Delegation: why you suck and how to sort it out

Photo by Braden Collum on Unsplash

Every good leader knows that to free up time, you need to delegate: you empower other people to help you, by ‘handing over the baton’ on certain tasks … simple!

But delegation is risky:

What if they make a mess of the task?

What if they don’t do it on time?

What if they keep hassling you to go back over the instructions you originally shared with them?

And when leaders are brave or desperate enough to delegate, their common delegation C.R.I.M.E.S undermine the success of the process, leading to unfavourable results and some misleading assumptions.

• “If you want a job done properly, you need to do it yourself!”
• “If only I had a bunch of capable people on my team, then I’d be able to delegate … this lot will never step up.”

But here’s the truth: the problem is not your team, it’s your delegation C.R.I.M.E.S. and the consequences of not delegating are:

• Under-performing teams who resent the fact you don’t trust them.
• Dis-empowered teams who rely on YOU as the one person to put in the extra shift and take the initiative.
• Stressed out leaders who juggle too many jobs, but refuse to delegate because they ‘CAN’T’…