My 19-year-old son, Scott, has turned into quite the cook.
He’s always been curious about food and flavors and seems to have a knack for creating unusual combinations that taste fabulous (no, sadly, it’s not hereditary). As is often the case with Enneagram Type 7s, Scott’s natural curiosity leads to a wide variety of interests and skills.
We’re at the point now where he’s often in charge of menu planning for special events, sourcing of obscure ingredients, and helping with family meal prep.
But it wasn’t always that way; there were definitely some starts and stops — blaring smoke alarms and unsalvageable pans with baked-on cheese (or whatever!) among them.
His progress did not occur overnight. Not only was I initially uncomfortable with the results and the extra time involved, but I was also reluctant to relinquish control. (Need I mention that cooking felt like a parental duty that I was inclined to hold on to?)
That’s the challenge with delegation, whether in the kitchen or the workplace. At the beginning, the results are (often) inferior, the time involved is (always) greater, and you, as the delegator, lose some degree of control over the process and outcome.
But… the benefits are tremendous.
Not only does delegation lead to a huge shift in productivity, but it also develops the skills of your team (which is part of your job as a leader) and unleashes new and often better results, since those who work with and for you almost certainly possess skills and capabilities that you do not.
What Makes Delegation So Hard?
When I first began coaching David, a senior leader in financial services, he wanted to delegate but struggled with the letting go part. He knew he didn’t know everything and could not be everywhere at once, but as an Enneagram Type 1, he was inclined to just do it himself, “so it would be done right.”
David’s approach had created a cycle of over-dependence on the part of his team. He had not helped to develop their decision-making and problem-solving skills, so they just kept coming to him for answers. This type of handholding destroys productivity and creativity, and is career-limiting for everyone involved
Further, David, like many leaders who fail to delegate, was shocked to learn that his team members described him as the “bottleneck.” He thought he was being super-efficient, but since everything had to pass through his hands, he was slowing down the entire operation.
Delegation is a Learned Skill
Don’t worry if delegation feels unnatural at first — it does for most of us. And yes, it will take an upfront investment of time and structure.
At its heart, delegation is really just coaching. We are helping the people who work for us develop to become their own problem solvers (when they have the skills and abilities to do so). This is very good news… you don’t have to have all the answers!
Some suggestions…
Look for Opportunities
Think about the ways in which you add the most value to your organization and team… then look at the things you do on a daily basis.
Which tasks are keeping you from making your maximum contribution? Which of these could you hand off to people on your team — things that could both develop their skills and free up your time.
Align the Right People With the Right Tasks
Delegating tasks based on people’s signature strengths and interests has a two-pronged benefit: more time for you while giving people work they inherently find motivating.
For example, if someone on your team is analytical and enjoys looking for patterns in data, perhaps they could review and summarize certain reports. It may even turn out that they are better at this than you are.
Specify Outcomes, Not Process
Delegation is not about creating a “mini-me” version of yourself. Just because you do things a certain way, does not mean others will or should follow. That kind of micro-management is disempowering and diminishes the likelihood that others will add more value by finding a different and better way.
Instead, seek to clearly communicate specific targets, timeframes, and expectations about what a good deliverable will look like. This builds the scaffolding for your people while still allowing them to have some freedom to complete the work as they wish. When that occurs, they are much more likely to follow through and make progress.
Stay Available
Don’t delegate and run for the hills. Coaches remain close by; they find the balance between offering support and fixing everything. They ask lots of open-ended questions because these draw out ideas and solutions.
For example, if you are coaching someone to build an onboarding process for new team members, rather than telling them, “Create an onboarding kit and checklist,” you might instead ask, “How might you approach creating a smooth and successful onboarding process?” The goal of this type of open-ended question is to help them think through options and take ownership of their decisions.
Bite Your Tongue
Believe me, I understand how hard it is, especially in the beginning, to not keep correcting people as we hand them control. But for delegation to work, we have to accept that their approach may be different than how we might do it.
Be patient and allow them to learn from their mistakes. These are valuable experiences — experiences they need if you ever hope to take your hands off the wheel entirely.
As for me, I’m heading down to dinner soon… can’t wait to see what we are having!