What is your biggest obstacle to delegating more of what you do?
Our reader poll today asks: What is your biggest obstacle to delegating more of what you do?
- No issues — I’m great at delegating 21.98%
- I’m afraid they won’t do the task correctly 15.48%
- I don’t have the resources to delegate to 34.52%
- I don’t have time to teach them the task. It’s faster if I do it 19.28%
- I enjoy my work and don’t want others to take it from me 4.48%
- Something else prevents me from delegating 4.26%
Delegation challenges.While you may not have direct resources to delegate to, think creatively. Are there other teams that are better “natural owners” for some of the work you can delegate? Are there people in other parts of the organization looking for developmental special project opportunities? People don’t have to be in your direct line of responsibility for you to delegate to them. As far as your bigger challenges – fear of delegating and time to train people – those are issues you can overcome. Find the time. Do you have time to continue doing the work? It adds up over time and far outstrips the amount of time you’ll spend training someone on the skill. As far as overcoming fear, consider delegating small tasks first to build confidence and trust. For bigger tasks, delegate them in pieces and schedule regular progress checks. You’ll be surprised at how confident you’ll become in people once you get past the made up fears in your mind that are preventing you from delegating in the first place.
– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.
Just a couple of other thoughts on delegation:
I been on small teams where people feel overwhelmed, and that feeling prevents them from taking a mental step backward and say “Is there a better process / team / person to help with this?” Continuing that thinking just paralyzes the teams ability to get anything done.
The other comment is simply that team members need to be honest with themselves, and each other, about what their capabilities are and whether the delegation request is something they can handle. Too often the feeling persists that they dare not say No to a delegation request coming from above them, The results are often poor work, burnout, and job turnover.
The only way I know of to improve either situation is to have dialog, not just “communicate”, with every person you have asked to do something with frequently and often. Understanding what their situation is – and your own – it key to good delegation.