How to Overcome Delegation Hesitation
Trial delegation will give you, and them, confidence and learning.
Delegation can be like handing off one’s life work to the next generation: terrifying. At first, of course, having a next generation seems like a joyous event.
My client is ecstatic! His shmoopie has announced a pending new arrival to the family, and he is planning the bedroom. No, not just a mere bedroom, why—a growth studio. Precious will have a fully dedicated growth studio! A place to succeed, to fail, to become an entitled member of the next generation, to work.
Ah, yes, work. The mere thought reminds him … he wants to take several months leave from work, to spend with little precious. (This story is presumably happening somewhere with reasonable we-just-had-a-baby policies.) But things in the office still need to get done! Oh, how to cope?
Delegation Can Be Hard
The answer seems obvious: Delegate! You know, just let everyone know what needs to be done and when. Then magically, it will all get done. There’s only one small fly in the ointment: the very word “delegation” gives him the night terrors. He’s scared he picked the wrong people. Or the wrong jobs. Or that the world will just grind to a screeching halt while he’s gone.
But delegation isn’t all-or-nothing. He can just add one small word before delegation: “Trial Delegation.” If you’re having trouble delegating, you can do trial delegation, as well.
Delegate Slowly
You don’t have to give everything to your peeps to do all at once. Start by delegating a little at a time. That lets you ease your fears gradually, and lets everyone around you ease into responsibility.
Schedule an extra-long weekend away in the Poconos, and give a few of your responsibilities to a few different folks in the office. You don’t even have to authorize people to take action. If you’re delegating writing a letter, have them do the writing, but require your sign-off before sending the letter. This gives you ample opportunity to help develop their skills while keeping yourself accountable and in-the-loop for producing quality work.
At the end of the long weekend, see how they did. If the company is still solvent, you’re golden. Increase your “I can trust my people” meter by one trust point.
If they had problems, or didn’t do the job to your satisfaction, sit down with them and identify where the problem was.
Smooth Organizational Sticking Points
If the problem is that they couldn’t navigate the organization to get things done, then find out why not. You may need to coach them to establish relationships within the company that they’ll need in order to get things done. Or if they found they lacked the authority needed to fulfill their new obligations, you need to figure out how to give them an organizational hall pass so they can wander the halls with impunity.
If the problem is that they just aren’t up to the task, then arrange now to get them training! Then by the time you really need to delegate, they’ll have the background they need.
Play Musical Candidates
You can trial delegate to multiple people. Heck, delegate the same task to several different people in succession. Find out who does the best job. Have them compare notes and train each other. This allows a trial delegation to help people discover the kind of tasks they enjoy and do well.
You’ll learn who’s the right person for the job, without the challenge of a high-stakes failure on the line. Strategizing ahead using Trial Delegation can save a lot of future fuss and make you look good in the process.
Try framing the delegation as a positive job development opportunity for everyone involved.
Respect Organizational Levels
If you have minions, trial delegation is easy. After all, it’s part of your job to help them grow and develop. If you need to persuade peers to take on your work for you, it’s trickier.
Try framing the delegation as a positive job development opportunity for everyone involved. Get them eager to take on all your responsibilities in addition to theirs. It worked for Tom Sawyer whitewashing a fence, so maybe it can work for you, too.
Heck, even I, your humble podcaster, Stever Robbins, the Get-It-Done Guy, delegated the writing of this very episode to a large number of tiny mice typing very cutely on even smaller and even cuter keyboards. It’s worked great, with only a few Shakespearean sonnets to wade through before hitting upon this gem of a podcast script!
This Works at Home, Too
Trial delegation isn’t just for work. Heck, soon enough you’ll need to hire neighborhood kids to babysit little precious so you can zip out and catch the opening of the latest new Star Wars movie. So start training them now!
Have your potential babysitter watch the kids at home while you’re there too. You can see how they do in real time. You’ll know if bedtime will find precious sleeping tight in the growth studio, all cozy-covered in warm blankets, or be found screaming and from nose to knees in a mysterious gooey fluid that tastes suspiciously like maple syrup. (We won’t ask how you found out what it tasted like.)
There will be times in your career when things must keep running smoothly while you spend a month overseas negotiating a foreign supplier, or taking that well-earned half-year sabbatical, or welcoming little precious into their personal growth studio. Start preparing now with trial delegation. Delegate while you’re still around, or take mini-trips and see what falls apart in your absence. Then you know what to fix. Fix it, and pretty soon, you’ll be able to leave for months at a time, not be missed, and still take credit for the success of the entire company. That’s called “being a good manager.” It doesn’t suck.
I’m Stever Robbins. I run webinars and other programs to help people be Extraordinarily Productive, and build extraordinary careers. If you want to know more, visit SteverRobbins.com.
Work Less, Do More, and Have a Great Life!
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.
