5 Steps to Effective Delegation

What if I asked you to consider delegation as a power move? An opportunity to earn trust, empower your team and boost productivity. Or perhaps simply, as a strategy for raising engagement scores? This article will help you explore some of the reasons you hesitate to delegate, the power of effective delegation and you’ll get my 5 steps to effective delegation. Raise your game, inspire your team, and drive your staff engagement scores!

5 Myth-busting Steps to Delegation

Contrary to popular belief, delegation does not mean offloading your tedious tasks or clearing your desk of jobs that don’t inspire you. Nor is it about relinquishing responsibility, losing control or a sign of weakness. It certainly should not take more time than it would do to do it yourself and it should not be viewed as a risky decision that requires micromanagement to execute effectively.

For my benefit, yours, and as an offering to the gods of SEO and algorithm, let me define delegation and share my 5 steps for effective delegation.

Delegation is the process of assigning tasks, responsibilities, or authority to another person or team, hereafter referred to as delegatee(s), to accomplish specific goals or objectives. For clarity, you are hereafter referred to as the leader or delegator.

My six steps to effective delegation:

• Handpick: Identify tasks or projects for delegation based on their complexity, urgency, and alignment with your delegatee’s skills and ambitions.
• Communicate: Clearly communicate expectations, objectives, timelines, and constraints, ensuring your delegatee understands their organisational impact.
• Resource: Signpost the necessary authority, resources, and support to enable your delegatee to demonstrate their ingenuity in completing their assigned tasks.
• Report: Collaboratively define measurable and achievable markers of progress and success. Define avenues for feedback, requests for help and guidance in case of mistakes, delays, or struggles.
• Accountability: Encourage ownership and accountability, both for yourself and your delegatee. Intentionally acknowledge their progress and success and help to identify learning opportunities in the event of mistakes or challenges.

I like to think of delegation as the transfer of power and authority because, done well, delegation is an opportunity to earn trust, empower ambitious staff, encourage productivity, and cultivate a collaborative culture. Let’s not forget those engagement scores.

Why you might hesitate to delegate…

On the face of it, delegation is a no-brainer: a simple and obvious way to distribute workload, complete tasks efficiently, and maximise productivity with the possible added benefit of raising those engagement scores. However, that transfer of power and authority can be anxiety laden, riddled with fear and guilt inciting resistance, self-doubt and in extreme cases provoke a sense of insecurity.

That resistance you feel is natural! I know you want things done in a specific way and feeling fear around losing control over the results and quality of your work is entirely valid. Your emotions are one reason why you might hesitate to delegate but the thought patterns behind your emotions might be more complex than you imagine.

TRUST: A lack of trust in the skills, experience, or commitment of your delegatees may influence how readily you delegate.

TIME: The process of delegation might seem more time-consuming than doing it yourself, at least in the short term.

REPURCUSSIONS: You might worry about your delegatees mistakes, delays, or conflict with others reflecting poorly on you or your ability to lead.

CLARITY: The process of setting expectations and defining measurable markers of success might feel complicated, risky, or ineffective.

LETTING GO: Relinquishing control is tough, trusting others to do as you would do is not easy especially if you’re a hands-on leader.

INSECURITY: The fear of being exposed as a fraud or judged as a failure is usually grounded in self-doubt or a feeling of being unworthy of your role, this thought pattern can often undermine your delegation aspirations.

I hope it surprises and comforts you to know that as a woman, delegation can feel even tougher!

STEREOTYPE: That inexplicable pressure to assume the role of nurturer or caretaker as a leader means you may take on a disproportionate level of responsibility from your staff.

COMPETENCE: Particularly if you’re a woman in a male-dominated work environment, you might doubt your own competence or worry about being perceived as less capable, so you’ll go to extreme lengths to prove yourself.

DOUBLE STANDARDS: You were called bossy, aggressive, or controlling when you delegated assertively, but weak or indecisive if they delegated passively. So why delegate?

BACKLASH: I know that compulsion to micromanage because you fear incomplete tasks and push back against your authority stops you from thinking about delegation.

Work Life Balance: Let’s be honest, the time investment feels insurmountable in the face of your eternal caregiving and household juggle outside of work!

CULTURAL NORMS: And those traditional expectations will have you believing you must do it all!

