Delegating Effectively

In this chat I talk about how to become more effective at delegating.

First I talk about barriers to delegating.

• Not enough time to teach or train on how to perform the task
• Feeling of loss of control
• Feeling that you may lose credit
• Enjoying the task being delegated
• Feeling you can do this better
• Feeling you may be delegating yourself out of a job
• Lack of confidence in the team
• Team may say they don’t have the time
• Team member may have a fear of failure
• What else?

Next I talk about the benefits to delegating

• To the organization
• To you
• To your team
• To the individuals

I talk about part of your job as a leader being to

• Create capacity and capability
• Making sure work gets done at the right level

I make a case for building capability and capacity on your team

I explore what it looks like when work is getting done at the right level and when it is not

I close with several tips to delegating

Spend the time up front to clarify and align on

• The problem that needs to be solved
• The objective and the scope of what needs to be achieved
• The vision of success (the outcome)
• How success will be measured

Delegate the right level task/objective for each team member’s skill set

• Work with team member’s strength

Allow time for learning and growth

• Delegate important things, but consider carefully when needing to delegate urgent things

Create lists of questions or a template

• Share how you think about the task or the project

Set up a good cadence of accountability

• Set more frequent outcomes that together lead to the goal
• Check-in in a timely manner such that if the task/project is off track, there is time to have the team member get it back on track.

Be patient and supportive

• Mistakes will happen. Adopt a growth mindset and help your team to learn from the mistakes. Encourage them to keep learning and growing.

Resist the urge to “tell” or jump in and take over.

• Use the “Problem Ask” or “Solution Ask” technique when coaching

Do not abdicate accountability

• Ultimately, you are accountable. Own that accountability. You are responsible for the team’s success.

Recognize and celebrate success

Don’t give up. Developing your team and learning to delegate takes time.