Delegation

You think you have been granted some rare esoteric and cutting edge knowledge and then discover that it has been common know-how for hundreds of years. It is especially painful, when you have just boasted about how modern your ideas are, to find out that they are about as traditional as it can get.

Take this idea of delegation, for example. There you go, studying in top management institutions and discovering how key an ability it is in managing people. You come back home boasting about all these cutting edge things that you are learning and your grandma pulls out a Tirukkural. This Tiru, I tell you...

Idhanai idhanaal ivan mudikkum endraaindhu adhanai avankan vidal - Tirukkural

Analyse who is capable of doing what job by what means and then delegate it to him - Loose translation

If you have ever had to delegate something urgent and important ('Important' generally means that you will get chewed up by your boss if something goes wrong, not necessarily something that has grave consequences for humanity) and, as you watch the back of your subordinate heading back to his seat, your heart is in your mouth and your fingers so tightly crossed that you require pliers to unravel them...if you are, as I was saying, hoping against hope that what you asked him to do and what he understood are, at least, on the same page if not identical; that what he actually produces bears some resemblance to what you want...

There you go. I am of those who are reduced to incoherence the moment I have to delegate things to people. You see, there are too many issues involved. First, your own judgment of people's abilities. Then, your own ability to communicate what you need in the manner in which the other chap can understand. Then, your ability to also clearly communicate the urgency...

In short, delegation involves the gamut of interpersonal abilities that a manager is supposed to have. If, indeed, you do have it THEN Tiru has the wisdom to offer on how to apply it. A good manager assesses the nature and abilities of his people, right up to knowing what tools the chap is capable of applying in doing his work. And, thus, when a job turns up, he knows to whom he can delegate it.

Well, so much for cutting edge knowledge. I could have learned this much management in my language class at school, if only I had taken Tiru seriously.

But, then, it would be no use to me anyway. All knowledge is useful only to he who applies it. Did I say that for the first time...or did Tiru beat me to it centuries ago?