Delegate to Empower | By Kamila Turek
Did you know that how well you delegate is directly reflected in how empowered your employees feel? Delegating strengthens your employees' skills, decision-making abilities, and ultimately, their productivity (Forbes, 2020). According to a Gallup study, CEOs who excel in delegating generate 33 percent higher revenue. That’s a lot don’t you agree? Yet it remains one of the most underutilised and underdeveloped management capabilities. Hence, before leaders can successfully and effectively delegate, they must understand their resistance.
What is the reason why you find delegating challenging? Below you can see a few blockers and you are invited to self-reflect on what is holding you back:
- It’s faster just to do it myself.
- Other people can’t do it as well as I do.
- I don’t trust anyone else to do it.
- I like doing this part/task.
- If I delegate how do I add value?
- Other
As you can see there are plenty of blockers on our way to delegation. If you ticked the 1st or 2nd box, you might be experiencing self-enhancement bias. Other blockers are linked with the belief that passing on work will detract from our own importance, while others lack self-confidence and don’t want to be upstaged by their subordinates. The good news is that the first step is self-awareness, bringing those blockers to the surface where you can see and work on them. To challenge our own assumptions about “what if,” try small, low-risk delegation experiments to start with.
Before you delegate please take 5 minutes to think about the person you will be delegating. What’s their level of experience and skills? Have you worked with them before? Do you know their strengths and weaknesses?
When it comes to delegation, the IDEAL model is an easy and impactful framework.
I - Introduce the task.
What is the task and how will you introduce it?
D – Define the scope of the assignment, and clearly explain what you want to be done.
Showing previous examples of what good looks like. This will work particularly well with new junior members of the team.
E - Ensure understanding.
Asking them to summarise what they heard and what steps they will take.
A - Allocate authority, information, and resources.
This is when you agree on what they need to be successful and how you work together.
L - Let go.
You practise trusting your direct reports.
Following the steps doesn’t guarantee success. IDEAL helps you to delegate in the best possible way, so you do your part. And yes, your direct reports will make mistakes on their learning journeys. So, please take a moment to remember the mistakes you have made in the past. What you wished you were given at that moment? Research shows that empathy is a crucial leadership skill. Your direct reports need to know you have their backs. Also, giving constructive feedback and using coaching skills, will help them deliver excellent quality. That way they won’t depend on you to come up with solutions and will think for themselves. Yes, you are empowering them!
The final thought on delegation: If you delegate tasks, you create followers. If you delegate authority, you create leaders.
Kamila Turek is a Lead Coach in the People Leadership programme.