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What Is It That Only You Can Do?

Learn to Delegate

HAVE YOU BEEN PROMOTED recently? Maybe into a new supervisory position or a step up the ladder into senior management? If so, congratulations and good luck; you’re probably busy learning the ropes at the next level. Just don’t forget the secret of moving on up. You know—the secret to maintaining your sanity and actually having a life; the key to being wildly productive and successful; the one management technique that you really have to master as you move higher in the organization.

What, they didn’t tell you this when they promoted you? That’s OK; I’m going to share it with you right now. The secret to being effective at the next level of leadership is delegation. Now, I know what you may be thinking: That’s it? Delegation? You bet it is. When you move to a higher level, you have to lead differently; you can’t do all the work anymore. That may have worked in your last position. But up here, you’ll get buried in a heartbeat if you don’t learn how to leverage your team effectively. You have more resources now—learning to use them is the secret to making your mark in this new role.

Become a Master of the What, Not the How

Delegation is the act of committing and entrusting an assignment or task to someone else. It also involves transferring power and authority. This last point is critically important, because delegation isn’t micromanagement. In fact, it’s the opposite. When you delegate something, make sure to allow the employee to add his or her personal touch to the project or assignment. Yes, you can outline the basic parameters, but let the person do it his or her own way. As a leader, you should become known as a “master of the what, not the how.” Focus on developing the big picture; let your people fill in the painting with their own imagination and creativity.

Effectively allocating work to others requires that you pay attention to three primary factors: the why, what, and who of delegation. First, why do you want to become adept at delegating? There are many reasons, but here are the four primary ones: 1) Delegating increases work output. By putting the right work in the hands of the right people, you maximize your team’s productivity. 2) Delegating fosters growth and development. When you put your team in a position to learn new tasks, they gain knowledge and develop skills. 3) Delegating keeps employees motivated and engaged. People want to be involved; they don’t want to be micro-managed or spend all of their time on menial tasks. 4) Delegating allows you to focus on high-level work. It frees you to concentrate on your most important tasks—the stuff that only you can do.

Now that you know why you should be delegating work, you need to know what to delegate. Although there’s no exact list of what you should and shouldn’t delegate, a general rule of thumb is that you should consider delegating anything that someone else can do, and nothing that only you can do. In other words, keep work that only the leader can do, tasks such as setting strategy, coaching, developing the team, solving critical performance or conflict issues on your team, being in meetings where your presence is required, and so forth. However, if a task is not something that only you can do, delegate it to someone else.

Delegation took me awhile to learn, frankly. Like most leaders, I moved up the ranks because I was good at what I did—and when I first moved to a higher level, I thought I needed to do even more of what I had been doing. I quickly found out that wasn’t going to work; there were a whole new set of challenges waiting for me, and I couldn’t do everything myself anymore. To succeed, I had to learn to delegate. I started slowly, giving away my presentation and report writing first; I removed myself from the creative process and instead adopted a final reviewer role. Next, I gave away responsibility for meeting with vendors and making purchasing decisions—my people knew the hardware and software better than I did anyway. Finally, I began to give away meeting oversight and let my direct reports rotate in the role of planning and organizing our staff meetings. It was hard at first, I’ll admit; I felt I was losing control. Eventually though, I benefited greatly—I literally gained ten to twelve hours a week to focus on more important tasks. You can do this, too. Examples of work you definitely should delegate are administrative tasks, report writing, presentation preparation, and budget analysis. As new work comes your way, ask yourself, “Is this something that only I can do?” If the answer is no, starting thinking of who you can ask to take on the assignment.

How do you know who to choose for an assignment? When the work is flowing in, you may have choices as to where it should be delegated. You might be tempted to keep loading up your star player—but that’s a mistake. Spread the work around; get everyone involved. In fact, you might keep a delegation log or diary to keep track of who’s been assigned what. As the tasks come in, consider these four factors when determining who should get the assignment:

1. Their experience, knowledge and skills. What knowledge, skills, and attitude do your people already have? Who needs what for continued development? Do you have the time and resources to provide necessary training? Is there time to redo the job if it’s not done properly the first time?

2. Their exposure to senior management. Who needs more face time with your boss? Who do you want to showcase? What are the consequences of not finishing the project on time? How important is it that the work is done with the highest possible quality?

3. Their preferred work style. How independent are your people? How do they handle unexpected work falling into their laps? What do they want from their jobs? What are their long-term goals and interests, and how do these align with the work proposed?

4. Their current workload. Who has capacity? Does anyone have the time to take on more work? Will the delegation of this task require reshuffling of other responsibilities and workloads? Is this a task that will be recurring in the future?

Once you’ve delegated the task, don’t forget to check in once in awhile to gauge progress. It’s important to monitor performance and be available for questions and any other needs. Oh, and remember to give your people feedback during and after the project.

Congratulations again on that promotion. Enjoy the ride; you’ve earned this new leadership role. And what about all those people that report to you? Use them! Put them to work in creative ways and help them pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, too. Leaders differ widely in their ability to delegate with grace and style, but it is something you can get better at through experience. If you want to improve this aspect of your leadership brand—if you want to be known as a master of the what, not the how—start delegating.

Bootstrap Takeaways

Learn to Delegate

1. Delegation is your most precious management resource. It allows you to get more work done and frees you up to focus on critical tasks.

2. Get good at delegating—now. You won’t survive doing everything yourself; start getting the team involved.

3. Once you delegate, step back. You’re giving others the assignment, and also the authority to do it their way. They may not do it exactly as you would, but that’s OK—they might do it better!