delegating — Newsletters — Aspire Executive Coaching

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If you’ve been hesitating to delegate because you’re unsure of how to approach it, this article was written for you.

In last week’s newsletter, we addressed the mental blocks or concerns preventing many leaders from delegating to the degree they need to.

You now know you need to delegate, and you’re “sorta” ready to try it, but it needs to work for you to stick with it. So this week, we look at the “how” to delegate to set yourself and your team up for success.

Part of delegating properly is delegating to the right team member. When delegating a particular task to a person for the first time OR if they’ve done it before but you always need to rework it, you need to address it with this person.

It is also imperative that a conversation is had about what the final product needs to look like or what it needs to accomplish. As a leader, it is YOUR responsibility to set each of your team members up for success, and that means ensuring they understand exactly what is expected of them, the level of detail required from their work output and that they have all the necessary tools and resources to get there. You know how demoralizing it can be to proudly submit work only to have it dissected and “fixed” by your boss. Don’t be that boss! Hold your team members capable - once you’re both confident expectations are well understood, you can then delegate with ease.

Here’s how to go about delegating:

Set up a 1:1 with that individual - be kind and let them know why you’re meeting ahead of time.
Explain the project/task as well as how important it is to the bigger picture of the team's work.
Focus on their strengths and explain why you’re approaching them for that task. You trust them and you are confident that they will be successful.
If delegating is a completely new concept to you, explain that you are working on your delegation skills - and that you will be there to support them and assure their success. This means you will be there to let them bounce ideas, brainstorm, provide the necessary tools, arrange for training or whatever else they need to succeed. As a leader actively focused on improving your delegating skills, you will hold them capable, and that means letting them do the work (with regular check-ins) and without “fixing” or re-working on your part. This partnership is an integral part of your growth as a leader. Thank them - and apologize ahead of time for perhaps occasionally reverting back to old habits of taking over. Tell them you will need their help to keep you accountable.
Together, decide on a project timeline, and regularly meet on milestones. Immediately insert these dates in both of your calendars. I suggest going a step further and adding details around what the deliverables are.
Together, decide ahead of time what each milestone needs to look like to be considered a success before moving onto the next phase. This means, you describe your vision, then get the team member to reiterate what they understood from your description, using their own words. Adjust as necessary. Use these check-ins for something more than asking “How’s the project going?”. You will almost always get a “good” in response, even though things may be falling apart. To get more out of these check-ins, I recommend asking open-ended questions. These questions require more elaborate answers and are much more likely to give you insight into what’s really going on. For example, you can ask: “What’s working well?” “What’s challenging at the moment?” “What is at risk of falling behind?” “What are your thoughts around getting ahead of this?” “How can I support you?”
Answer any questions they have. Do they have any concerns? Can you help them connect with someone who is knowledgeable in the area and could offer some support? Jumping in to fix, resolve, complete is not always the answer, though it is important that you both feel confident about the path forward before going your separate ways.
Decide how you will celebrate a successful delegation together! This is often a forgotten step yet does so much to build positive and trusting professional relationships with each of your team members.

If you notice that a team member needs more technical training to be more efficient in their work, create the opportunity and space for them to do the learning at work. Pairing this team member with another while they learn or collaborating with them rather than delegating may be valid options until they are skilled enough to be more autonomous.

Are you now ready to snap out of doing things you the old way to bring on the increased productivity and peace of mind that come as a result of excellent delegation skills? Sure, you are!

It will be easier with some team members. If the process still intimidates you, try it with one project, then take a step back to work out what worked well and what didn’t. Chances are, if you execute the steps laid out above, there won’t be much tweaking left to do and your delegation confidence will start to rise.

Whenever you are ready, there are 2 other ways I can help you:

1. If you are still looking to further improve your leadership skills, let me recommend starting with an affordable course:

→ The New Leader’s Survival Guide: Time Management

→ Stand Out From The Rest: Communicate Like An Effective Leader

2. If you are looking for a more customized leadership development experience, leadership coaching may be the better option to get you to your professional development goals faster. Book a complimentary “Discovery Call” to discuss your goals and see if working with a leadership coach might be the way to go.

When you become a leader, you essentially become a teacher - someone who creates an environment for others to grow, thrive and eventually become more autonomous.

Many leaders hesitate to delegate. Fortunately, it’s a relatively easy fix – requiring a simple mindset reframe. Here are a few of the most commons excuses I tend to hear the most:

“I don’t want to overwhelm my team so I’ll just do it myself.”
“I’m really good at doing this – I’ll just do it myself, it will be faster.”
“I want to better understand what my team members do.”
“If my team does all the work, what will they need me for?”
“By doing it myself, I can guarantee the final product quality.”
“I want everyone to know how much of a hard worker I am.”

I totally get it. These are all valid points – but they are also indicative of a delegation skills gap. They are also perceived as reasonable excuses to procrastinate on the work you should be doing.

Why is this worth addressing?

People learn better by doing. So let them “do”.
People want to learn. It brings variety to their day and helps keep them engaged in their work.
When people increase their skill set, they increase their team’s work capacity. This translates into more projects, and then more money, which in turn, makes you look even more competent as a leader.
Your time is limited, which means you can’t do it all. You might think you can, and maybe you can for a while, but it will catch up with you. When you say “yes” to doing something, you are essentially saying “no” to something else.
While your head is down doing the work, your leader peers are working on more advanced leadership skills, networking with decision-makers and working on initiatives that will help advance not only the organization’s vision, but also their careers. You are essentially holding yourself back by staying busy doing transactional tasks that should be done by your team. Don’t believe me? Go have a look at your job description and ask your boss about your team’s priorities. How much of your day is spent on advancing those priorities? Another way to look at it is by examining each of your team members’ role descriptions. Again, look at your schedule. How many of your daily tasks belong to your team members?

