Achieve more, with less: The top CEO hack.

Delegation 101

Author

Lesley Bell
October 13, 2023

If you want to be a better leader you’re in the right place, welcome!

This newsletter is delivered every Friday and is a minestrone soup of tips, techniques, learnings and thoughts, & the odd disaster, based on my 25+ years of managing teams.

Read time: 3.5 minutes

The chance of a lifetime! The boss offers you that prestigious project.

You’ll be able to shine. You will have impact. Do it well, you’re guaranteed that promotion.

You want to take it on ...but you’re already swamped.

You’ve a team, but what can you pass on that you haven’t already? Who is good enough….

Last time you did that it didn’t quite work out. They didn’t do it right. 😬

You had to parachute in at the last minute to make that deadline. Fortunately it all worked out.

That time.

How to do it, so everything runs smoothly. That’s the challenge.

There’s lots of examples of where delegation doesn’t happen:

Me : Its quicker if I do it myself, I don’t have TIME to explain (I’ve heard that from team members too!)

Also me : I need to do everything, I can’t just dump work I don’t want to do, on others.

Erm, also me : I’m the boss, I should be capable of doing it ALL, other wise I’m a failure

Maybe some of these resonate.

For me? It was a good old fashioned mix of: lack of skill; lack of knowledge; and a healthy dose of Imposter Syndrome = a perfect cocktail.

But there’s other reason it can go wrong, or just not happen at all.

This is what I’ve seen, and heard from clients and colleagues:

  1. Lack of trust - the manager isn’t trustworthy, do they don’t trust others

  2. The Manager doesn’t know they are allowed to delegate, so they don’t.

  3. Worry that the team member won’t do it as good as you. Particularly acute if it’s your baby you’re handing over.

  4. Fear that if they can do it too, you’ll be replaced.

  5. The need for control. There’s lots of reasons for this, but fear of failure is one: if it doesn’t work out as planned, it reflects badly on you.

  6. The most common? Don’t actually know how. They don’t have the skills, they’ve never been taught. So, they do what their boss has done, or not done, because they don’t know any different. They delegate, and it doesn’t go 100%. It puts you off doing it again. It’s just easier….

All of these come from a specific mindset. It’s about you, and not about the whole team.

Answer?

You need to switch your mindset to growth. Focus on them.

There are so many benefits to delegating and doing it effectively.

Here’s just a few why it’s important, it helps your health and can send your career skyrocketing!

It enable’s you to focus your time on the most critical work. that needs your input. It also frees up more time, so go home ON TIME.

  • More focus on the crucial stuff, means better quality work and hitting those goals.

  • You help the team grow. They learn new skills; get different in sights; make new connections.

  • It helps YOU grow. More or that new project stuff you can take on, and learn new skills; get different in sights; make new connections….

  • Better employee engagement . Assigning meaningful tasks, promotes a sense of ownership and engagement. Both of those lead to better job satisfaction and motivation.

  • Trust builder. It’s a HUGE trust builder. Showing you have faith in that team member to take on more responsibility and deliver.

  • Reputation . You’ll be seen as someone who gets things done AND develops their team.
    Who wouldn’t want to work with someone like that?

Steal this playbook to delegate effectively.

1. Have clear objectives:

What does success look like? Define this by:

  • scope: what’s in, what’s definitely out, and the project’s purpose.

  • timeline: key milestones and deadlines.

  • expectation: what outcomes are you expecting?

  • constraints: share those you’re aware of, could budget, could be stakeholders.

  • evaluation criteria: how you’ll measure if it’s completed to the right standard.

Always check they understand each step, and can ask questions.

💡Key point for you. Accept they won’t do it like you do it!

2. Right person, right task:

Don’t accidentally set someone up to fail. Do they have the skills, ability and thirst to do it?

Think of their workload, availability, skills & development goals.

Make sure they have the resources:

  • tools

  • information

  • connections

  • stakeholders

Answer questions. Provide support with any challenges.

3. Trust and empower your team member:

I teased that delegation is a twin.

Yep.

Its twin is empowerment!

Give the goal or task, and empower them to make decisions. Seems obvious, but it’s not obvious to everyone.

It’s a sneaky way of keeping hold of the reigns.

This has happened to me. I was given responsibility for the outcome, but no empowerment to act. Guess what happened…

Give authority and autonomy where its need.

Make them accountable then get out of their hair.

4. Tell the boss

This depends on the task or goal and level of risk.

Explaining what you’re doing and why, sends a great message. It also shows your in control.

5. Monitor progress

Be available, but not pushy: help where needed at agreed checkpoints or milestones, and support as necessary.

This is a perfect opportunity to coach, rather than advise

(see previous newsletter here for a great way to coach on the go.)

6. Evaluate the project

Provide them with feedback. Feedback is two-way so how do they think it went? How do they think you handled it?

  • What have you both learned?

  • What would you both do differently next time.?

  • I can’t think of a time that I didn’t learn something new.

  • Congratulate all the wins, and support learning from mistakes.

  • For both of you!.

Let me know if you implement the system, and how it went. What can I learn?

Action for the week!

Want to have a practice?
Reflect what stopped you delegating in the past?
What were the common characteristics?

When did it not turn out as planned?

Extra resources

Additional resources you may want to check out.
An expanded and simplified explanation of how to do it right. Uncomplicated, but if you want more meat on the bones, this is it.

Here’s an Amazon ( affiliate) link so you can see what it's like, but I’d prefer it if you ordered from your local bookshop. May not be as quick, but a better soul-feeding activity.

Music to get you ready for the weekend!

A mega playlist of supersonic tracks, to get you in the mood for the weekend.

If in doubt, just take a deep breath and relax! This is hilarious.
It’s hard to believe this video was banned back them.

When you’re ready, there are other ways I can help:

  1. 1:1 coaching to help you develop the leadership skills you need to take your career to the next level. Let’s have a chat. Calendly link here.

  2. Micro-coaching : a single coaching session to help you overcome that one blocker or key issue you're facing. Details in the link here.

  3. Interview Mastery training: to master confidence at that BIG event. It could be an interview, public speaking, or that pitch. Make sure that the very best version of you shows up to that interview. Link here.