We all love delegating, right? Handing our work over to someone less experienced than us. Hoping that the work will get done on time and correctly, knowing that if it doesn’t we will get blamed. When do we delegate? Who to delegate to? How frequently do we check in? Do we check in at all? Yep, everyone loves delegating!
That is the opening I use to introduce a discussion on delegation with a client. It is always met with the same response, wry smiles and heads nodding in agreement. Most people I speak with can’t even recall when they first heard that delegation is essential. Was it the first day on the construction site? First day on the Mc-Job? At school? Most likely during our childhood from a parent or TV show. The need for effective delegation appears to be a universal concept in the workplace.
The rest of this article will follow the approach I use to discuss delegation with teams or individuals. At the bottom is a printable worksheet.
Why is delegation so important?
Answers to this question typically come quick. They include comments such as:
- Free up my time
- Increase efficiency
- Develop the team
- Spreads work out more evenly
- Establishes trust
- Needed for succession planning
- Reduces stress
All great answers. Not much coaching required there. The answers come so easily and quickly that I typically stop writing them down as I can’t keep up.
Why is it so hard?
The enthusiasm disappears, the rapid responses stop, and eyes drop to their notes or scan to others hoping someone will speak up. Never have I heard the response “it’s not hard.” This part needs a bit of coaching. I typically use a coaching model learned during my NLP training called Logical Levels. It is a wonderful framework for learning more about a clients’ thoughts.
Environment: explores the “where” and “when” delegation is required in their specific workplace.
Behaviours: explores “what” delegation is. It seems straight-forward; however, dig into this a bit and you will realize that more than one perspective on the process exists.
Capabilities: explores the “how”, the skills required for delegating. I typically allow for a short discussion prior to hitting the pause button, putting the “how” aside for a short time (we pick this up again below).
Beliefs: explores “why” we delegate. We covered this above already, so I will typically point to their list and ask if anyone wants to add anything to it. Beyond that, we are exploring the beliefs that make delegation difficult. Typically answers I hear are:
- I’d rather just do it than have to spend time fixing it.
- I have nobody to delegate to.
- My team doesn’t have the experience.
- They pay me to do this task, not give it to someone else.
- I don’t want to get in trouble for something I didn’t’ do.
Identity: explores the “who”; meaning, what does delegating say about me. The most common replies are:
- what if they do it better than I do?
- what if I delegate wrong?
- What if people think I’m not busy enough?
In a typical coaching session, I would focus on the Identity issue by coaching them to develop a different Meaning. That’s for another article though!
I mentioned above that I put the “how” aside, I hit the pause button when discussing the Capabilities required. The reason for that is to introduce a framework for delegation. This was taught to me by my coach several years ago and I am yet to find a better tool.
Keep the ship afloat
Imagine a boat, and that boat is under attack by torpedoes, missiles, and gun fire. The urgency of the crew depends on what hits the boat and where the boat is hit. After poorly drawing a boat and receiving the appropriate teasing for my lack of artistic ability, I will start describing the attack and relating it to instances in my career. The coaching part of the exercise is in helping them to find relatable stories from their career.
Major Issue – Torpedo strike under the water line:
We cannot delegate this to someone more junior than us. If we consider an Org Chart, this gets passed laterally or up; never down, as it is too important.
Example: In a previous career we would often sign NDAs for our clients while they were working on their designs. Unfortunately (due to poor communication on my part) a mid-level member of our team reached out to vendors for quotes, ultimately getting back to our client. This situation was extremely delicate and asking my co-worker to address the oversight was not the right move. I leaned on my boss and his partners for guidance, and collectively we dealt with it. Our client was furious; but, the relationship was salvaged and appropriate actions were taken to reduce the likelihood of a similar situation occurring in the future.
Important Issue & Urgent – Gun fire under the water line:
We can delegate this; but, we need to check-in with our team frequently.
Example: Like in many careers (certainly all of mine), items would seemingly fall from the sky. Emails would get missed, deliverables wouldn’t get added to resource tracking sheet, new work would come in, etc. Or a mistake would get made and the need to address and correct it would become top priority. In this situation I would call my team together, share with them the details, and we would discuss how to move forward. Once they all knew their role and got to work, my job became staying on top of them, assessing progress and stepping in wherever help was needed. Depending on the situation, I may arrange follow up meetings or intermediate deadlines. This allowed me to do other work; but, this particular situation was never too far from my mind.
Important Issue but not Urgent – Missile strike above the water line:
This is a task we can delegate and check-in occasionally.
Example: a revision to an issued report or new project to which the client says “no rush, a couple of weeks is fine.” It is important, we do want to exceed our clients’ expectations; but, we don’t have to drop everything else to get on it. This is a really good leadership opportunity and offers a lot of flexibility. We could assign a champion to lead the execution, allowing them the opportunity to practice delegating to a team. Alternatively, we could take this on ourselves if doing so allows our team to work on something more challenging.
Minor Issue – Gun fire above the water line:
This is a task that we can delegate and ignore. For a variety of reasons, this one seems to trip people up the most!
Example: this is any instance in which you know that your team member has the capability of handling it fully. I have found that some coaching is often required. Influencing them with encouraging words like: “I don’t need to review this. You know what you’re doing, you’ve done it perfectly before. Lean on others if you need to, but I don’t need to see it before it is issued.” As leaders, our role here is to resist the temptation to follow up; or worse, take the work back when you see it isn’t getting done.
Tip: the premise I use for these Minor Issues is this: pick a task such that if your team makes a mistake, it won’t matter much. If they fail in some way (late issuing a report, calculation mistake, email issued to wrong person) it can be easily fixed.
“Delegation requires the willingness to pay for short term failures in order to gain long term competency.” – Dave Ramsey
Best Wishes,
Mike