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By C. Sean Clancy
This question tugs at the core of every corporate leader, business owner, manager, and yes, even the freshly minted shift supervisor. Delegation, the word melts on your tongue like a warm sugar cookie right out of the oven. Comfort food for the mind. Many of us can say the word, yet we struggle to execute the delivery of delegation on a daily basis.
We know what gets in the way:
- It takes too long to explain things
- I’m not a good teacher or trainer
- If I want things done right, I have to do them myself
- Delegation is too much like asking for help
- I’d have to give away control….
Ask yourself, has the pace of change increased two-fold, five-fold, twenty-fold in the last three years? How are you keeping up? My own experience with delegation (or the lack thereof) culminated in a simple phrase. The phrase was offered when I responded to an equally simple question back in 1998. I was asked, “How are you doing?” by my manager. “I’m doing great, got a lot on my plate, wrapped up in A-Z, my only problem is that I run out of time…every day” I said. The sledgehammer retort was “Well, you aren’t doing it right …you have to delegate.” POW – now why didn’t I think of that? Over the course of my career, I had certainly criticized others for not delegating.
John Maxwell, in his book “Developing the Leaders Around You”, tells us that every human being is allowed 24 hours each day. When you factor out non work hours for activities such as sleep we all reach a maximum level of productivity. As leaders we are well served to realize that to keep control of our ability to make progress, we must learn to give control away to others …in other words, delegate.
As a leader, manager, or business owner you are entitled to and expected to have a vision for your team, department, or company. In today’s over-saturated hyper-competitive world, a critical part of your vision must be WHO you will enlist to turn your vision into reality?
But if I delegate, I’ll have to:
- trust other people
- teach and guide others
- watch them develop new skills and expertise
- relieve myself of some of the workload
- spend more time developing and motivating my team
EXACTLY. Over time your delegation muscle will get stronger and you’ll have more confidence in your team and yourself. Most people that I talk to today are being asked to deliver more results, faster. However, rather than more resources like, time and people, they are being given less. Considering the fact that there is no magic formula to stop time and assuming that you would like time left over for non-work activities, you may find yourself at a crossroads. The good news is…you get to choose your next step.
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