How to go Further Faster – Guaranteed
Leaders are control freaks that struggle to let go. You go further faster when you pass the baton; sadly, you hinder your influence and effectiveness when you don’t.
You’ll always be a mediocre leader until you become great at delegating.
Recently an emerging leader explained they were learning to delegate. He said, “I’m finding it’s hard to let go. (No surprise there.) I need to keep my fingers in things.” He made me chuckle, not because he’s struggling but because it’s a pervasive battle.
Delegation isn’t:
Assigning a task is not delegating. Telling people what to do is not delegation. Anyone can say, “Take the trash out.”
You delegate when you:
- Explain the big picture – the why.
- Provide authority to achieve goals – the what.
- Handover decisions concerning how the job gets done – the how.
- Establish timelines. – the when.
The ultimate goals of delegating:
The goal of delegating is not getting someone to do something you don’t want to do. The two goals are:
- Employee engagement.
- Skill development.
Effective delegation best leverages your current talent in ways that elevate their potential. It’s more about people than tasks; it’s always that way.
10 principles that take you further faster:
- Always begin with the part most frequently excluded – mission and vision.
- Delegate outcomes not methods – unless specific methods are mandatory.
- Invite participation from employees regarding delegated assignments.
- Discuss the scope of authority – including limits.
- Agree on the definition of excellence.
- Explain to the organization or department that delegation has occurred or conflict is inevitable.
- Create controls like timelines and deadlines.
- Provide ample feedback but don’t meddle.
- Expect excellence.
- Face failures together. Solve challenges “with” not “for”.
Delegating poorly means you’re running out of steam. Exceptional delegating means you’re picking up speed.
What have you learned about effective delegating?
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Great analogy with passing the baton. It is so true.
And I think your bonus point was right on the money. I think some people have trouble with delegating because they hired/have the wrong person for the job. This leads to hesitancy on the part of the leader. You either need to develop that person to what you need to be or get someone else in the position.
Thanks for your comment. I thought about the bonus point as a result of a recent conversation I had with a business owner who was struggling to delegate. In reality he couldn’t because he didn’t have the right talent.
Best,
Dan
I believe true delegation, (the kind mentioned in this post) also helps to develop future leaders. If I develop leaders and the new leaders develop leaders, the effectiveness of my organization is multiplied.
Scott, I like this addition because I’m feeling more and more these days like the first key responsibility of a leader is developing those future leaders.
Scott and Greg,
Great addition. Someone tweeted me today using the term, “developmental delegation” That really captures it.
Greg, I’m 100% on board with the importance of developing leaders. I’m devoting more and more attention to this concept. It is the future.
Cheers,
Dan
I’m thankful you two added to the conversation.
Oh delegation, what a challenge! I agree with your points, Dan. I will mention, however, a point made to ME recently that made me reframe your #1: Explain the big picture – the why. A set of us at my organization just took the DISC assessment and I had lunch privately with the trainer to discuss some possibilities of personal coaching. I was talking about how when I supervise, it is important to me to express to the supervisees WHY we are doing what we are doing — how their part fits in with the whole. She reminded me that although that is a HUGE value for me (for my place on the DISC wheel, I am one who digs deep into things I am passionate about), for other types they just want to be told what to do and given the opportunity to do it – it is not so much of a need for them to know the “why.” I think everyone needs that “why” to some degree but the coach’s statement reminded me that not everyone is motivated by the same intangibles as me – a reminder that is especially important when I am supervising and trying to motivate.
Paula, you make an excellent point. I also invest a lot personally in why, and have found that sometimes (often?) others only care about the immediate whys, like Customer A needs product by Wednesday night or they shut down a line. Strategic whys are often unimportant to workers, and metaphysical whys interesting only to me and a few others.
Count me in the “few others” who are interested in the metaphysical whys!
I wonder if we should be looking for people who are interested in the “why’s” and spend more time with them????
Dan, another great topic. I’d chime in and add a couple of things:
Delegating tasks or projects is great, but if you can delegate something that’s ongoing, like managing part of your inventory or leading the weekly operations meeting, you maximize the benefit both for you (freeing up time and juice) and the person you delegate to (become familiar with the task, get even more fulfillment).
