Delegating Done Right
The primary reason to delegate is to help someone grow
Being a leader and taking responsibility for others requires a wide range of tools and practices to succeed. A popular and widely adopted approach is called Situational Leadership. It rests on the theory of certain leadership styles working well in different situations. The traditional model introduces the following four leader behaviours (for bonus points, head to the Australian Leadership Foundation to learn about 5 more):
- Telling / Directing
- Selling / Coaching
- Participating / Supporting
- Delegating
The idea is to find the right approach based on the other persons ability and ambition — in the context of the current project. Sounds straightforward, right? However, it is neither easy to know which method to use when, nor executing the correct behaviour well.
In this article, I am going to focus on the last item — Delegating — which is often seen as the ideal behaviour. The one to strive for.
Supercharging Personal Growth
Delegating a task can have a positive impact on the delegator as well as the person on the receiving end. Sadly though, we sometimes look at it from only one perspective: the boss. His or her primary goal is to have less on their plate. While that is a perfectly valid reason, it takes a very short-term view.
Looking from a different angle, we can see that every delegation is a tremendous opportunity for personal development. When done right, you can watch them going to the next level in front of your eyes. It is one of the fastest ways to help a person truly grasp a skill, while in the long run improving their performance.
But of course, it is not as easy as saying: Here is task X, have it done by Y, off you go! Delegation done right evolves around two key areas: Defining the work well and constant support throughout the project.
Defining the task
When handing over a piece of work, it is crucial to set clear expectations. The challenge lies in finding the right balance between two extremes:
- Detailing how exactly the problem has to be solved, including all timelines and milestones
- Not giving any information at all other than the broad description of the problem
Leaning to close to the former, wipes out any chance for significant personal growth of the person on the receiving end. It simply becomes a matter of turning the brain off and ticking all the boxes. The latter option can lead to a high degree of frustration. And while the person might learn a lot about the domain and the task, it is not guaranteed that the job gets finished at all.
A good approach is to sit down and work through three questions together:
- What — Clearly define the problem and how success looks like upon completion
- Why — Explaining why this project is important highlights the impact on the business
- Boundaries — Clarify what is in and out of scope, to minimise wasted effort
The crucial part of this strategy is to steer well clear of imposing in any way how to solve the problem. This is the key bit which ensures the person learns a lot, while having enough information to be successful.
Ensuring success
Once the project is under way, there is one common mistake: No interaction or feedback until it is finished. At best, the work gets done to an acceptable standard. In the worst case, someone needs to start again. And the person that gets (wrongly!) blamed for this is the poor soul who worked hard to complete the whole thing.
As the delegator it has to be in your best interest to do everything possible to help the project succeed. And ideally, you want to ensure a high degree of personal growth. This results in great impact in the short and long term. A very straightforward and universal approach is to follow three guidelines:
- Set and clarify the goals (as explained in the previous section)
- Check-in often, at least 2–3 times a week
- Support and guide to keep the project on track
With every interaction, it is important to again find the right balance mentioned earlier. Give enough information to ensure success, without affecting the personal development.
Recap
Delegation is part of every leaders toolbox. And while the concept seems straightforward, an important opportunity is often overlooked: Every delegated project is a huge opportunity for personal development.
By clearly defining the task without imposing how the problem is solved we allow enough room to learn about the domain. And by checking in and supporting often we can ensure the projects success.
