Delegation

Delegation, that's what we're going to be talking about on this week's episode of How to Lead, the podcast for CEOs and founders and leaders of all sorts who want to find the perfect balance of empathy and authority when it comes to leading their teams. My name's Kate Waterfall Hill, and I'll be sharing with you some of the insights that I've gathered over 30 years of working in business and leadership development.

But before we start the show, here's a reminder that if you want to learn how to become a better leader, you can always sign up to my free newsletter, or grab a copy of my book, How to Lead, at waterfallhill.co.uk.

So let's kick off with my alter ego, Linda, the bad manager, as we always do, and see how she handles a request for training when she's delegated something.

“Sorry, you want some training? I'm too busy to train you to do it. And anyway, I'm not quite sure how to do it myself. Certainly not well enough to train you. I'm making it up as I go along. I mean, training would imply there was some sort of process or precedent set. You just make it up, and I'll let you know if you've got it right or not.

I mean, it's pretty likely that, you know, you won't be doing it right. But at least you would have started it. It's easier for me to critique what you've done rather than start with a blank page. Not easier for you, easier for me. Yeah.”

It's another one of those videos where you sort of slightly feel sorry for her and yet you just want to shake her by the shoulders at the same time. She's often guilty of micromanaging people to death, but in this video she's gone the other way. She's abandoned them entirely, giving them no guidance, support or training.

Somehow she's managed to perfect both extremes while missing the sweet spot in the middle. There is often a delegation dilemma. We've all been there, probably. You're drowning in work, convinced that explaining the task will take longer than doing it yourself.

Or perhaps you're in the opposite camp, firing off vague emails at midnight and wondering why the results bear no resemblance to what you had in mind. But we do tend to resist delegation, or lots of people do, and it often boils down to two types of managers. First, we've got the control enthusiast, shall we say.

You know who you are. You're still editing PowerPoint fonts at midnight because nobody else quite gets it right. Richard Branson, who built an empire by mastering delegation, once noted that if you want to grow, you need to let others rise to the challenge. Yet here you are, formatting spreadsheets. Then there's the guilt ridden delegator feeling terrible about burdening their team with additional tasks.

But actually, why are you carrying the burden when you could share the load and spread the knowledge and the experience? It does sound absurd when I put it that way. Yet we do this with our teams all the time. So the better way, there's a framework that transforms delegation from a necessary evil into a powerful tool for growth.

It's called the delegation checklist. So before you either dive in yourself or randomly assign tasks, ask yourself these questions. Does this task genuinely require your personal attention? Who might actually do it better than you, or at least equally well? Who would view this as an opportunity rather than a burden?

And if you're not delegating now, then who steps up when you want to move on? What important leadership work are you neglecting? Okay. Those are the things that hopefully will shift your mindset a little bit, but now you want to how to guide. Here's where most managers go wrong.

They either provide a 50 page brief or simply say, handle this, and you could try this approach instead. First of all. Set clear expectations. I've said this so many times, but I've got to say it again. You need to explain the purpose and the bigger picture. Outline what success looks like. Be really specific about constraints, but discuss the deadlines.

Next, enable understanding. So ask them, once you've explained it as well as you can, to summarise the task back to you. Ask them to identify potential obstacles, and then ask them to suggest their own approach. Ask them what their first next step will be. This is actually my favourite part of delegating.

If you don't do anything else at all that I suggest in this episode, do try this one. What's your first next step? And then propose check in points, but actually ask the other person how often and when and for how long would they like to meet? And that's the third part, establishing the support system. So schedule regular check ins and keep to them and define what resources they can access.

Create safe spaces for questions. The temptation always is when you delegate something to blurt out all the details and then say, come and find me if you have any questions. But people just don't do that. You know, they're afraid to interrupt you. They're worried that they're going to show up that they weren't listening to your original brief or that they didn't really understand it.

Maybe their mind wandered when you were speaking. To give you some examples of real life instances of good delegation I've heard that companies like Google, they famously give their teams significant autonomy while maintaining clear objectives through their OKR system objectives and key results. They found that clear expectations combined with trust leads to innovation.

And then there's Toyota, their approach to delegation in their production system. They delegate responsibility for quality to every team member. but provide clear standards and support systems. It's not about abandoning people or controlling them. It's about enabling them. So here are some practical next steps.

Start with these questions for your next delegation. What's the core purpose of this task? Who might benefit from taking this on? What's the minimum you need to specify versus what can they decide? How will you support without hovering? And is having someone to do the job 60 to 70 percent of the standard you'd do it better than you having to do 100 percent of it yourself?

Here are some common pitfalls to avoid. Don't delegate without context. You really need to give people the background and the why and the what's it all about so they get the purpose. Don't forget to delegate authority along with responsibility. There's nothing worse than having one without the other.

And don't skip check ins just because everything seems fine. You know, even if it's just to celebrate success, do that. And don't take back control at the first sign of difficulty. It's a real temptation for delegating leaders to do that. In summary, then, effective delegation balances that clear direction with autonomy, Use the delegation checklist that I mentioned.

Rewind and have another listen to that if you need to, to decide what and to whom to delegate. Set clear expectations and success criteria, and then establish regular check ins and support systems. Don't just leave them floundering. And remember, delegation is really about growing your team, not just managing your workload, but it will do that too.

So remember, every time you do something that could be delegated, you're essentially taking a development opportunity away from someone else. And perhaps more importantly, you're probably missing an opportunity to do the strategic work only you can do.

So to wrap up then, the best leaders don't just get things done, they develop people who get things done. That's all for this week. If you've enjoyed this episode of How to Lead, do follow for more leadership insights. And remember, if you want a guide by your side, get your hands on a copy of my book, which accompanies the podcast also called How to Lead.

The link is in the show notes. Please do like, leave a review, and share with your fellow leaders to help spread the word. I really appreciate it. I'm all ears. Please do let me know. Team management doesn't have to be frustrating. You too can enjoy being an authoritative yet empathetic leader. It just takes a decision to be more intentional about your interactions with others. Some great tips for how to influence positive change and of course a good guide.

Listen more, advise less, lead well and enjoy.