Different industries require subtle differences in style and how leaders impact their teams and results. As part of our occasional series chatting with industry leaders, we recently spoke with engineer and senior leader, Wes Davis. His story is an interesting one, with Wes focusing much of his time and development on the topic of leadership within engineering, rather than simply learning and applying the technical aspects.
Delegating work and tasks to your team members is one of the most necessary and important skills of leadership. It also remains one of the most challenging for many new and experienced managers.
However, there are several things you can do to develop this skill.
In order to free up space to be more strategic, have a greater impact, be more efficient, and achieve work/life balance, delegating appropriate tasks to others is necessary and even required for managers today. This can feel risky – especially if the leader is high controlling, is a perfectionist, or has a heavy workload.
Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash
The art and science of delegating to others begins with your own sense of comfort in releasing responsibility of what you control. Many managers struggle with this. Delegation and control are common topics with my coaching clients. They recognise the importance of delegation and how it can serve them, but some still struggle with letting go.
Effective leaders who climb the corporate ladder are skilled at delegating and developing people. (1)
The first step is to define what tasks are to be delegated. This begins with your ability to prioritise. Using the decision matrix below, you can separate your actions based on four possibilities.
- Urgent and important (tasks you will do immediately).
- Important, but not urgent (tasks you will schedule to do later).
- Urgent, but not important (tasks you will delegate to someone else).
- Neither urgent nor important (tasks that you will eliminate).
The great thing about this matrix is that it can be used for broad productivity plans (“How should I spend my time each week?”) and for smaller, daily plans (“What should I do today?”). (2)
This process is easier if you learn to apply conscious and deliberate decision-making.
I often say to clients, “if you don’t control things, they will control you”. This tool may provide an opportunity to improve. Prioritising tasks by urgency and importance results in 4 quadrants with different work strategies.(3)
The most effective leaders and people schedule time for important, less-urgent tasks and activities. As the video explains, the less-important, but urgent tasks can often be delegated. It is not about being obsessive, but rather ensuring the things that matter the most actually occur. Once priorities have been established, one of the most effective methods of aligning actions with team member is via 1:1’s.
Related: Management – Communication and Accountability In One-On-Ones
Formalising expectations and ensuring that real understanding exists regarding the work and tasks required is a key component of an effective 1:1. Good leaders see this time as an investment not a cost, therefore rarely compromise on making the most of the opportunity.
Quite simply, with the pace and expectations of modern organisations, if it’s not scheduled it rarely happens.
I have noticed in recent years when coaching and mentoring that there is a relatively consistent behavioural trend in those who delegate least often. The unwillingness or lack of awareness to delegate to others often stems from a lack of the managers self-confidence. This is also regularly displayed by those managers who also struggle with the idea of team members working remotely.
It is difficult to learn to lead well and trust others if you don’t trust yourself.
One of the most difficult transitions for leaders to make is the shift from doing to leading. There’s a psychological shift to focus your attention on areas that are vital to the company and become less involved in the daily tasks. That shift can bring about fear. “What will happen if I let go and delegate that responsibility? Will I be able to make the transition to my new role and focus? Will I be seen as less vital if I delegate certain tasks? No one can do it as good as me.” It’s a leader’s responsibility to focus on the success of their employees.
You retain your top talent by keeping your employees engaged, empowered and letting them develop their skills to become leaders. A leader’s second responsibility is to determine priorities. Third is to address projects. (4)
Often leaders delegate tasks when they should be delegating authority. If you delegate tasks, you get followers. If you delegate authority, you get leaders.
Craig Groeschel
A recent Forbes article asks a great question, “How do you know if you need to delegate more?”
- Red flag No. 1: You say things like, “I’m overwhelmed. I get sucked into too many meetings,” or “I’m drained by all of the decisions that I have to make.”
- Red flag No. 2: Your ability to unplug can only be measured in hours, not days or weeks.
- Red flag No. 3: You don’t delegate a task because a portion of the process is complex or has exceptions.
- Red flag No. 4: You once tried to delegate a responsibility and it didn’t go well, so you took the task back.
- Reg flag No. 5: You find yourself stuck in a decision bottleneck, leading to inaction on many fronts.
- Red flag No. 6: You aren’t happy or fulfilled at work.
- Red flag No. 7: You claim you don’t have time to delegate or train someone. (4)
As a new manager you can get away with holding on to work.
Peers and bosses may even admire your willingness to keep “rolling up your sleeves” to execute tactical assignments. But as your responsibilities become more complex, the difference between an effective leader and a super-sized individual contributor with a leader’s title is painfully evident.
