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When you delegate, you give a gift to your team. Delegating is a form of trust—you trust that your team can perform. Delegation is recognition—a message that you know your team is competent. Delegation is accountable, with you as the accountability partner. Finally, delegation is leadership, freeing you to support your team and strategize about what’s next.

If delegating is all these great things, why can it sometimes be so hard?

Intellectually, as managers, we know our primary responsibilities are individual development and productivity. Development is important because team members who see a career path and feel supported stay longer, and productivity is essential. After all, that is what we’ll be measured against in our performance reviews.

Yet, sometimes, we are hesitant to delegate because

A) We like doing those tasks ourselves,

B) Projects with a beginning, middle, and end bring comfort,

C) We don’t understand the business priorities of the team and don’t want to ask or

D) We don’t have a handle on or trust in the competence of our team

Any one of these reasons means we spend less time growing and strengthening the team and more time doing their jobs. This approach does not serve anyone’s purpose and quickly leads to burnout.

Let’s start the year off with a process for better delegating.

 

1) Commit to letting go

Letting go can be uncomfortable, yet it is important for you as a manager. First, let go of the belief you are the only person who can do the task well. If that’s true, you’re not upholding your responsibility to develop your team. When you hear your internal voice saying, “I can do this better and faster, so I’ll just do it myself,” ask why.

If you discover that your team lacks the skills to accomplish the work, conduct an individual skills/interest assessment.

 

2) Understand the work

To understand what to delegate, schedule a one-on-one meeting with your boss to discuss the organization’s larger business goals, their priority, and the yearly and quarterly deliverables.

Be clear on the why behind the goals and how the deliverables that affect your team benefit your organization’s clients, business growth, and team visibility. These insights will help you prioritize your team’s workload and determine your primary collaboration partners.

 

3) Categorize the work

What follows is a tweak on the classic ‘Do, Decide, Delegate, Delete’ Covey matrix, but more specific to delegation. Set up the four categories as a box matrix to see the team’s landscape.

Irreplaceable work: What is the work that only I can do? Where can I build time into my day for strategy? Team development?

Delegable work: What am I still doing that other team members could do? Why am I holding onto this work? What is the worst that will happen if I delegate this task?

Deletable work:  Based on the organizational priorities and the team’s quarterly and yearly goals, are any of our current tasks obsolete?

Expandable work: What new opportunities are coming our way? How do these fit into my team’s personal and professional growth goals? What support, professional development, or training do they need to capture these opportunities quickly?

 

4) Assess and grow your team

With your landscape complete, assess your team’s skills, strengths, weaknesses, workload, and goals by reviewing past performance reviews and professional development goals. Your goal is to delegate the right task to the right person with a support plan. Before meeting individually with team members, discuss the larger, prioritized organizational goals and their benefits to the client, company, and team members. Outline any shifts in your team’s priorities.

Encourage team members to complete the matrix above and come to the one-on-one meeting prepared to discuss their workload, goals, and professional development aspirations.

You should come prepared with recommendations for new tasks, an explanation of why you feel they are best suited, and your plan for supporting them. Work together to develop a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timebound) plan for achieving these goals. The goals should be achievable, represent new learning, and be relevant to the team’s overall deliverables.

 

A support plan and a clear communication schedule will allow your team to work toward the goals with purpose and energy and let you do what you’ve been hired to do: manage the results.

 

See you in March.

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