Imagine I said you had to immediately take a week off work without giving notice to your team. What would your reaction be? Would you be excited because you get an unexpected vacation and aren’t worried about having your team work autonomously? Or would you be filled with apprehension because you know things won’t operate as smoothly while you’re not there?
If you’re in a leadership position and believe your initiatives and priorities wouldn’t move forward in your absence, or if you assume you’d be picking up the pieces when you return, you may have an issue with delegation.
Why People Fear Delegating
When coaching my clients, I’ve heard them voice a variety of fears when it comes to the idea of delegating. They include perfectionism, worries about failing because of someone else’s work or even believing that no one can be as effective as they can. Other factors that impact a leader’s (in)ability to delegate are feeling the need to prove their worth and having a strong need to be in control or be the go-to person who holds all the important information.
All of these are things that get in the way of delegation, but perhaps the most perplexing reason I hear is feelings of guilt. Some leaders don’t want to burden their team members, so they choose not to delegate tasks. But this bogs them down in day-to-day tasks that can take away from their primary leadership responsibilities, like providing coaching and feedback to their teams.
Leaders who don’t delegate find themselves bogged down in day-to-day tasks that can take away from their primary responsibilities as a managers. For example, it may mean spending less time with their direct reports and providing them with feedback and coaching. A lack of delegation also takes away employees’ opportunities to grow, which could lead to demoralization and disengagement.
The Benefits Of Delegation
With clients who struggle to delegate, I try to help them reframe their thoughts about leadership. After all, companies with executives who effectively delegate can grow faster, generate more revenue and create more jobs. It’s like racing a high-speed cigar boat against the slow and steady Queen Mary; you’re fast because everyone on your team has some level of ownership that makes things run more efficiently.
Delegation improves communication and efficiency, and it helps establish areas of responsibility and accountability. If the expectation is that everyone in the company exudes authority, you’ll see the ROI increase from an individual level to a team level to an organizational level.
The 3 Steps Of Delegation
Here’s an effective protocol for delegating that I teach my clients.
1. Choose The Right Fit
For impactful delegation, you must be thoughtful at the front end and decide who is the right person to take over for you. There are many questions you should consider before making your choice. For example, are they skilled and motivated enough to handle the additional responsibilities? Can they take on the extra work right now, or will you need to help them reprioritize their commitments to accommodate this new responsibility?
2. Make Your Request Effectively
Once you’ve settled on who you’ll be delegating to, you must have a dialogue about what you need. For the most effective conversation, you need to ensure both you and your employee are engaged and that you’ve set the right tone. You’ll need to provide details like the specific parameters and deadline expectations. It’ll also be valuable to frame your request in the larger context of your organization’s business outcomes.
It’s especially important to be clear when you’re delegating outcomes rather than individual tasks. Instead of mandating what each step of the project looks like, you should express the desired goal and then empower your staff to determine how to get there on their own. I’ve found this strategy often results in pleasant surprises because when you give your staff more creativity and freedom, they’re more engaged and the outcome is typically more powerful.
The conversation doesn’t end when you make your request. You’ll need to ask if your employee has any concerns. For instance, do they feel they’ll need additional resources to complete the task? Do they anticipate getting stuck on any part of the project?
If you have someone hesitant to take on delegation duties, discuss the prioritization of your request compared to competing commitments and deliverables. As a leader, you can help them express the need to renegotiate a deadline for another project. You can also convey this need cross-functionally to other leaders so there’s agreement across the board. Of course, “No” is an acceptable answer if your team member has strong reasons for refusal, at which point you’ll need a new choice.
3. Establish Checkpoints
It’s key to let the person taking over for you know they can reach out if they need help at any point. By offering help when needed, you will provide closure for the request. But whether you choose to establish checkpoints for the project will depend on the level of management.
If you’re a middle or newer manager, I suggest setting up progress reports and check-ins because there will likely be a lot of opportunities for coaching your employees. However, if you’re a senior leader, once you’ve established trust, checkpoints are likely unnecessary because their level warrants a long leash. Your expectation of your employee should be that if there might be an issue with the request or forward progress, or any barriers they’re unable to remove, they’ll reach out to you.
Be More Essential And Less Involved
It can be hard for leaders, especially new ones, to let go of day-to-day tasks so they can take on higher-priority work. But delegation isn’t tactical; it’s necessary. If you don’t delegate, you aren’t growing or developing your team, which could ultimately lead to retention issues. When you delegate, you improve productivity, morale and commitment, all of which can positively impact company culture. And if done right, your priorities will be revealed through the ideas of others.
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This article was originally published on Forbes.com as a Forbes Coaches Council post.