Delegate Well: The Art of Describing and Directing
The funny thing about urgent things is, well, they’re urgent. You feel the pressure to get them done. They pile up. Lots and lots of urgent things. The more they pile up, the more you struggle to sort them all out in your head. Even those sticky notes aren’t helping anymore. “Wait! I’m forgetting something!… Now, what was I just doing? It will come back to me.” I know you’ve been there. I have too. Not fun. And the most frustrating thing is knowing you’re in charge. You’ve got responsibility. You’re leading a team. Well, actually you’re not. You’re handling a lot of urgent things. You’re not leading anything. You’re doing stuff. Urgent stuff. The team? Well, they’re waiting for something to do.
The funny thing about urgent things is, well, they get in the way of important things. Not the least of which are building trust with the people you lead and developing them to be their best. These are important to you, I know they are. You might be saying, “I’ll get to those important things just as soon as I get these urgent things done.” My response, “No, you won’t.”
Let me help.
del·e·gate (verb): To entrust a task or responsibility to another person, typically one who is less senior than oneself.
Delegating. It’s a simple action, but one that’s difficult for many leaders to master. Maybe the obstacle to delegating stems from the fact that many have risen to leadership positions because they’ve built a reputation on completing challenging tasks to a high standard. It’s hard for them to trust that anybody will be able to get the task done as well as they can. Others thrive on the feeling they get when they complete something. “I did that” can sometimes feel really good. But as a leader’s responsibility increases, as they move out of direct level leadership positions to organizational level positions, their team needs less of them “doing” and more of them “describing and directing.”
Understanding, visualizing, describing, directing, leading, and assessing are the leader’s key responsibilities. In describing, leaders explain the “why” associated with the things the team is doing. They create a shared understanding of the importance of the task. In directing, leaders delegate and assign tasks and other actions for the team to accomplish. Describing and directing well frees the leader up to lead and assess the team. Leaders who are unable to describe and direct have little to lead or assess.
As an Army officer, it took me ten years to embrace delegating, and even then only because I could no longer handle the volume of urgent tasks I was trying to complete by myself. The weight of the urgent tasks almost broke me. But even then, I still wrestled with delegating well. But, here’s what I learned. When I delegated tasks properly, the task was always completed to a higher standard than what I would have been able to accomplish. As I took on more and more, the quality of my results was less and less. I learned that those I was leading were dying for the opportunity to display their talents. Not only was I robbing my subordinate leaders and other team members of developmental opportunities, I was also robbing them of the opportunity to shine. As I began to better delegate, our people got better, the organization gained speed, and I had more time to lead the way the team needed me to lead, describing and directing.
If you’re ready to start delegating well, here are a few things to consider.
1. Delegating a task to one of your people does not relieve you of the responsibility of having the task completed to a high standard. Supervise, but don’t micromanage. There’s nothing worse than a backseat driver.
2. When you delegate a task, be sure to provide a clear task, purpose, and suspense for completion. Often, the purpose of the task is more important than the task statement itself. You might be surprised to find that when those you lead understand why they’re doing something, how they get it done is often more effective and efficient than what you would have done. Providing a clear suspense removes the guess work for your people. Rather than dropping everything else they’re doing for this new task, a clear suspense helps them prioritize the new task with others they have, and keeps you from getting frustrated.
3. When delegating tasks, make sure you pick the right people for the job. Some tasks will fall squarely in some team members’ area of responsibility. Others will fit a team member’s unique talents. Other tasks will stretch a team member’s ability, providing them unique developmental opportunities. Be deliberate. Delegating is a great way to get to know your people and their strengths and weaknesses. Don’t be afraid to let them fail and try again. A lot of beneficial learning can occur. But never ever set one of your people up to fail on purpose.
4. Don’t steal the glory. When your people complete a task to high standard, make sure they get the credit for it, no matter how much of a role you played in helping to get it done.
Delegating well is a leader’s art. It’s one you and your team will be glad you’ve attempted to master. So, if you’re ready, don’t you have something important you need to get done?
