Overcoming the Fear of Delegating

Delegating is an essential part of a manager’s job. Any good book on management will highlight the importance of that, but as with many other things, it’s easier said than done. When I stepped into a leadership role here at Wrike, I discovered that it was incredibly difficult for me to start delegating. Since not doing it wasn’t an option, I sought guidance on the matter both from my leadership and in business literature and the press. I was relieved to find out that I wasn’t alone in facing this challenge and that there are reasons why managers are hesitant to delegate work. While I’m still in the middle of the road, it would be fair to state that many of the fears I originally had have been successfully addressed. So I decided to present them along with my recommendations for overcoming them.

Why is it critical to delegate work in the first place? The first and main reason is that a manager’s time is limited. Regardless of how efficient they are, at some point, their limit would inevitably be reached, leaving no room for further growth and development. Without delegation, the door to scaling results would be closed.

The second reason, which is strongly connected with the first, is that managers do not have the time and resources to innovate and devise new solutions that may be essential in the ever-changing business environment. If all their time is preoccupied with unavoidable operational activities, there is no room for new ideas, experiments, and breakthroughs.

Thirdly, lack of delegation leads to a lack of, or very limited, growth and development of team members. If they never get the opportunity to take responsibility for new areas of work, they don’t get the experience to make further steps in their careers and, at some point, would probably start looking for such opportunities elsewhere.

Finally, when managers loop all critical processes and activities on themselves, they create a ticking time bomb that would explode when they go on vacation, take sick leave, or are absent for any other reason. There would be no one to replace them.

Since delegating is very important and most managers understand and accept the need to do it, what are the factors that lead to fear of delegating?

Fear of work not being done the right way

In many cases, people got to management positions after being top performers themselves. As they transitioned to their new roles, they worked hard to discover the best ways of performing the job — often through trial and error. They witnessed the negative consequences of doing work the wrong way and do not want them to happen again. As a result, they may stick to the rule “If you want something to be done well, do it yourself” and choose to perform the work themselves to guarantee a good result.

Fear of work not being completed on time

In our fast, ever-changing world, completing work quickly has become as important as performing it well. Managers may fear that while their team members can do the work well, it would take much more time than if they did it themselves. This may lead to delays in projects and operational tasks.

Not willing to leave their comfort zone

This one is more relevant for situations where team members who were top performers got promoted to management roles. There may be certain activities that are completely unknown territory for newly established managers. They haven’t performed them yet and do not have any experience in the area. It has been scientifically proven that we tend to postpone activities that we’re unfamiliar with (see “Your Brain at Work” by David Rock). So, for example, an experienced salesperson promoted to management would be more comfortable continuing to work with clients rather than diving into data analysis. Instead of delegating these activities, managers prefer to continue doing what they’re already good at.

Managers’ reputation is at stake

There are many organizations that have zero tolerance for failure. People are not given second chances, and any mistake (even minor) could cost a manager his job. As a result, even managers who understand that delegating is critical for success postpone it until they’re 100% confident that they’ve passed on every single instruction, every detail of their experience, etc. For obvious reasons, this is quite challenging. Certain aspects of organizational culture may become a major obstacle to delegating.

Now we’ve highlighted why delegation is important and the common reasons for fear of delegating, let’s discuss the steps to overcoming them.

Start small

Baby steps are always better than no progress at all. Start delegating minor activities that do not pose a big risk to your company’s processes and business outcomes but free up time for you and create space for engaging in new and (potentially) more important activities. It can be something like letting your team members hold team meetings or create weekly reports on business indicators that you need to evaluate the progress toward objectives. As team members accumulate experience, consider increasing the level of responsibility.

Start together

Starting to delegate doesn’t necessarily mean that you abandon your team members and leave them without any support. You can be present but stay in the background to provide ad hoc guidance if needed. I have an internal example to share here. As my team of customer success managers grew, I started conducting what I call “value selling coaching sessions” to help CSMs effectively present the value of Wrike on the spot. I delivered several such sessions myself and then delegated them to an experienced team member. I kept attending the sessions to provide input if needed, but only on rare occasions did I intervene.

Check progress regularly

Delegating does not imply that you assign certain responsibilities to a team member and only check the results in the end. It is totally okay — especially when an employee is taking on an assignment for the first time — to agree on regular check-ins to understand how the assignment is progressing and whether any support is needed. It’s important to highlight to the team member that the only purpose of these check-ins is to see they need your help — not to micromanage the initiative because you don’t trust them. Employees need to have a strong level of confidence that you trust them.

Accept that the results might not be ideal on the first attempt

The only way for your team members to perfect a new activity is to engage in it over and over again. If you’re delegating something that you have performed yourself dozens of times, you probably have a pretty high bar on the outcomes and execution speed. But remember, you did not reach that level from the first attempt — it all came through practice and repetition. If you really want to free up time for yourself and help your team members grow professionally, you need to accept that when you delegate something for the first time, the result may be far from perfect. And that is okay. As your team members continue performing these assignments, you have the opportunity to share guidance on the best way of accomplishing those tasks. Eventually, they will reach the level you consider a gold standard.

I hope that these recommendations will help you overcome the fear of delegating. While you may have concerns about it initially, only by doing it will you be able to scale your results and bring them to the next level.