Effective Delegation; Letting go

One of the most pressing problems for a leader is time - or the lack thereof. In every feedback from leadership workshops the "want" to learn how to free up one's busy schedule takes center stage. In my workshops I teach several techniques, ranging from planning the week, starting with blocking out time for personal issues and strategic planning first, to categorizing tasks by their impact on the business and acting upon them in sequence.  After going through several methods and techniques, one of my clients asked me "so what about delegation"? Can I not just shift the workload to my subordinates? And the answer is yes and no.

No, because one of the key tasks of an effective leader is to define what tasks are "effective". In other words, what tasks are necessary to grow the company? Often we are stuck in the paradigm that everything is important and therefore never question whether something is truly necessary to grow the company or if we just do it because we always have done it.  Just doing a task because we are good at it (efficiency) or because we like to do it does not mean that it is a building block to success or moves the company in the right direction. Think about the 80/20 rule. 80% of our success is created by 20% of our actions. So does efficiently doing a task from the 80% category really help the company and our success? If the answer is no, why delegate? Leading companies build their success on the power of eliminating unnecessary tasks. You might have read or heard about the successes companies enjoy using the Lean Manufacturing tools popularized by Toyota and GE in the office environment. And the success stories are truly amazing. So believe me, the first step should always be to question whether we truly need to do the task. 

Yes, because the key to the success of an effective leader is to create and verbalize the vision for the company and to inspire the stakeholders to do more and better. Creating the context in which their initiatives, ideas, resources and ambitions can come through. As we know, this takes time for planning, building and fostering relationships and trust. And delegation is one of the tools to build trust in your capabilities by empowering and growing their skills and confidence.

So, what are the keys to effective delegation?  It all starts with you. If you feel something can or cannot be delegated - you are right. The premises are that nobody can be as efficient as you are and nobody is likely to make 100% the same decisions you would.  Without having a strong incentive to create time for leadership, your delegation efforts will fail. They will fail because the incentive to letting go and coach the subordinate to success will not be stronger than the urge to check and micromanage. Yes, this assumes that the employee has the skill level needed, knows the performance standards, informs about actions taken and uses the new authority wisely.

Therefore, before you delegate, check if the task is truly necessary for the organization to become more effective and grow. If yes, take the time to properly select and train the subordinate and transfer the authority to make the decisions to him/her. Focus on checking only deviations from the standards set and hold the subordinate accountable.

And always remember: Your job is to define effectiveness. Efficiency is only meaningful when performing necessary tasks!