Leaders simply can’t do everything themselves. To concentrate their efforts on those tasks that have the biggest long-term impact, leaders must learn to delegate.
But delegating assignments and tasks to others is scary for many leaders, especially for those with high standards and a controlling nature. Too many leaders hold onto tasks they don’t need to and thereby become less effective themselves while robbing team members of the necessary development challenges they need to grow.
To get everything done, leaders must learn to get comfortable with, and skilled at, delegation.
The primary impediment when it comes to learning how to delegate is the fact that it is almost easier, faster, and more valuable for leaders to do things themselves rather than invest the time to teach someone else.
This makes it very tempting to hoard all important tasks and assign pieces and parts to others. But good leaders soon come to the realization that every task they keep for themselves makes them less effective by diluting their focus and strengths.
Without learning how to delegate, critical tasks don’t get done or take too long. The first step in becoming a better delegator is to recognize how much the matter of trust plays in the process. Leaders trust themselves to get things done with high quality.
And they must find a way to develop that same confidence in others.This doesn’t happen by giving away big projects and assignments and hoping for the best. In fact, that strategy reinforces the desire to hoard more tasks.
The best leaders build delegation trust by first assigning smaller, less critical tasks to team members. They give themselves the chance to see the way team members approach these assignments, the attention to detail and quality they pursue, and the judgment they use to work through choices and challenges.
Debriefing these small tasks and assignments allows team members to learn what is expected of them in the future and gives leaders the chance to impart critical standards and values. With each successive task, leaders come to trust more deeply.
They’re able to delegate larger, more complex assignments knowing that team members can handle them. Because this occurs across the team with many different assignments, more and more work becomes delegated.
Some team members earn the delegation trust to take on the most significant tasks the leader faces, while others are relegated to smaller assignments and initiatives. All the while, team members grow, and the leader learns the power of delegation to achieve more.
In short order, the adage “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” becomes replaced with the mindset “If you want to get everything done, you have to delegate.” To achieve great outcomes, good leaders know they must learn to delegate. It all starts with sharing the smallest tasks and building up delegation trust. You can count on team members to do more than you think.
Give them a chance and watch the trust swell.