In the short term you may have the stamina to get up earlier, stay later, and out-work the demands you face. But the inverse equation of shrinking resources and increasing demands will eventually catch up to you, and at that point how you involve others sets the ceiling of your leadership impact. The upper limit of what’s possible will increase only with each collaborator you empower to contribute their best work to your shared priorities. Likewise, your power decreases with every initiative you unnecessarily hold on to. (5)
The irony of poor delegating is that it serves no-one well.
The manager is most often overwhelmed and performing poorly; team members can easily become bored and work becomes repetitious; trust and relationships are diminished; skills, capability and competence don’t grow; confidence in self and in others is not built and can in fact, be reduced; and, results are being limited, amongst other impacts.
The opposite is just as true. Through effective delegation, real opportunity to engage your team members and positively influence results can be gained. The challenge: if you improve your delegating capability, would you become an even better leader? It’s always a choice.
Keep growing and enjoying!
Resources:
(1) 7 Tips for Letting Go as a Manager: Blanchard LeaderChat
(2) How to be More Productive and Eliminate Time Wasting Activities by Using the “Eisenhower Box”
(3) Introducing the Eisenhower Matrix
(4) Great Leaders Perfect The Art Of Delegation: Forbes
(5) To Be a Great Leader, You Have to Learn How to Delegate Well: HBR
I often wonder what it is about processes that many managers have a need to see as entirely separate from their people.
Similarly to my previously documented thoughts regarding the key differences between leaders and managers, the ‘need’ to focus solely on the process is often due to the conscious or unconscious decision to concentrate time and energy on the simpler or more controllable part of the equation.
Unfortunately for those leaders with this mindset, unless you are in a pure process driven environment (which is rarer than many people think unless/until robots take over our world!), this leaves out the core reason why
these processes often fail – a focus on our people!
The ability to bring individuals and team members into the process is key to project success or meaningful outcomes. Engaging the people and teams involved, communicating the context and being specific about why the process exists or change is required, will often be the deciding factor between process success and failure. Rarely will a process in itself be the difference – it requires input, management and control of and with your people.
If we are not clear about what role our team member’s play in the overall project then the entire process change will likely fail.
This is a regular occurrence within the project and business world, where much of the planning and time is dedicated to setting up the ‘right’ program and lean elements that will provide the most effective structure or process. It is too often assumed that with cursory levels of communication and a base understanding that employees will simply fall into line and grasp the key elements.
These core elements may well be understood however buy-in, context and discretionary effort are almost always limited or compromised when an individual does not participate in the early project planning cycle and/or has little ownership or accountability into inputs or outcomes.
Interestingly, during the post-implementation discussions and review some managers often look back at these (failed!!?) outcomes and wonder why the process failed, without even considering the broader picture and what part their decisions and narrow focus initially may have contributed.
Often the phases and stages are not clearly distinguishable…so, thinking of people and process as intertwined but with different inputs may assist in removing the barriers for change. Our people are the all-encompassing link that will ensure true success and sustained change!
When managing people and change, keep these points front of mind:
- Processes do not deliver outcomes, people do. If we treat process as the hero and people as an afterthought, we set the work up to struggle. Unless you live in a pure process driven world, which is rare, the human side will make or break the result.
- Bring your team in early. Explain the context, the why, and what will change and what will stay the same. Be clear about the problem you are solving, the benefits, and the trade offs. When people can see themselves in the plan, resistance drops, relevance rises, and energy goes where it matters.
- Role clarity is the hinge between a neat plan and real progress. Spell out who owns which decisions, where collaboration is needed, and how handovers work. Invite your people to help shape inputs, risks, and measures, rather than telling them after the fact. Ownership builds commitment, and commitment beats compliance every time.
- Too often we invest our effort in the perfect structure or programme and assume a quick briefing will carry the rest. It rarely does. People might understand the steps, but without buy in and context, the extra effort that lifts performance is missing.
- After a rollout, it is easy to blame the process when results disappoint. Look wider. How did decisions get made, how well did we listen, and did people feel trusted and involved. Leaders who hold both the plan and the people view build stronger delivery and better outcomes.
- Treat people and process as intertwined. Set simple rhythms for communication, short feedback loops, and review both the mechanics and the relationships. Your people are the link that turns a good plan into sustained change.
Effective leaders ensure that they seek to understand both the planned outcomes and how their people are going to influence and drive all of the elements within the process to achieve that outcome.
This type of thinking provides a more solid platform to ultimate success.
Related articles
- Three Ways to Make Leadership Happen (forbes.com)
- Five Tips for Smarter Project Planning (prweb.com)