Leadership is a rather unique string of cheese. Of course, this is perhaps not the place to start the discussion on whether you are born a leader or can be taught how to be one. Let us assume that both are possible. Leaders can still use some lessons or refreshers on the various aspects that compose the whole. And that brings us to delegation.
A rather rare skillset
I do differentiate managers and leaders. That said, both clans if you will, lack delegation skills. There are all manners of delegation issues out there. Few managers/leaders think they have the right delegation skills, and most companies are concerned about delegation skills among their leaders, and yet few, if any, offer training. Read more in references [1] and [2].
Don’t drink and drive, er..
Of course, once there is enough stress on delegation, one may choose to delegate, but if that person is also a micromanager, then the whole thing gets worse. Micromanagers are NOT leaders. They are the scourge of society. And if they simply pretend to delegate, then constantly breathe down the necks of their reports, the consequences can be devastating for teams and entire organizations.
Thus delegation must be done appropriately, taking into account the skills of the team members, the resources handed to them, and most importantly the level of empowerment and guidance they receive.
How do you teach leaders to delegate?
If you read books, listen to podcasts and watch conference presentations, you hear enough about how leaders should learn to delegate. However, that is easier said than done, especially for managers. And nothing can help power-hungry managers who are only interested in lip service. However, there are a few avenues that will teach you skills of delegation.
- Military Service
In various branches of service, in well-run militaries across the planet,
delegation skills are drilled into service members, pun unintended. That is one of the reasons why, in certain settings, ex-service members make great leaders, as they are able to translate and effectively moderate military discipline into leadership in civilian settings. Of course, this is not an option available to those who do not serve, and not all those who serve turn into effective leaders.
2. Business School
I never went to business school, but I am certain business schools, classes, lectures, and case studies are a good way to learn anything to do with leadership, so clearly this is an avenue. However, we know that reading about something and actually managing to reduce it to practice can be quite different from each other. Plus, it would be a bit challenging to tell someone to go to business school and spend several thousand dollars for the possibility that they might learn about delegation.
3. The school of hard knocks
Almost anything is best learned by doing. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that one of the best ways to learn how to be a good leader can come from consciously and deliberately learning to hire and trust team members, allowing them to take on small and large programs, projects, tasks, and responsibilities. This involves a high level of experimentation, but for the motivated leader, presents immense opportunities.
The best way to get started with ad hoc delegation is to engage in the following:
3.1 Discuss delegation with your team, both in group and individual settings, and gather their inputs, desires, and wishes for guidance and limitations.
3.2 Start with the right amount of delegation. An intern can take on a few tasks, a junior engineer can take on a project and a senior engineer or manager can take on an entire program! Make sure you get their buy-ins before turning things over!
3.3 Keep in touch, but keep trust. If you have done other things well, you have a team that innately wishes to succeed, with members cherishing both individual and group success. Therefore, it is quite possible that they would take delight in the programs, projects, and tasks they have now taken over.
3.4 Fix problems, provide resources and change things up if and when the experiments fail.
3.5 Have closing meetings for programs and projects, check off on tasks, and share learnings with the team to keep things moving into the future.
3.6 Keep talking to your mentors and peers on how they delegate and lead their teams to success.
3.7 This is not a final step, but a guideline. Giving up complete ownership is hard. Very hard. But you have to constantly remind yourself that this is how you get the team to the finish line and create a new generation of leaders. Remember, people tend to imbibe good practices, and when you promote your own team members to lead their own teams, delegation will be that much easier for them, because of you! That should be motivation enough!
4. Starting them young!
When you are training leaders of the future, you might give them their
chops as early as possible. I know this from personal experience. When I was 16, my parents decided to start a textiles company at home, in the upstairs unit. This became my first entrepreneurial venture, and my first dip into leadership as well. I hired a supervisor to manage my 40 or so employees, and had her lead the charge, of an almost fully women-driven company, while I simultaneously attended college.
Recently, I had an intern work with me at a prior employer. This intern, is now an engineer in my team. So, when we brought on a highly driven high school intern to the team, I paired the engineer with the intern. I even reminded the engineer how I doled out tasks to him when he was an intern. We have had a smooth sailing journey so far, and I am almost certain the engineer now has a good foundation on delegation, and perhaps so does the high school intern!
Conclusion
Giving up ownership might feel counterintuitive. Not doing so, is in fact counterintuitive. Learn to pass on ownership at the right levels to the right people, follow up with resources and guidelines. Be honest, receive feedback well, learn from your mistakes, and then lather, rinse repeat.
With the appropriate amount of delegation, you will become a true force multiplier!
References:
- https://mailchimp.com/courier/article/delegating-work-effectively/#:~:text=An%20often%2Dquoted%20statistic%20from,not%20enough%20people%20do%20well.
- https://hbr.org/2012/07/why-arent-you-delegating
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