We all have stories we tell ourselves, often to reassure ourselves about our actions. Leadership coach Jennifer V. Miller says she often encounters one on delegation – actually on nondelegation – that goes like this: “I need to do X for my direct reports because they are not yet ready/willing/able to do it for themselves.”
But if you dig deeper, she argues the leader likely has another concern that prevents them from delegating: “What happens if I relinquish control?” And the stories that come up are: “It’s so much faster if I just do it,” “they don’t understand the political landscape like I do,” and “this project is too high-visibility to allow for missteps.”
She will force them to confront those fears, taking each in turn, and showing that the fallout can be handled. “If the feared outcome is ‘but the person might fail,’ I reply, ‘Exactly! That’s how people learn.’”
We then explore the consequences of failure. Is this the right project to support some miscalculations? Can we build in some coaching time to allow for those invariable ‘oops’ moments? The reality is that even seasoned workers will make mistakes. Trying to avoid every possible detour simply isn’t possible,” she writes on her blog.
If you’re a leader struggling with the challenge of having too much to do but also hung up at times with delegation, she suggests creating a three-part list: Things I already delegate; things I might consider delegating; things I can’t delegate. Then review each item in those last two categories and push back against your hesitations. She argues deep in the bedrock of fear may lie some fallacies.
Toronto-area consultant Donald Cooper says one of the stories that keeps us from delegating is that someone else will do the task differently from us. Implicit is the erroneous belief that our way is the only way. Instead, be open to possibilities.
A tougher thought to handle, perhaps the ultimate in delegation dread, is that the person will do it better than us, leading to embarrassment and a belief by others that we are incompetent. He stresses that if we hire top tier people – which we should to be successful – the person might well outperform us. “To grow a business, you must hire talented people in each specific area who know about 10 times more than you do about that specific area. If you can’t overcome this fundamental insecurity, the business will remain small and mediocre … and then, likely, die,” he warns on his blog.
An opposite belief that often arises is you can’t hire good people any more so you have to be careful with what you assign the ones you end up with. Again, he pushes back: “The best people have to work for somebody … it’s just that you have to deserve them.” Improve your appeal to them. Get competitive with your pay and in doing so expand your thinking on “pay” to the four currencies he believes people value: money, time, feeling safe (physically and emotionally) and feeling special.
It may also help to flip your perspective. Instead of delegation, perhaps you need to view it as helping your team to grow. For such growth, leadership coach Kelli Thompson says you must give them space to struggle.
Such growth for subordinates starts by shifting yourself from a doer to leader mindset. You likely started in the ranks, as a doer, and were promoted to management for your success at doing, which you may still cling to. “Notice your payoff from doing. The thrill of achievement provides a quick dopamine hit. But that’s something you need to resist to get to the greater fulfilment of having helped others improve,” she writes in Harvard Business Review.
Those dopamine hits may be more powerful in preventing delegation than the fearful stories embedded in our mind. She suggests resisting by clarifying your values so you can develop your leadership identity. What three words do you want people to use to describe your leadership style? Do you want to lead, for example, with control, urgency and expertise or with patience, curiosity and empowerment?
You also need to embrace the discomfort of the learning process. “Many leaders tell me that, after witnessing an employee falter, taking back the work felt like the most supportive thing to do,” she notes. But you need to resist that urge. Hold space for the struggle, even if it is causing you and the other person discomfort. Keep in mind that you probably advanced by struggling at times and gaining competence and confidence.
Distinguish between high- and low-stake tasks. Stuff that you can do by rote now may be ideal for someone else to take on. Those energy drainers in your routine may excite somebody else. If your employee’s goal, for example, is to develop better presentation skills, she suggests trying a low-stakes activity such as asking them to lead the next staff meeting before a high-stakes meeting such as conducting a client meeting.
Delegation is vital. It depends on the skills of the other person but often the barriers are more within us than that other party.
Cannonballs
- A new Harvard Business School case study looks at Dutch home health care provider Buurtzorg, which avoids middle management positions and instead empowers its nurses to care for patients as they see fit. The researchers say their interviews with staff “suggest many, if not most, of them are highly engaged, take full ownership of their work, are pursuing creative ways of serving their patients and feel motivated to do the best work they can.”
- Former Rotman School of Management Dean Roger Martin says the lesson from Bud Light’s fiasco when it tied itself to a transgender activist and Disney’s squabble with the state of Florida is the companies didn’t spend enough time understanding the fault lines within their customer bases before taking irreversible actions: Don’t turn a fault line into a fissure.
- Wharton School Professor Ethan Mollick observes that a lot of work is boring. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t do that stuff. In our less ideal world, artificial intelligence can do it for us.
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.