Have you often felt that you are doing your job and your direct reports jobs? You tell yourself you are really the only one who can complete the task quickly and efficiently. When you have more time you will train your staff. Sadly, this never seems to happen. As a leader you know you should delegate more but you do not.
What makes you hesitant to delegate? Fear that a staff member will not do it your way? Fear that they might do it better than you? Fear that you will not be seen as the Subject Matter Expert? Do you secretly love having your hands in the work.
After all, at the end of the day you are responsible for the results of your team. You want to let go of the work, you may have tried to let go of the work, but as soon as someone runs into a road block, you take over.
The Art of Delegation is what gets great results from team members. It is what separates great Leaders from good Leaders. Leaders that practice the Art of Delegation typically have teams that out perform others. Recently I was asked to assess why a team was not meeting its objectives. The first thing the leader told me is that he was working at least 12 hours a day. He said he was the one turning the lights off in the evening and turning them on first thing in the morning. One of the first questions I asked him was how does he delegate work. He said not easily as he has not had enough time to train his staff.
However, his staff said they would be happy to take on additional responsibility, but whenever they ask him questions about the project or task, he takes over completely.
After several discussions with the leader, he came to see that by not delegating he was sending an indirect message to his staff…that he did not think they were competent to do their job.
If you want to achieve Great Results, you have to practice and refine the Art of Delegation.
In order not to fall into the delegation dilemma remember to:
- Be clear about the task to be assigned
- Make sure people have the right resources and the right skills to do the task
- Check-in on progress
- Provide timely feedback
- Let the person shine
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