1000 Business Lessons Every Businessman Must Know

Chapter 82 Control of Power: Monopolization of Power, Dispersion of Small Power (3)
Before punishing violators, leaders must first clarify the situation, grasp the facts, analyze them in detail, and deal with them carefully.A rash and hasty reprimand and punishment not only cannot effectively stop the violation, but also damage the relationship with subordinates and reduce personal power.Even if a subordinate's violation is obvious, its cause should be analyzed.If a subordinate encounters a variety of objective limitations beyond his control, or violates a certain rule and regulation due to the need to deal with an emergency situation, the leader should treat it differently and make decisions based on the cause and nature of the problem and behavior to avoid Jumping to conclusions and misusing coercive means.

5. Maintain credit
Leaders should maintain their credibility by using coercive power rationally and effectively.To this end, it is necessary to comply with orders and prohibitions, and not to backtrack when punishing subordinates, or to fail to take appropriate coercive measures to stop violations after warnings.Leaders must also recognize the boundaries of their own power, and do not try to force the behavior of those outside their coercive authority, otherwise, the credibility and influence of coercive power may be reduced or even lost.

6. Pay attention to the method
When exercising coercive power, leaders should pay attention to:

(1) The attitude should be correct.Subordinates' deviant behavior should be stopped with a positive, calm, and helpful attitude, and subordinates should not be punished in an angry and hostile manner, otherwise it will cause subordinates' rebellious psychology and hostile behavior.

(2) Sanctions should be appropriate.The degree of sanction should be linked to the consequences of behavior and consistent with organizational systems, policies, regulations, and traditions.Appropriate sanctions can enhance the legitimacy and effectiveness of coercive power.

(3) The occasion should be appropriate.Leaders should choose appropriate coercive occasions according to the nature and significance of the problem.Although coercive behavior in public places has educational significance for members of the organization, it stimulates the self-esteem of the coerced person and is prone to various side effects, so it should be cautious.

[-]. How to authorize leaders
674. Significance of authorization

Borg, the U.S. marketing manager of desktop computers at Hewlett-Packard, said: "For us, empowerment means that managers don't have to make every decision, but that grassroots employees can make the right decisions themselves. Managers are among them. Just play a supporting and guiding role".

Authorization is the avatar of leadership and success.In the leadership process, reasonable authorization is of great significance:
(1) Authorization can reduce the burden on leaders, free them from tedious affairs, and concentrate their time and energy on dealing with major issues.

(2) Authorization can mobilize the enthusiasm of subordinates, stimulate their enthusiasm for work, enhance their sense of responsibility, and make them do all kinds of work conscientiously and responsibly.

(3) Authorization can close the relationship between superiors and subordinates, strengthen collaboration, and work together in solidarity.And can give full play to the expertise of subordinates to make up for the lack of leadership itself.

(4) Authorization can strengthen the overall strength of the organization and enhance the collective strength of the organization.Through reasonable authorization, leaders can not only simplify work procedures, prevent unclear powers and responsibilities, and try to pass the buck, but also change the phenomenon of leaders monopolizing power.

(5) Authorization can also enable subordinates to have the opportunity to exercise their working ability and increase their talents, which is conducive to the inspection and training of cadres.

675. General process of leadership delegation

Delegation is the organizational process by which leaders delegate authority to subordinates, and it includes the following steps:
(1) Assignment of responsibilities, that is, entrusting work or responsibilities to subordinates to perform.

(2) Appointment of power, that is, to delegate power or authority to subordinates to exercise power instead of leaders.But the leader always retains full control over the powers he has delegated, and can take back delegated powers as the situation requires.

(3) The establishment of responsibilities means establishing obligations and responsibilities for subordinates who accept duties and powers, allowing subordinates to work according to established standards, and to assume responsibility to their superiors.

676. Basic principles of leadership delegation

Authorization is divided into the right to use people, the right to use money, and the right to do things, each of which has some different characteristics.But no matter what kind of authorization, there are some common principles.

(1) Reasonable and legal

Proper authorization is carried out through reasonable procedures and legal channels.This is the basic principle of authorization.For this reason, when leaders are required to authorize their subordinates, they must clarify the scope of authorization.Refusal to authorize, or too little authorization; unlimited authorization, or too much authorization, are not conducive to achieving the goals and tasks of the organization.In addition, the authorized person should not delegate matters that are not within the scope of his own power to his subordinates, as infringement will lead to power struggles and cause organizational confusion.For those things that are within the scope of the leader's own responsibility, but the subordinates can do well or better than the leader, the subordinates should be authorized to do it.However, we must adhere to the principle of "centralization of large powers and decentralization of small powers". The core powers of leadership, such as decision-making power, command power, personnel appointment and dismissal power, and major reward and punishment power, which are related to the overall situation, cannot be dispersed.

(2) "Choose people according to their needs and authorize them according to their abilities"

This is the fundamental principle of delegation.Everything is based on the quality of the authorized person's character, ability and knowledge level. "Setting up things according to people", "ranking seniority based on seniority", and "creating nepotism" will inevitably delay major events.Therefore, before the authorization, the authorizer should conduct a strict inspection on the authorized person, and strive to delegate the power and responsibility to the most suitable person.If the work is necessary, but you are not sure for a while, you can use the methods of "assistant" and "substitute" to conduct job inspection and trial, and then decide to formally authorize it later.

