Allocation allocation, these are two things that are often confused. So in this lecture, I want to talk about what the difference is, and when you'll use each. And often the confusion starts if you move into a role, and your predecessor has created the seeds for that confusion in the way that she or he has used delegation and allocation in the way that they've carried out the role. Put simply, allocation is when you as a manager or a team leader or project manager, take a number of responsibilities that belong to a variety of team members and give them out to those team members. allocation is giving somebody piece of work that is theirs to do. It's their responsibility anyway, it's part of their job description.
And all you're doing as their supervisor or team leader is deciding which member of your team is going to do which piece of work. delegation is quite different though. Because in delegation, what you're doing is taking some of your work and handing it out to team members. You're giving your work to team members for one of many reasons, for example, to develop their skills, their experience, to show them trust. Maybe it's to provide you with the time to do other work, or to grow organizational resilience, and we'll look at all of those later in the program. The thing about delegation, though, is to understand the distinction also between responsibility on the one hand and accountability The other if you allocate some work, then the person you're allocating it to is responsible for that piece of work, and they're accountable for it.
Because that work was the head in the first place. All you're doing is deciding which member of your team will do it. But because the work that you delegate belongs to you, you may delegate responsibility to do the work and to do it well. But you will retain accountability for it, you will be called to task when that work is done poorly. And for me, is that highlights an essential nature of delegation. It's kind of unfair, because a good delegator will always pass on the praise and the recognition for work well done to the person who has done it.
But if that work is not Not well done, then that accountability would remain with me. And therefore, I must take responsibility for the mistakes that my team member has made. Why would I take responsibility for them? Because it's my job in delegating, to make sure I set them up to succeed. And if I'm not able to support them, if I'm not able to help to succeed, then it's every bit as much my fault as it is this. So delegation and allocation are different.
And I hope that in the difference, you can get some appreciation of what delegation is all about.