Managers who struggle to delegate either do too much or abdicate, letting people do whatever they want. Here are some practical tips to make delegation easier.
In ‘’Why is Delegation so Hard?’’ I discussed barriers to delegation. Here, I focus on the practical side of how to delegate.
The first question is what to delegate. First, you should delegate anything that is not a good use of your time. Think of management as investment. You have your personal time and talent to invest plus all other resources at your disposal. To manage effectively, ask yourself regularly what you need to do to get the best return, to add the most value, on all of your managerial investments.
Think strategically about which priorities you should invest your time in, which ones you should delegate and which ones to ignore. After you have got ten rid of stuff that isn’t a good use of your time, the next question is what projects should you delegate for other good reasons. Maybe you should be developing someone. Or perhaps one team member needs motivating and would find exposure to a project very energizing. Another team member might need exposure to a different set of skills or people. Finally, someone else might be better at doing a particular job than you.
In deciding what to delegate, you are also considering who to delegate to. The next question is how to delegate. Be sure to avoid extremes: giving too much detail or too little. You may feel reassured that the job will be done well if you offer loads of detail, but the team member will switch off and not absorb everything you say. Also, being your plan, the team member won’t feel ownership of it. Finally, the team member might pick up your anxiety and interpret it as a lack of trust – not a great confidence booster. Some managers give too little detail. They tell the team member to take full ownership and to come back to see them if they need help. This is abdication and runs the risk of serious mistakes being made.
A middle road is to give minimal, high-level direction and ask the team member to talk you through how he or she would approach it. What steps might she take, what obstacles does she foresee and how would she get around those obstacles. Here, you are asking questions instead of giving directions. This approach can be positioned as your desire to coach and empower the team member in a manner that facilitates mutual understanding.
Don’t forget to agree on dates – for completion and interim review. The team member should report what is going well on the project, not just what isn’t working. This is motivational because it gives the team member a chance to review successes.