Is it possible to delegate AND trust the resulting work?

Absolutely! I will be going through the “how” in next week’s newsletter. I’m not suggesting that you go cold turkey on the delegation (especially if you want to be able to sleep at night), but if you want to continue growing as a leader, you first need to build your team’s capacity so that you can then delegate. This will create space in your schedule to work on more leadership-type work.

Reframing the delegation self-talk

Let's look at a task you know you should be delegating. Identify the concern or resistance causing you to not delegate that task. Verify it factually and then plan accordingly (we will do a deeper dive on this next week). If one of the resisting factors showed up in the most common concerns listed at the beginning of this article, read on for help.

Delegation Excuse #1:

“I don’t want to overwhelm my team so I’ll just do it myself.”

Emergent leader’s typical self-talk around excuse #1:

I want my team to like me. I want to be helpful.

Growing leader’s mindset reframe. Repeat after me:

“My priority as their leader is to inspire learning, growth and empowerment.”

How to move forward:

I will support each of my team members’ growth and development by encouraging them to learn new skills by whatever means that works for them. I can facilitate their learning by doing my best to remove any obstacles.

Delegation Excuse #2:

“I’m really good at doing this – I’ll just do it myself, it will be faster.”

Emergent leader’s typical self-talk around excuse #2:

I am better at this than they are.

Growing leader’s mindset reframe. Repeat after me:

I’m good at this and more comfortable doing this than I am at this leadership “stuff”.

Growing leader’s mindset reframe. Repeat after me:

“My priority as a leader is to create an environment where all of my team members can increase their skillsets and thrive.”

How to move forward:

You are probably correct in saying that you are better at it, considering most people get promoted because they are highly skilled. However, as a leader, you have a new skill set to learn. “Check the box” for that skill and train someone else to do it so that you can move onto working on your own new leadership skills.

Delegation Excuse #3:

“I want to better understand what my team members do.”

Emergent leader’s typical self-talk around excuse #3:

I learn by doing therefore it only makes sense that I practice.

It makes me uncomfortable to lead people that do things I don’t know how to do.

Growing leader’s mindset reframe. Repeat after me:

“My priority as a leader is not to know how to do everyone’s job, rather it is to create an environment where each team member can fully realize their potential. My job as a leader is also to coordinate the team’s skill set so that the ensemble of their work is better than the sum of their parts.”

How to move forward:

While it is important to understand what everyone on your team does, you don’t have to do it at the level or spend the amount of time on things as you currently are. Ensure cross-training occurs between your team members so that if someone needs to temporarily step in, the team can still function without too much interruption. You can help, but you shouldn’t be automatic fill-in.

Delegation Excuse #4:

“If my team does all the work, what will they need me for?”

Emergent leader’s typical self-talk around excuse #4:

I like to feel needed. I want to be in the know.

Growing leader’s mindset reframe. Repeat after me:

“My team needs me to set the vision. They will always need my support, guidance and reassurance.

How to move forward:

A highly autonomous, productive and innovative team signals a successful team – and as a leader, I get to set the tone for how it all comes together.”

Delegation Excuse #5:

As a leader, the way you are “needed” will shift – but it certainly won’t disappear.

Emergent leader’s typical self-talk around excuse #5:

By doing it myself, I can guarantee the final product. I don’t trust my team member’s output. It’s so much less stressful when I can predict the outcome.

Growing leader’s mindset reframe. Repeat after me:

“As a leader, I need to clearly delegate so that each of my team members are set up for success. It is also my responsibility to hold them accountable to the vision we set at the beginning.”

How to move forward:

Delegate. Regularly check in. Ask them: “What’s going well?” “What’s getting in the way?” “How can I better support you so that you can succeed with this task?” Notice I didn’t include, “What parts of the project do you want me to do for you?”

Delegation Excuse #6:

“I want everyone to know how much of a hard worker I am.”

Emergent leader’s typical self-talk around excuse #6:

I want to appear better than everyone else, after all, I am their leader. I should be better at this than my team members.

Growing leader’s mindset reframe. Repeat after me:

“As a leader, my job is now to make each of my team members shine. My role is to orchestrate.”

How to move forward:

By helping each of your team members succeed, you will not only create a more successful team (which will get noticed), but by making each team member feel like a valuable part of something greater, you will also garner support and respect.

A few other things to keep in mind when it comes to delegation:

Delegating isn’t about dumping all the work onto your team members, only to put your feet up and sit back while you watch them struggle.
If you don’t delegate, your team’s capacity will stagnate.
Leaders who don’t delegate as much as they should are often perceived as micro-managers or as “gatekeepers” of information. These are rarely qualities that lead to promotions.
When you are saying “yes” to doing some transactional task, ask yourself “What am I saying “no” to, when it comes to my own list of priorities?”

Delegating gets easier with practice. In next week’s newsletter, I will provide a step-by-step guide on how to delegate in a way that will further put your concerns at ease so that you can move onto leadership priorities.

Whenever you are ready, there are 2 other ways I can help you:

1. If you are still looking to further improve your leadership skills, let me recommend starting with an affordable course:

→ The New Leader’s Survival Guide: Time Management

→ Stand Out From The Rest: Communicate Like An Effective Leader

Emergent Leaders Newsletter/008/How To Successfully Delegate So That You Can Lead Without The Overwhelm

Emergent Leader Newsletter/007/How to work through your biggest obstacle when it comes to delegating.