Delegating for Fun and Profit

Getting more done on any given day means doing the things you are good at and doing them effectively.  Often, however, many people who could be even more effective applying their skills in other functions or to other requirements are caught up in the "I'm the best person for this task" thinking, and short-change themselves and their firms over the long run.

Being willing to delegate work to others, and move on to even more challenging tasks is really never very easy.  First, because it usually requires that you take time to train the people you ultimately want to delegate the work to.  In a short term way of thinking, it often seems much easier just to do the work yourself, rather than try to take the time to train other people to do it.  Eventually, you become so good at your job or task that you "own" that role or task, and you'll notice other people moving up all around you.  You've reached the top of your contribution capability until you learn to train and motivate others.  There's an implied force multiplier here - if you can't delegate or manage others, you can only manage yourself.

Delegation also requires a significant amount of trust in the people that you delegate to.  Another military phrase I love is the "fire and forget" concept.  This means in military jargon that the missle you fire knows where it's target is and does not need to be guided.  In the same fashion, it's great to have people that you can delegate to and not have to constantly revisit the work or their efforts.  Of course, to reach that level of competency requires training and trust.

Delegation also requires some leadership.  You cannot simply delegate all the dirty little jobs you don't want to do or people will quickly learn to avoid working with you or for you.  Taking on those tasks when appropriate and delegating them when appropriate demonstrates that you are willing to shoulder the load with the team.  Sometimes, however, you may need to unload some less than exciting work to get on to a task where you can add more value.  In this case, good communication is necessary to indicate why the task is being delegated.

Your goal, eventually, should be to work yourself out of your job - teaching, training and leading your team to work effectively together and independently.  To do this, you must delegate decisions as well as tasks.  Delegating work is easy - delegating the responsibility to others to make commitments and decisions is difficult, but it is the only way to grow your team and to grow your own capabilities.  I've found this usually follows a three phase growth pattern:

Phase 1 - "please make this decision, and here's how I'd like you to make it"
This is not delegation of anything except the communication on the decision. This is how many managers think delegation works.  "Here's the decision, you can publicize it"  In many ways this approach works to discourage the people who work with you and for you, as it becomes evident that you don't trust them.

Phase 2 - "you are free to make this decision, but please take these factors into consideration"
The slightly more experienced manager delegates the decision, but tries to weigh in with key criteria, placing his or her thumb on the scale while the team member makes the decision.  This method demonstrates a greater reliance on the team, but still indicates that you do not trust them to make the best decision, or you feel the need to sway their decision.

Phase 3 - "Make the best decision you can given the information you've got"
As the manager matures, he or she recognizes that the team or individual can find the information and are smart enough to ask for help.  The capable manager will simply get out of the way and let the team make the decision.

Who wins?  Everybody.  You as the manager win because you can tackle more work and probably more interesting or challenging work.  Your team wins because they grow their capabilities and skills.  The firm wins because everyone is working more effectively and using their full range of skills.

But to get there, you have to have people who trust you, and that you trust.  You have to train them to be able to do the work and make the right decisions.  And most importantly, you have to delegate important work and key decisions to help your teams grow.

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