What Are You Delegating To Get Ahead?

As founders, CEOs, and managers, you know that delegating is the key to scaling and success.

Or, I hope that is a given.

Now, I didn’t say it was easy or deny that that there are a host of reasons why leaders don’t do it, fight it or just don’t know how to do it effectively.

For today, let’s say you know you need to do it, now the question is “what” do you delegate?

The 6 T’s

In a HBR article, Jenny Blake laid out the 6 T’s to help guide that very question. They are a helpful jumping off point.

Tiny. Small and seemingly no big deal but can add up. Sucking up your time and energy.

Tedious. Not a great use of your time. This can be all the prep work for a project or groundwork for a decision, for example, the initial research, client prospecting, or data entry.    

 Time-Consuming. These can be important tasks or problems that need solving but perhaps someone can do most of the legwork for you. Maybe you just need to make the final decision, -- get it over the finish line.  

Teachable. Something you can translate into a system and pass along. Something that will need to be done again in the future, often these are repetitive tasks someone else can learn to do.

Terrible At. It’s just not your strength. Someone could do it better and faster. Does someone on your team have the relevant skills and experience or could they develop them? More on that in a minute.

Time-Sensitive. Something pressing but competes with a priority you are focused on at that moment. Here you may want to ask yourself: how much time do we have to get it done? Can I fix it if it gets screwed up? How bad are the consequences if it’s not done on time? It is all about prioritizing constantly and shifting as priorities shift.

What About the Rest of the Alphabet?

 As I hinted to, some struggle with delegating because, for example, there is the need to control. Particularly, for the high performers, they think that nobody can do it as well as they can do it. Maybe yes, maybe no. But is it worth your time? More importantly, can they do a good enough job? Someone threw out a 70% rule of thumb. Feels about right. Can they do it at about 70% of the same level or speed?

How important is it that the results are the highest quality? Is an adequate result good enough? Would failure be decisive? How much would failure impact other things?

Finally, and most importantly, does this task/problem provide an opportunity to develop a team member’s skills?

Rather than thinking about yourself in the “what to delegate” debate going on in your head, think about your team first.

What opportunities and growth can I provide others? Who might be interested in taking on this assignment? Who has expressed an interest in this area? Who seems to be doing work that is no longer challenging to them, they seem disengaged or bored? Who needs to learn to take on more responsibility?

To that end, ask yourself do you have time to effectively delegate which means being available for training, questions, check-ins and feedback.

The one thing a leader cannot delegate is the responsibility for developing their direct reports and recognizing where talent lies. Who can possibly replace them as they move up the ladder? Who has leadership potential? If you ignore this part of the job, for example, assign someone else the task of providing feedback, your team members will feel unimportant or not valuable enough for you to spend the time.

Too Hands-Off

As part of that role, and part of the delegating process, you need to be a resource, provide guidance, and offer support.

For example, ask them to define what success looks like at each stage; what are some key indicators, at each stage, that tell us things are moving along in the right direction; what resources do they need; what will be their first step, what do they see as their options, etc.

Being too hands-off leaves your team members feeling unsupported, unimportant, confused, and not really empowered, which is a BIG reason for delegating!

Not suggesting you micromanage – that will also encourage team members to disengage, feel frustrated and belittled.

Before we walk that balance beam, let’s make sure we are delegating the right things.