Delegation.

[rivka]

Yesterday's poll sparked some great discussion - my thanks to everyone who contributed.

Here's what prompted the poll. Tuesday is lab meeting day, and yesterday was our first lab meeting since everyone started taking off for holiday travel. At the meeting, I had this conversation:

rivka: "We are way behind with follow-up visits right now, so let's really make a push to get those scheduled."
RA #1: "I just have one subject tomorrow, so I can make calls all afternoon."
rivka: [looking from RA#1 to RA#2] "Please make sure that you split the calls up so that one person isn't doing all of them."
RA#1: "We always do."
rivka: [does not volunteer to make any calls herself.]

See, I hate making business phone calls. Hate it. Always have. If phone calls are on my to-do list, everything else happens first - generally including sizable amounts of procrastination. When I became a Research Supervisor, with two RAs and a grad student under me, I decided that I would not be making any more routine phone calls. I don't call to remind subjects of their appointments. I don't call to schedule follow-ups. I don't call to find out whether the clinic will be closed for Martin Luther King Day. I make the calls that need to be made by me - to the Institutional Review Board, to federal regulators, to our boss when there's news she isn't going to like, to anyone who needs to be handled with diplomacy. But I am not willing to make the routine calls. I made plenty of them when I was a grad student and a RA and a research coordinator. My RAs make them now.

Does this make me a bad supervisor? I don't think it does. My RAs don't seem to mind making phone calls - I mean, if RA#1 can cheerfully volunteer to make them all afternoon, then obviously she doesn't feel the same way that I do. I do unpleasant stuff I don't ask them to do - for example, I can't count the number of times I've said something along the lines of, "Well, if he tries to give you a hard time about it, just refer him to me. You're an RA - you're not responsible for our policies." I'm willing to have them schedule all the problem-child subjects on my shifts.

I'm just not willing to make the phone calls.

Comments

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I didn't answer your poll, because I didn't think your two choices were incompatible. It is possible both to delegate stuff you don't like, *and* to only assign to your subordinates work that you are willing to do yourself. You don't have to be eager to do it; just willing. And the fact that the calls will get done, eventually, if they are on your to-do list, means that, in fact, you are *willing* to do them. Just not eager.

I think this makes you a good supervisor.