Delegation - why?

Delegating is an essential component of great leadership, effective time management and high performance. This is not a new idea. So what is it that stops us from delegating well and often?

The glorification of ‘busy’. The proliferation of the idea that busyness equates to success and status has many pitfalls, for us as individuals and the organisations we work with. By keeping ourselves busy we might think that we are valued and important, however this misguided belief is more limiting than liberating. 

Time poor. While we are keeping ourselves busy we don’t always make the space to reorganise, prioritise and plan our time more effectively. Delegating may seem like a good solution to sharing the workload, yet often our immediate response is “But it will take too long to train someone else to do this!” We think that it’s easier and faster to do it ourselves. 

Trust. We can feel that we must relinquish all control when we delegate, and don’t always trust that anyone else will do as good a job. Or perhaps we worry that they will produce better work, and this will reflect poorly on us. It can be challenging to allow ourselves to be vulnerable in this regard, and too often our ego gets in the way.

In truth, there are many benefits to delegating effectively. It is as much an element of strategic leadership as it is time management and work allocation. By freeing ourselves up from operational tasks and projects allows room to focus on the bigger picture, provide development opportunities for team members, and possibly even gain new insights or innovative ideas.

Delegating well is not simply a matter of offloading unwanted work onto subordinates, while keeping interesting projects for ourselves. The best delegation is approached from a coaching mindset whereby we leverage team members’ strengths, encourage learning and support their growth.

There would be few people unfamiliar with the old Chinese proverb: 

Give a man to fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

In the same vein, delegation offers team members empowerment. True leadership is not just about managing others, but also supporting them to achieve personal and organisational greatness. Learning the art of delegating is an important element in realising this skill.