In another post ‘Delegation – Setting the foundation of what is expected’ I wrote about foundational needs of expectations and how that affects the delegated tasks I also shared a GREAT image of a hand cut-off and 6 steps for delegating a task.
This time delegation focuses you. Your preparation and myths of delegation.
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What you believe is what you perceive
Before you come after me for faltering on my argument against positivism and ‘manifesting your destiny through your thoughts’ read on…
You are holding back on delegating because of common myths and beliefs that we tell ourselves, we tell our staff, then our staff repeats back to us…reinforcing the perception–belief loop.
- Everyone is too busy to delegate work to
- This project is really important and no-one can do it as good as me
- I have been burned in the past delegating work and the person did not finish it on time or properly
- Delegating this to someone else means that I am getting rid of my own work and I don’t want to burden others with the work I should be doing
- What if I delegate this task and they do it better than I could? My job may be at risk…Better just do it myself
While some of the above perceptions may be true, they are not sufficient for you not to delegate the work. Plus many of these perceptions you hold, happened because you did a shitty job delegating in the first place.
What to do
- Setting the foundation of what’s expected
- Scaling the persons expertise and confidence in the delegated task
- As a manager, scaling and determining what you will see and how you will evaluate the employees task.
- Developing small action steps within the delegated plan
Delegation Solution – Thinking about YOUR OWN experience Delegating Tasks
YOU, the manager thinking through the delegation.
- How clear are you on what is expected from your manager? In what ways could you better determine your manager’s expectations for your work?
- If you were a 10 on a delegation scale (10 meaning the best you have ever been) what happened, describe the set-up, scenario, task, conversation, etc… that took place when you were delegating the task?
- When watching other people OR thinking of your manager what do they do well when delegating tasks to others?
- If I was to observe you delegating this task to the person you chose, what would I see that told me you were totally confident in your work and abilities?
- If I was to observe you delegating this task to the person you chose, what would I see that told me you were totally confident in their work and abilities?
- Thinking of the person you have chosen to delegate too, what about them impresses you the most?
- On a scale of 0 – 10 with 10 being absolute and 0 being the opposite where would you rate your confidence in their success? What does 2 steps higher on the scale look like?
- How can you ensure that they are successful in completing this task?
- Knowing what you know what steps are needed to ensure that the task is complete and the person gains needed skills and knowledge?
When you work through your delegation myths, and frame a positive and effective experience of delegation you can increase your discretionary time to actually manage.
Reframing the perception–belief cycle to one of staff development through delegation, offering staff greater value through your complexity management and skilled-knowledge leading to more great work being done.
What do you think?
What delegation myths do you hold true? If you could benefit from delegation how would you know? What advice would you offer to new managers who are afraid to delegate?