As the years go by, my parents have increasingly left me to run the convenience store they opened even before I was born. The store has been running for close to forty years and is a local favorite. The store employs a total of 12 people from cashiers, attendants, an accountant, a store keeper to an errand boy whom we use to make deliveries. I believe the fact that I manage the operations of the shop 80% of the time even when I’m not there physically, that makes me a leader. I therefore took the self-version survey and scored as follows: development – 30, delegation – 31, empowerment – 61. These were very good scores that indicated I was doing quite well in development and delegation and overall empowerment of those I lead. This did not surprise me at all as I consider myself a very good leader always training and mentoring everyone around me not just my staff. For instance, I often ask those who have never sat the cashier and arrange a time when it’s less busy for them and leave them to operate the check-out counter which allows them to know how to use the machine in real time and greatly develops their confidence. As for delegation, I try not to have an iron grip on jobs that I have delegated. First-timers on the cashier’s desk will experience a closer supervision than more senior employees but I do not remove them from the position unless there is a major problem.
One way I could use to ensure effective feedback is by being clear about the information or steps being proposed to make someone change their behavior. For instance, if one of the staffs at the store is consistently late I would not send a memo to all employees asking them to observe punctuality. Instead I would approach the specific employee(s) and inform them that I’ve noticed their lateness, and I would love it if they report for work a few minutes before the scheduled reporting time. Another way I’d improve feedback delivery is through making it timelier by making sure that feedback is given as soon as the behavior is noticed or shortly after when the details of the behavior are still fresh to everyone. If an employee does not treat a customer right and the customer reports them to me, I would ask them to apologize to the customer on the spot but also later in the same day when the customer has left I would call the employee to discuss the situation and to advise on the how to avoid such a situation in the future.
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On delegation, the main thing I could do to improve my delegation skills is to always make the assignment being delegated very clear and specific such that the employee knows exactly what I expect from them and how I expect it. If I ask the accountant to prepare a report on my behalf and send it to my parents who still own the business, he should understand exactly what I want in the report and how I would like it presented. Another tip to improve my delegation skills would be to also accord new employees some level of autonomy while carrying out a delegated task although still effectively monitoring the task. A good balance of autonomy and monitoring would ensure the employee becomes responsible enough learning how to make their own mistakes and correcting them while the leader is able to ensure no significant mistakes go uncorrected. If I was to choose one of the staffs to manage the store in my absence, I would not bombard them with phone calls to know if everything is okay. I would instead stay away from the store and wait for them to call me and only visit the store periodically to confirm that all is well and my presence is not required for anything.