Also, keep in mind you can delegate authority but you can’t delegate responsibility. If the work doesn’t get done, it’s still on you, so create the right environment for checking.
I love your conclusion — delegation is an indicator of a leader who’s moving forward!
I am always suprised by someone who doesn’t delegate because they aren’t ready to trust the employees. If you hired them they are right people for the job and you need to let them learn to do it.
People will usually rise to your expectations so set them high but let them fail. We need to give enough support so that they can fail without disaster but sometimes the security net we create is so large we are not really giving people an incentive to succeed we are just adding another layer of administration. They will believe that they are not expected to perform the task correctly and will not take the care that the project deserves.
Give people an honest opportunity to show you what they can do and they will exceed your expectations. I have run out of “cheerleading” phrases and will end my post now.
Bonnie, great point: Why hire, or tolerate, an employee you don’t trust? And if you trust them, why not delegate? And I agree that most of the time, given the opportunity, people impress you rather than disappoint.
Hi Bonnie,
Love your point… why hire if you can’t trust. In the case of the business man who didn’t trust his employee enough to delegate to him, the employee does just fine in their current role. The business owner would love to take them to a new level. But it seems they aren’t a match for the new role.
It’s not a matter of integrity. It’s about competence.
I also agree that good people rise up to the challenge.. usually… if they are able.
I’ll add that I’m in a situation where I put someone in a role that isn’t best suited for them…time to quickly reassign so that everyone can find their greatest enjoyment in leveraging their best skills.
Thanks for a great comment,
Dan
Leaders assume…my take away from your first principle there Dan…great one! Too often it is assumed that the connection of the work to the vision/mission is known, aligned and agreed upon. That does need to drive any effort. Reminders are essential. Linking tightly to the day to day efforts is also important.
In the ‘letting go’ column, what methods and how they are chosen may not (will not?) be the same as what the leader would choose. It’s okay! That’s probably a win-win. If the different method works, you all have learned a new process/tool. If it doesn’t, there will be great lessons to learn from that as well.
Great post, Dan!
I love the simple application of the “why, what, how, and when” to define delegation. I have found that new leaders often struggle with the “how” part of this especially in technical fields. With an engineering background myself, I struggled with this when I started leading teams. Even today I feel a little tug in this direction from time to time. As long as you are driving for results over method, you can empower new leaders and even learn new methods that you have never explored. I am always impressed with the creativity of empowered and self managed people.
On the hiring side, trust and attitude are always at the top of my list. These two attributes will beat out skill for me any day.
I especially like Principle #1, Dan. Research into persuasion shows that someone can become self-motivated to complete someone else’s task if they are persuaded to support it rather than merely being compelled to do it. This buy-in means they will put more effort into it, resulting in better output. Along those lines, I suggest regarding #7 that deadlines be negotiated as well. Ask the person, “By when can you realistically complete this?” If the answer is not soon enough for you, adjust your quantity/quality expectations or the person’s priorities.
This is a very interesting post for me as I am definitely “learning to delegate” as I’ve recently moved from a “do-er” position to a Director position. One thing that has helped me immensely is is am NOT an SME in the area I manage. I think this actually helps me to pull out of the rabbit hole and let my experts be experts.
2 points from the discussion that are sitting with me:
1. How does this fit in the public service where you very often DON’T have control over who works for you – the “hire/fire” model just doesn’t apply in the public sector unfortunately
2. How do you develop “future leaders” when, like me, you are 10-15+ years younger than everyone on your team – many of whom are within spitting distance of retirement.
Interesting topic and things to ponder…
Melissa, When you don’t have control over who works for you, err on the side of trust. Give them the opportunity to succeed and do what you have delegated. If that doesn’t work, then you have a problem on your hands. If you can’t delegate what you’d like to to the people working for you, delegate what you can. Help others become better by teaching them what you can. Become not only a director and delegator, but a mentor to them as well. Good luck to you!
“Theresstager” Thank you for stopping by… best to you. Dan