Good reasons justify the importance in mastering the ability to delegate well. If delegating isn’t something you do in an efficient way, I believe that three reasons are enough to convince you to do so. Two of them are related to yourself, and one to the people you depend on most to grow professionally.
No matter how good you are: capable, intelligent, accomplisher, and even if you work long hours, there is a physical limit to how much you can achieve. If you want to intelligently amplify your ability, you need to delegate some of the work to other people on your team.
This extra time you can use within the organization in things that you think are more important and require your presence, or in your life outside of it, such as picking up your children from school.
When assuming senior leadership roles, you are expected to be able to cope with a larger and more complex workload because, instead of just managing yourself, you will have the responsibility to manage other people and other resources.
Delegating is a basic skill that will allow you to manage this greater complexity, in a better way and from it extract greater efficiency. If you don’t master this skill, your performance will be less than of peers that have this ability, and you´ll run the risk of having your career progression come to a stop or at least advance in much slower pace.
Teamworking (Photo: Climate KIC / Unsplash)
It is critical in the development of people, and at the same time, makes them feel more responsible and relevant to the organization. More than that, delegating requires trust, and people understand and respond to this in a very positive way, which increases the loyalty and motivation in working with you.
Surely, fear is the strongest feeling that hinders your ability to delegate. Fear of what? Fear that the task will not be completed, fear that it will not be as well done as if you´d done it personally, fear that your subordinate has so much prominence that he´ll “steal the light” from you, and even fear of feeling guilty for not doing this task yourself. There are many fears, all of them justifiable.
As Mr. Spock, from ‘Star Trek’, would say “fear is the death of the mind”. And against fear, there is only one thing to do: courage. That’s right! who said delegation was easy? That is why few people do it well. Precisely, for this reason, my suggestion is for you to be brave and move on. On the one hand, learning to delegate will require training and dedication, and on the other, it will help you grow as a professional and stand out among your peers.
To help you with this challenge, here are a few simple tips for you to use them effectively.
The first step is to look at your list of activities, responsibilities, and projects and to identify which ones, or even which part of them, really need your direct involvement. Here I am not talking about things like “it would be good to get involved”, “I think I do it better”, “but I really like doing this”. What counts here is, “If I do not take charge of it personally, it can´t be done.” Anything that is not like this can, theoretically, be delegated.
Talking with colleague (Photo: Rawpixel.com / Unsplash)
With the list of delegable activities, the second phase begins: to whom do I assign it to? Here, you should evaluate each activity and see if there are people on your team who can do the work.
It may happen that in some cases they require help or that investment in training is needed. If that is the case, it will be great because it will require them to improve, which creates motivation. In other cases, they will be ready. Finally, there may be activities in which no one is prepared to do at all. In that case, there’s no way out! You’re going to have to do that job!
A few years ago, I went through a curious situation that helps to illustrate this point. I was a manager of a team of eight people and we had just been through an annual performance evaluation. Based on each one’s development needs, I delegated activities that would enable such growth.
The problem was that a week later a product launch was anticipated, and our deadline was reduced from nine to three months. We were doomed, I thought, and the solution I found, in the hope of gaining efficiency, was to reallocate the activities, based on each one’s current expertise, not on their development needs.
I called the team, explained the situation, and laid out the two paths before them. Luckily, we all chose to focus on our expertise, and with that, we were able to deliver the launch in the new term. This was very good for the organization, but it turned out to be even better for us, because within a year, all eight of us were promoted, including myself!
It is useless to delegate only the task, and not the responsibility. For the delegation to be efficient, you must deliver the “whole problem” and your subordinate must understand that he won´t only accomplish that project, but that a good or bad delivery will impact his performance, the team as a whole and his boss. The ball is on his side and everyone depends on him. This is not cruel. It’s awesome! Rest assured this is one of the things that generates more motivation for the people who work on your team.
Explain everything: make clear the objectives that need to be achieved, the limits of authority, deadlines, how and in which situations that team member should ask for your help. Failure to do so is perhaps the biggest failing factor, since the person doesn´t have a crystal ball to foresee what you expect from them in that activity or project.
It´s imperative to show everything and leave no doubt whatsoever. If something goes wrong because this step has been miscarried, the responsibility will be largely your own.
Like we saw before, not always the person you have chosen will be 100% prepared to carry out the activity or project in question, and here is a great opportunity for you to train and qualify your team. By the way, I suggest that, based on this, you choose many activities to delegate, particularly for non-critical situations, where there is time to train. The result is that you will have a more qualified team and prepared to handle more complex situations, which frees up your time to do more important things.
I remember once when I took over a new team, I realized that my coordinator and right-hand, a great and clever professional, was extremely timid showing her ideas and points of view to the senior levels in the organization. That would certainly slow down her growth, I thought.
I spent some time in training her in doing this well and one day, we both went on to convince my boss to approve a project. Arriving at his desk, I told him that she was going to do all the talk and stayed quiet. We had agreed on this, she and I, but I remember until today, how she sweated and how, from time to time, she looked at me with the face of “for God’s sake, take over the conversation”, but I remained silent and, in the end, our director approved the project based on the arguments presented by her.
I did not spare her repeated compliments. On several occasions, after that job so well done, I no longer had to accompany her in a similar situation. “I created a monster, I thought.” Good for her and me…
Man working (Photo: LinkedIn Sales Navigator / Unsplash)
As in the previous example, it is very important for you to be available to help and support your subordinate, but remember that it is equally important that you give him room to work the problem alone. Suffering by doing so is what will help him grow, and what will make him happy doing the project on his own.
If you get too close you´ll end up choking him and increasing his insecurity. In that case, he´ll surely beg for your blessing at all times. This is not delegating! It’s wasting time!
You are entitled to controlling how the delegation process goes, since the ultimate responsibility over the outcome of the area is yours. In order to accomplish this, it is important that in the initial conversation, when you are delegating the activity you define with your subordinate how you will do this, when should he report back to you, how you will both measure advances and how he can clarify doubts.
Use these occasions to give him feedback and talk about his progress. Take the time to help him with what is needed. Abdicating in doing these checkpoints makes the delegation process quite insecure, both for you and for him.
Did everything go well in the end? Everything worked out? Was the result good? So, do not waste time, and praise very sincerely, elevating his qualities. Remember that this activity was yours and that you entrusted him with the responsibility of accomplishing it. And he did it very well.
If you liked and praise, you will be saying, in between the lines, that it was worth trusting him and good things will come from it. This has a strong motivating effect that will strength the relationship between you both. Congratulations!
Cover photo credit – Delegating activity (Photo: Monkeybusinessimages / iStock)
