation by management can create real problems for workplace teams.
First, it can create a sense of laziness among employees towards their responsibility. Because employees know that a manager will always be there to bail them out, without repercussion, they are less likely to be motivated to complete the task assigned. Reverse delegation cripples employee effort.
Reverse delegation can breed resentment in work teams. While some employees may be motivated and work hard on their own tasks, their colleagues in a work team who don't complete their assignments may be viewed as dragging down the entire team. This can cause team morale to suffer.
Another concern with reverse delegation is lack of productivity. When a task changes hands multiple times, that means the work is not getting done. This may prevent other members of a team from fully realizing their roles and this can delay the project entirely.
For managers, reverse delegation shows a lack of effective leadership. It demonstrates a manager's inability to successfully delegate tasks and shows teammates that it's okay to not finish and even return work assignments. If a manager can't demonstrate authority in delegating assignments, it may create a perception of weaknesses elsewhere.
Responding to Reverse Delegation
Maybe you're a manager struggling with reverse delegation or maybe you want to avoid ever ending up in that position. Here are some ideas for combating reverse delegation.
- Coaching: Employees who feel comfortable in their abilities to successfully complete their tasks will be less likely to try to turn tasks back to management. Good workplace coaching equips people with the training and tools that are necessary to get the job done.
- Be approachable. Rather than being quick to take a project back, foster an environment where employees know they can come to you to brainstorm ideas, but understand that they're still in charge of the assignment.
- Understand employee strengths. Sometimes reverse delegation occurs because the right task wasn't delegated to the right person in the first place. When you better understand the strengths or weaknesses of your team, you can more effectively assign tasks where it will lead to success.
- Self-awareness. Reverse delegation can pop up for a number of reasons, some of which are based on your own internal issues. You may have a problem with control, you might want to ''rescue'' people, or it might be that you struggle with trust. Understanding why you might be prone to taking tasks back can help you avoid it going forward.
- Active listening: When you actively listen to others, you're fully concentrating on what's being said and being engaged. By actively listening you can help team members solve their own problems with assigned tasks. Active listening can help you get to the root cause of their struggle and facilitate asking the right questions to get them back in the game.
Lesson Summary
Reverse delegation occurs when a manager who has delegated a task takes the assignment back from his team member. This can happen for any number of reasons, forced or unforced, including an employee's inability to complete the task. Reverse delegation creates a lot of problems in the workplace. It may cause employees to be lazy or irresponsible in their work assignments. It may also cause resentment among other team members who don't view the offending member as pulling his or her own weight. It also demonstrates weakness in leadership. Managers who want to avoid this problem should focus on understanding their employees' strengths and weaknesses and identifying reasons that allow reverse delegation to happen. Coaching employees with the right tools and training can give them the skill and confidence to complete the job. Also, use the opportunity to work as a sounding board for brainstorming ideas or implement active listening, which is being engaged to and fully concentrated on what's being said, to help keep struggling employees on track.
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