I once read a crazy, yet slightly comical, story of an event in China. One businessman wanted to kill another, so he hired a hitman. But instead of doing the job, that hitman hired another, paying him a portion of what he received and keeping the rest. But instead of doing the hit, the second guy hired a third hitman and paid him an even lower amount to do the job. Then the third hitman did the same thing again. In all, the murder was passed on to another hitman five times. And in the end, the fifth guy didn’t even do it – he told the man he was supposed to kill about the plan, and they told the police! Let’s just say, that was a very poor example of delegation.
Delegation is the art of empowering others to do what they are capable of doing so that you can do more of what only you can do. And it is an art. Over the course of a leader’s career, almost all will struggle with either not delegating (“there is no one who is experienced enough to do it right”) or delegating poorly (“I don’t feel like doing it, so I’ll just give it to her”). Here are ten practical steps to advance your organization’s effectiveness with wise delegation.
10 Steps to Delegation
1. Hire people who are trustworthy and train them to the point that you have confidence in them.
If you ever lack confidence in a staff member you should be delegating to, ask yourself, why? Did you hire the right person? Did you provide them with training and opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills? Did you give them a chance to prove themselves? Did you give them coaching if they were failing?
2. Identify five tasks or projects you should not be doing but are important enough to be done.
This is hard for those of us who have become so accustomed to doing certain tasks that we no longer even think about it. However, once you get through identifying the first five tasks, you will likely have more that easily come to mind. Remember, delegation is not only about which tasks to give away, it is also about which ones to keep!
Answering the following questions may help you:
What do you do best?
What do you do that others cannot?
What few things must be done exclusively by you?
Not everything should be delegated – delegation is NOT a way to give you more time to play, loaf, or be lazy! It should give you more time to add value to your organization's vision and your personal health and effectiveness.
3. Identify the best people you have to do each of the designated projects or tasks.
If you feel you have no one, it is a sign that you have not succeeded at Step 1! Go back to Step 1 and accomplish it!
4. Provide your employee with clear explanations, expectations, and authority regarding the project or task.
What do you want? When do you want it? What parameters or boundaries must they follow? Delegation often fails because the expectations were not clear on the front end. Now, let go, and let them lead! Ask them if they are confident in being successful with the task, and if not, what it will take to become confident.
5. Provide them with regular accountability and feedback.
This type of regular monitoring is done by communicating your expectations for project updates and completion dates. No deadline often means no completion! Also, give feedback on how they are doing and agree to which communication methods you prefer for staying informed. These can include: e-mail, written updates, shared computer files such as Dropbox and Google Docs, regularly scheduled meetings, and informal meetings.
6. Do not allow the task to be given back to you!
Sometimes people like to practice "reverse delegation." Reverse delegation is when you ultimately end up with the task back in your bin. Do not allow that to happen. Your employee needs to walk away with the project, and the project needs to remain with him/her, not you. Remember, only jump back in when absolutely necessary.
7. Trust them to be successful.
Provide encouragement and support to let them know that you are confident in them. Sometimes we can unintentionally send a message of doubt that causes people to live up to our lack of trust by losing confidence in themselves and failing. In other words, don’t interfere without a very good reason.
8. Don’t expect the task to be done exactly the same way you would do it.
This is not realistic and does not leave room for the task to be done in perhaps an even better way. However, it is realistic to expect that it be done to a reasonable standard and that standard should have been clearly defined in Step 4.
9. If you feel they are not succeeding, test your assumptions.
Meet with them for an update. Determine if you communicated clear expectations and provided them with the resources to do it successfully. Also, determine if your expectations regarding the timing, deliverables, and methods are realistic. Do not take the task back, but rather coach them to do it again and to succeed.
10. Celebrate success with them by giving both private and public recognition.
Such acknowledgment will build their confidence for future projects. People pay attention to what leaders recognize and celebrate.
By delegating to your team, you are showing them that you believe in their abilities. But now that you are passing projects on to them, this doesn’t mean that you are useless. There will still always be difficult cases which will require your expertise. Delegating will free your mind and give you time to focus on the really important matters and will also give your team the freedom they need to grow. The long-term success of a leader and long-term growth of an organization will be tied to how well a leader delegates.
“When you delegate tasks, you create followers. When you delegate authority, you create leaders.” – Craig Groeschel
Contact us to learn how our experienced coaches can help you learn to delegate wisely.
Jay Desko is the CEO of The Center Consulting Group and brings experience in the areas of organizational assessment, leadership coaching, decision-making, and strategic questioning. Jay’s degrees include an M.Ed. in Instructional Systems Design from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from The Union Institute.
