Delegate and Increase Your Impact
Discussing leadership with UNOH students at The Meeting Place on Market
As I mentor leaders, I find a direct correlation with their ability to delegate and their success as a leader. Leaders are often hesitant to delegate for two reasons:
They worry the person they delegated to will not meet their standards of excellence.
They fear losing some power or authority over their domain if someone else can do what they do.
Both excuses are short sighted.
When you delegate wisely, taking time to invest into the person to whom you have assigned a task, you will increase your power and influence.
Why?
You have just increased the amount of work your team can accomplish.
You are investing in someone else’s growth and development, which means you are making your team better equipped.
When you empower someone else, not only are you doing the right thing by encouraging their success, you are also creating a future partner and advocate.
If I’ve convinced you that delegation is the right way to go, you’ll want to know how to delegate effectively. Simply throwing a task at someone and hoping it sticks is the wrong thing to do (unless you are trying to nudge someone who is skilled in the task but unmotivated). Delegation should be approached in this way:
Instruct
Encourage
Monitor
Correct
Instruct: be specific about the goal or task you have delegated. Provide the necessary tools and training. Use active listening to make sure the assignee understands what you’ve asked her to do.
Encourage: explain the reasoning behind the task. Give him the bigger picture of how this tasks fits into the goals of the organization. Give positive affirmation.
Monitor: make sure that you have a system in place to check their work. Do not assume everything will be done right the first time. Provide a safe space for mistakes to be caught. This not only protects the organization, it also reduces your team member’s fear to try something new.
Correct: follow up with instruction when something is done incorrectly. Be direct and specific about how to correct the problem, but also be encouraging. Do not let mistakes slide. This step is often dropped because leaders do not want to micro-manage. Once your team member has conquered the task, less oversight is needed. But it is important to provide feedback early on so adjustments can be made. Constructive feedback also boosts the confidence of the person you are delegating to because they know they are not alone.
When I managed a team of software developers and network engineers, my favorite part of the job was investing in the development of my team. I did this by advocating for increased training budgets, sending them to conferences to increase their knowledge, and especially by assigning more challenging tasks to team members as their skills grew. Today, many of those developers have moved into leadership roles and are managing multiple teams of coders located all over the world. Following their successful careers is a joy!