(3) Reciprocal rights and responsibilities

That is, the power granted to subordinates must be equal to the assigned responsibilities, so that subordinates have sufficient power to complete the assigned responsibilities.This requires the authorizer to clarify the powers and responsibilities delegated to the authorized person, let them know what kind of power and responsibility they have, so that they can have the maximum autonomy within the specified scope.Because for the authorized person, authority is the right to complete the task, while responsibility is the obligation to complete the task.Only when powers and responsibilities are consistent can we avoid phenomena such as duty without power, power without responsibility, or imbalance of power and responsibility.

(4) Authorization to retain responsibility

This means that after the leader delegates part of the power and joint responsibilities to his subordinates in accordance with the prescribed authorization procedures, the leader himself should still bear the responsibility of leadership.This is due to the top-down authorization within the organization. Powers can be moved downwards, but leadership responsibilities are absolute and cannot be transferred.The assigned responsibilities are completed by the subordinates, and the subordinates should be responsible for the direct responsibility of whether the work of the subordinates can meet the expected standards, but the leadership responsibility that the dispatcher should bear cannot be shirked.This is the absoluteness of responsibility, which is always there.Each should be responsible, and will not disappear due to mutual buck-passing between superiors and subordinates.

(5) Mutual trust

Authorization is based on mutual trust between leaders and subordinates.The authorizer should consider that the authorized power is compatible with the ability and physical strength of the authorized person, so that they can match their expertise, have similar interests, and be happy and competent.After authorization, the authorizer should also actively support and help subordinates, create good conditions for them, and let them work boldly. They must not be demanding in everything, constrain them everywhere, and blame them all the time.The authorized person should be good at using the authorized power to carry out work actively, proactively and creatively.It is necessary to report the work to the authorizer in a timely manner and win support, but also not to interfere with the superior leadership in everything and all the time.

677. Skills of Leadership Delegation

Delegation is an important part of empowerment and an art of leadership.If the leadership is used properly, it can not only reduce the burden on the leaders, improve work efficiency, but also train and train cadres and discover talents.On the contrary, if the authorization is improper, the leader will not only be troubled by complicated and messy affairs, increase the workload, and even cause extra problems, causing many troubles.Therefore, leaders must pay attention to the art of authorization and master certain skills.

Leaders should determine the appropriate authorization method and method according to different people, events, times, places, and conditions.If it is the sense of accomplishment that motivates subordinates to achieve their goals, the goal decomposition authorization method can be adopted.

If the importance of the work is low and the completion of the work will not lead to the failure of the overall work, the full authorization method can be adopted.If the work is of high importance, the insufficient authorization method can be adopted to grant partial powers to the subordinates.

If the work is complicated, the environmental conditions are changeable, and the ability and level of the subordinates are not fully grasped, it is advisable to adopt the flexible authorization method; or implement a single authorization, that is, to grant the power to solve a specific problem to someone, as the problem is solved, Take back power; or implement timed authorization, that is, grant power to someone within a certain period of time, and take it back when it expires.

If the nature of the work is extremely important, or it is prone to omissions, and the leadership task is heavy, the restrictive authorization method can be adopted.That is to decompose the authority of a certain task into two or several parts and assign them to different subordinates respectively, so that there will be mutual constraints between them, so as to effectively prevent mistakes in the work.

678. Be Authorized and Not Out of Control

In a power organization, there are not only relatively major tasks, but also many trivial routine tasks. As the leader of the power organization, it is impossible and incapable to take care of all affairs. Part of the work or most of the affairs must be Hand it over to your subordinates.

Leaders must exercise effective guidance and control while authorizing.If the scope of the leader's control is too large and the tentacles stretch too far, this kind of control will be difficult to control.How to achieve both authorization and control?

A leading American expert has identified ten areas of questions that leaders can use regularly to review and improve their delegation skills.

——Is the work in the office chaotic when you are not in the office?
——When you come back from a trip, is there any work that should have been done by your subordinates waiting for you to deal with?
– Can you meet your goals or complete tasks in the allotted time, or do you have to take work home or work overtime in the office to get it done?
——Is your work carried out in a leisurely and rhythmic manner, or are you constantly interrupted by people who need to ask for your opinion or decision before doing things?

——Do your subordinates "hand over the conflict" and let you make decisions that should be made by themselves?

—— Do you feel that you have too much work and your subordinates have too little work?
—— Do you think there is no time to train subordinates?

—Among the people you lead, did anyone quit their job after you came?
– Do you really want to delegate the work to someone else, or do you feel you are best suited for the job?
——Ask yourself, are you afraid that a subordinate who does a good job will "surpass yourself" and is unwilling to authorize?

679. Form and method of authorization
Authorization means that the leader grants certain powers and responsibilities to subordinates according to the situation, so that they can obtain certain autonomy and bear corresponding responsibilities under certain supervision.There are two main forms and methods of authorization.

1. One is general authorization

This is the general work assignment made by the leader to his subordinates, without specific assignment, and belongs to the authorization of a wide range of affairs.There are three types of authorization:
(1) Flexible authorization.The leader does not assign specific work to the authorized person, but only indicates an outline or outline, and the authorized person has a lot of room to deal with it according to the specific local conditions at that time.

(End of this chapter)