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We imagine a world where every workplace is led by strong leaders who bring out the best in themselves and their teams.
Delegation is an important skill for leaders to build.
For starters, it's impossible for a manager to do everything. Delegation also represents an opportunity to tap the strengths of your team members. Finally, delegation gives direct reports an opportunity to step-up and develop new skills.
It turns out that delegation has a positive impact on the bottom line. According to a Gallup study, CEOs who excel in delegating generate 33 percent higher revenue. CEO Monthly provides compelling reasons why delegation matters.
Unfortunately, most leaders are not effective delegators. A London Business School study found that only 30% leaders delegate and only 10% do it well according to their team members.
It's usually pretty clear when a leader is failing to delegate. They can feel the impact personally, and so does their team.
The most common reason managers fail to delegate are:
It's a good starting point to understand the symptoms that you have a delegation problem. Keep a look out for these and ask a peer or mentor to call out when they see the signs.
The easiest way to get started, is to set time aside each Monday morning and identify work that can be delegated. Here are the 3 types of delegation:
If you're trying to make more room for your manager work - aka Coach tasks - you may need to delegate contributor work - aka Player tasks.
Another type of delegation is when you give a direct report the opportunity to step up and use one of their strengths. Could you do this work? Yes, but it's more important to build the capability on your team and help that person grow.
Last, you've been holding onto a task that does not utilize your strengths. It still needs to get done, but it's not a good use of your time. It's best to label in this situation - "Hey, I've got to focus on xyz priorities and need to hand over this work to you. It's not glamorous but it has xyz impact. Thanks for taking this on".
Now that you've identified work to delegate, it's important to make sure that you really should.
One of the reasons leaders fail to delegate effectively is that they pass on work carelessly. Their direct report gets trapped with work that (1) shouldn't be done at all, (2) should be done by another team, (3) they don't have time for, or (4) they don't have skills to perform without help.
Use this decision tree to inform how you approach delegating the work.
Assuming you've decided to delegate the work, you can the 5 Dimensions of Great Management as a guide. Start with Aware and make your way around.
Some times delegation can feel like more work than just doing the task at hand. While this may be true, this is a dangerous trap to fall into.
As with any management skill, you need to practice delegating to get good at it. And delegation is worth getting good at! You will get familiar with the strengths on your team and get good at scoping work. You'll also sharpen your prioritization and expectation-setting skills.
To ease the burden, develop a delegation system. We recommend sharing a Google doc with the task details, including goal/metric, timeline, and urgency. Hash out if other work needs to be de-prioritized or paused. Record a Loom of you doing the task. If the stakes are high, invite your direct report to ride shot-gun and watch you perform the task 1-2 times. Schedule progress checks in advance and set the expectation that you'll be asking colleagues for feedback to help guide the person.
The more you delegate, the more you create a culture of delegation too. You work out how to set expectations with your manager or leadership when a direct report is stepping up. You develop a way for people to share feedback and support teammates who are doing new work. Most importantly, you build capabilities in less experienced team members that support succession and business growth.
If you're still resisting delegation, you might be struggling with a common challenge: (1) there are material skills gaps on your team, (2) your role isn't clear enough, and/or (3) it's hard to manage up effectively.
The fastest path to success is to talk with your manager. "Hey, I've been struggling to delegate because I'm worried about my direct report dropping the ball and things blowing up. Can we map out plan?".
A conversation like this can surface organizational barriers or communication gaps between you and your manager.
Together you can overcome these and pave the way for you to delegate like a pro.
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