By: Michael DeVenney
Leaders spend too much time doing and not enough time delegating. The greatest challenge a leader faces to be successful is to make the shift from individual performer to performing to others. The real job of a leader is to coach the performance of others.
Research shows that this shift is not happening in most cases – studies by the Center for Creative Leadership report that 45% of newly promoted leaders fail within eighteen months of taking their position. Employees highlight the reason for the poor showing being that leaders do not delegate enough or effectively to motivate their people. People do not want leaders who do too much or micro-manage the workflow.
Leaders want to engage and empower – the hurdle lies in knowing how to delegate effectively.
What employees really want from their leaders is to take initiative and ownership in their roles is interesting and challenging work, having their contribution and work appreciated, and being kept in the loop. Leaders say money and job security are the most important motivators – not true.
The three things employees really want are within the control of the leader. A leader who delegates and challenges his or her team with interesting work wins. Leaders who provide regular feedback on employees’ progress and performance gain the investment and trust of their teams. When a leader updates the team on what is going on, people feel part of the organization and take ownership. Engaging employees to create empowered teams is under the control of the leader.
The first step is to delegate effectively.
A simple delegation model includes five steps:
- Make the delegation
- Request a written confirmation and action plan
- Mutually review the action plan
- Make milestone checks for progress
- Complete a final review
Making the delegation seems too simple but this is the step where many leaders and managers have the greatest challenges. An effective delegation involves being clear on the expectations for the end result – what do you want to happen? You need to clarify the expected results, when the results are needed, and why is it important to be completed? Don’t expect people to read your mind or assume they know what you want – you need to be clear.
The next step seems questionable but is crucial. You will not know if the delegation was clear unless the person you delegated to can tell you what they understand you want. If you are the delegator, you should not follow-up the delegation with written instructions – the person delegated to should confirm in writing what they understand you want and how they are proceeding. Only then will you know they know. The easiest route is to have the person delegated to provide an email follow-up to outline their understanding. Too many leaders and managers write out or email their instructions – this does not support the employee to take ownership of the delegation.
The confirmation should be brief and clarify what the employee heard, covers the points needed and outline the actions to be taken.
With the confirmation and action plan from the employee, the delegator then agrees to the actions and methods to accomplish the delegation. The delegator should not tell people what to do and how to do it. Employees will never take ownership is they are always directed. As a leader, you may feel it will save time to just tell people rather than letting them come up with the action plan. Maybe in the short term you save time but in the long term you never build employee ownership and everyone just waits for your directions. Nothing happens unless the leader tells people what to do. We all hear the martyrs sigh that nothing gets done unless they say so – look in the mirror and you will find the person responsible. You may like people coming to you because you have all the answers but you are doing a disservice to everyone. Employees will not grow and take ownership unless they can come up with the solutions. If an employee provides a plan that achieves the desired results in the desired time frame, let them do it their way. Even if you know a better way keep it to yourself – each time you add a little “advice” to help them, you disengage them by taking away from their solution. If their 80% solution works, keep your 95% answer to yourself or they will never figure out the better route. Tough but true.
Employees need to hear how they are doing. Delegations should be assessed along appropriate milestones. Depending on the length of the delegation project, milestones could be weekly or monthly. The key to the milestone check is to assess progress, resolve any problems, and answer questions with questions (you are promoting thinking). Ask the person to work through the problem and let them develop the solution – the delegator just asks the right questions. Leaders need to commit time to meeting with reports to assess delegations – and honor those commitments. Nothing disengages employees more than cancelled meetings – it says that something is more important than them. Set a regular time to review delegations and stick to it.
Once the delegation is completed, complete a final review. Feedback is crucial to employee growth and development. What was done well? What needs to be improved? Work through the project with them and finish the delegation. Great sports teams always hold a “post-game” whether they win or lose to assess their performance and work to get better – it works in business as well.
These are the steps to effective delegation. What can you delegate as a leader or manager? You should delegate real problems and projects that require exploration, study and recommendation. Employees need to be challenged and stretched. Activities that are within the scope of the employee’s job should be delegated. This sounds obvious but how many managers do you know that do many things that are their team’s job? Problems and activities that save the leader’s time should be delegated.
Delegation doesn’t work if too much is dumped on one person or too much is delegated too fast. Lack of understanding of the requirements is a frequent issue in poor delegation results as well as unrealistic or unclear performance expectations. Progress was not assessed and lack of feedback also lead to underperformance.
The key to successful delegation is really effective communication.
Leaders and managers may hold back delegation if they have a lack of confidence in their team, are afraid of taking risk with someone, fear they will lose credit for the results, feel they will lose control, work as perfectionists, worry that someone can do the job better than they can, or the famous “I can do it faster myself” theory. Leaders need to have the confidence in performing their role well and coaching others in their roles.
The real tips for great delegations are to stress results and not the details. Don’t fall into the trap of providing solutions to employee problems – answer a question with a question. Always turn the questions around and establish measurable and concrete objectives. Give strict and realistic deadlines, keep a delegation log, and commit to regular feedback.
Delegation is leadership. If you can not delegate effectively you limit the growth and performance of your team and organization – and your own success. Development is the foundation of successful delegation – you need to commit time to helping employees build their capacity and capabilities but you gain a huge return on investment in the long term. Employees build their abilities and value taking ownership of their work.
Leaders who delegate effectively are leaders who have the right priorities.
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