It’s easier if I just do it myself
My staff already has too much on their plate
I don’t mind doing it
I don’t have time
Sound familiar?
We come up with all kinds of creative reasons why we are not delegating, but they are rarely good ones.
Delegating effectively is essential to your success as a leader and to your team’s success in their own professional growth. There is no way around this. Yet we fight it, tooth and nail, holding onto tasks that need not be held onto. In the name of efficiency. Or self-sacrifice. Or our glorification of busy. Various reasons, lots of negative consequences.
THE PROBLEM WITH NOT DELEGATING
Whatever your reasons are for not delegating, the negative consequences are similarly predictable and damaging. For starters, you are busying yourself with things you have no business busying yourself with. As a leader, you are tasked with leading, strategizing, problem-solving and decision-making. You can not do this consistently or well if you are constantly trying to get through tedious, time-consuming tasks that anyone else on your staff could and should be doing.
Another problem with not delegating is that you are not giving your staff sufficient opportunity to develop and grow. By withholding tasks and information that could benefit their growth, you are depriving them of the opportunity to prepare for their own professional futures. Delegating allows them to learn practical, important skills and expose them to work that can help them get to the next level. Not delegating means you are not fulfilling one of the most important roles you have as a leader.
Further, by not delegating, you are sending a strong message to your staff that you do not trust them. You are sending the dual message that you think you are the only one who can do the task well and that you do not want to take the time to share that wisdom.
THE HURDLE OF DELEGATING
When you have risen to a leadership position, it is likely because you work hard and are competent. You may have gotten used to doing things by yourself and doing them quite well. Well enough, in fact, that you got yourself promoted. And once you were promoted, it is likely that no one taught you how to be an effective manager, including how to delegate effectively. As a result, your reason for not initially delegating may be reasonable but it does not excuse or mitigate the damage it causes. Neither do the good intentions that are likely at least partially responsible for your reluctance to delegate. It might be true that you are holding onto tasks because you want your staff to like you and you know they have a lot going on, but again, your good intentions will not mitigate the damage of your decision.
Before you can start delegating, you need to identify and confront the reason you are so resistant to it. Some common reasons are:
- I want to be in control
- I don’t trust my team
- I can do it better
- I don’t have time
- I don’t want to burden my staff
- I don’t want my staff do resent me
- I like to be needed
Which one is yours? Some of the above? All the above? Something else? Whatever it is, you need to start there. The steps to delegating are actually quite simple. It is the mindset that must be tackled first. So start by being honest with yourself and identifying where your resistance is. Then, work on reframing your mindset to better serve you and your goal of wanting to delegate more effectively.
For example, if your resistance is due to your need for control, think of how out of control your workload is because of how much you have to do. Or if you have convinced yourself that you do not have the time to delegate, think of how much time you are wasting each and every time you do a task that someone else could or should be doing. And think a little further ahead. If this is a recurring task, it may take you more time to explain it initially, but ultimately, it will save you time once you no longer have to do it month after month, week after week, or even day after day.
THE BENEFITS OF DELEGATING
Learning to delegate effectively produces several significant benefits. For starters, you free up your very precious time to focus more on leading your team rather than managing all the small but time-consuming pieces within it. This allows you to focus on leveraging your strengths as a leader and focus on strategizing, problem solving and taking your team to the next level.
Delegating also provides the dual benefit of showing your staff that you trust them while giving them opportunities to grow and develop. Most staff want to continue growing, and delegating is a great way to support that growth. Whatever their professional goals are, increasing their skills will help position them for their next steps.
Another benefit of delegating is that you expose staff to something they may not yet know they enjoy or are good at. We cannot know what we do not know, and delegating helps provide opportunity to explore something that may end up being a career or even a life changer.
THE STEPS TO EFFECTIVE DELEGATING
Step 1
Not everything can or should be delegated. Other things should clearly be delegated. Others will require a judgment call. Some things to consider are:
Is someone else allowed to do this?
Will delegating it ultimately save me time?
Does somebody have or can develop the ability to do this?
Does someone else want to do this?
Can someone else learn and grow from this?
Is it time-consuming?
Is it tedious?
Do I dislike doing it?
The more yeses you have, the more reason you have to delegate it. (Of course, there are certain tasks that should not and cannot be delegated, particularly anything that requires your confidentiality.)
Step 2
When you have considered these questions, and others that will help you, the next step is to consider who you should delegate the task to. For this step, consider the distribution of workload along with staff goals, interests and strengths. Delegating well requires a lot of trial and error in finding what people enjoy and are good at. Remember, one of your primary tasks as a manager is to identify, deepen and leverage your staff’s strengths. You cannot know some of these strengths until they have the opportunity to show themselves. In some cases, it will turn out that this is not a strength after all, in which case you need to adjust and keep moving forward.
Step 3
Once you have chosen which task to delegate and to whom, the next step is to let the staff know why you are delegating it. This explanation must also include the purpose of the task. What is the intended outcome and why is it important? Staff need to understand the purpose in what they are being asked to do and how it relates to the bigger goal of fulfilling your mission.
Step 4
It is essential that you make it clear to staff what the expected outcome of the newly delegated task is. Then- and this is the tricky part- unless it is essential that the process be followed in a certain way, provide space for them to reach that outcome in a way that works for them. This can be challenging when this is not the way you would do it, but resist the urge to intervene when your staff is on their way to reaching the outcome you set out for them. Recognize that there are a lot of viable ways to reach the same destination and your way is rarely the only way and often not the best way to get there.
Step 5
Find an important balance between micromanaging and leaving your staff high and dry. You want to continue to support them and see how the new task is going. You want to make sure you are providing encouragement and recognition for what they are doing well and asking if they need anything from you to keep moving forward. Be present but not overbearing- invested but not overly involved.
Step 6
Be prepared for mistakes. When someone is first learning a new task, they will inevitably make mistakes, take longer than they will eventually and will not be as efficient nor effective at it as the person (i.e., YOU) who had been doing it for a long time before delegating it. Do not use this as an opportunity to affirm your misguided belief that you are the only one who can do it well and that it will take too much time for someone else to do it. Remember, it might not start well, but if you have delegated effectively, it will end well. Give yourself and your staff space for it not to start well.
Step 7
Bring it full circle. Once your staff has completely taken ownership of their new task, empower them to delegate pieces of it- or even all of it- as they see fit. The more your staff can shift and share responsibilities that best suit them all while freeing you up from having to manage the process of doing so, the better off everyone is.
Delegating is a challenge for most managers, and it does not generally get easier on its own. It is up to you as a leader to appreciate the importance of effective delegation and to do the work of facing your resistance and learning how to do it well. It is not easy, I know, and I still struggle with the process myself at times, but I am confident that continuing to work on my effectiveness as a delegator benefits everyone I work with, including me.
For more support, reach out at Coachkat@katherinespinney.com or call 703-688-2394.