REPRESENTATION: There simply aren’t enough women successfully demonstrating effective delegation.

All is not lost! Recognising your feelings and bringing awareness to your challenges is the first step toward overcoming them.

Never have I ever thought of delegation as a strategy!

The one thing my clients all tell me when the staff engagement scores are low is that they, personally, feel overwhelmed, resentful, frustrated, stuck, unproductive, and rapidly approaching burnout. 97.7% of the time we then explore their resistance to delegation.

Delegation for the Delegatee

I want you to consider delegation as a strategy for staff engagement, an opportunity to empower your team to raise their profile, demonstrate their skills and connect with the organisation’s purpose on a deeper level.

Thoughtfully delegated tasks offer delegatees an opportunity to take on challenging assignments and responsibilities that develop their skills, experience, and broaden their knowledge making them versatile and valuable contributors to the organisation. Ideally the nature of the task means the delegatee is stepping outside of their comfort zone demonstrating their ability to handle complex or high-profile assignments making them obvious candidates for promotions, lateral moves, and future leadership roles.

If you’re strategic about aligning your delegation with the organisation’s purpose and clearly communicating impact and importance of their contribution, you’ll increase motivation and productivity. Genuine trust, recognition, and the freedom to make decisions or take initiative will empower a culture of engagement and commitment. Read: increase in engagement scores.

Delegation for the Delegator

Delegation is a power move, one that inspires trust and loyalty from your team and cultivates an environment conducive to productivity and innovation. Delegation will free you up to focus your time and energy on those high-level activities that advance your career and have a powerful impact on the wider organisation. Think of your reputation! And those engagement scores.

Hopefully I’ve inspired you to consider delegation as a strategy, if you want your leaders to delegate effectively, ask me about my delegation workshop: Mastering Delegation: 5 steps for leaders to reduce overwhelm and influence purpose-driven teams.

Delegation is no cure-all…

Yes, 97.7% of my 1:1 leadership coaching clients find effective delegation a helpful strategy to raising their engagement scores, particularly when their scores are low on purpose or career progression but delegation may not be the right solution for you and your organisation.

Delegation may be the strategy for you, helping you to alleviate the overwhelm, resentment, frustration, isolation, stagnation, and rapid approach to burnout. If it isn’t, hiring a coach will help you to identify the underlying causes for these challenging experiences, develop your own coping strategies, and develop your resilience as you reshape your approach. Coaching will give you valuable insight into your thought patterns, emotions, and behaviours, enabling you to reframe unhelpful perceptions, set realistic expectations, and define helpful boundaries to prevent burnout and improve your wellbeing.

Effective delegation is an incredible opportunity to earn trust, empower ambitious staff, encourage productivity, inspire engagement, and cultivate a collaborative culture. Coaching can be a powerful intervention, helping to facilitate effective communication, conflict resolution, and team engagement skills, enabling you to develop strong relationships, earn trust, and drive collaboration within your team. As a leader, coaching can support you to increase your emotional intelligence, help you to create a supportive and inclusive work environment where your team feels valued, motivated, and invested in driving results.

Thoughtful delegation that aligns with a delegatee’s strengths, skills, and ambitions will get them stepping outside of their comfort zone, demonstrating their ability to handle complex or high-profile assignments and make them the obvious candidates for promotions, lateral moves, and future leadership roles. Partnering with a coach could provide leaders with the guidance and support necessary to identify and nurture talent within your team, ensuring delegation is a valuable catalyst for professional growth and development. As a leader, coaching could help you to develop the soft skills and confidence to delegate effectively, provide meaningful opportunities for growth and development, and empower your team to excel.

Delegation is a valuable strategy to free up your time and mental capacity to drive results. Coaching could help you to identify barriers to effective delegation, develop personalised strategies to help you overcome them, and empower you to delegate confidently and effectively. As a leader, coaching can help you drive organisational success, and cultivate a culture of empowerment, collaboration, and purpose-led sustainable results.

How can I help?

As a leader you’re faced with a multitude of responsibilities, from developing your team to maintaining your personal performance; understanding how a coach might support you can feel time consuming, confusing and daunting. Whether you’re overcoming overwhelm, hesitating with delegation, or building a productive team – book a Discovery Call – together we’ll explore how I might help you drive meaningful change.