Art of delegation to gain more time

The idea of delegation is not new for anyone who is in the role of leadership or running a business for quite some time. But still, I have seen in others as well as experienced myself, delegation doesn’t come naturally and it is not easy.

If we see “To Do” list of anyone, it is easy to notice many activities which can be done by others who are better at it or done by those who can do it at a much lesser cost. But we continue to hold on and lack the time to invest in valuable activities which we cherish.

3 mental barriers to delegation

So in spite of the benefits of the delegation, it seems quite difficult. It is not because, it is a big science or skill we need to master, but it is difficult from the point of the mental barriers we have towards delegating work.

I will give 3 important mental barriers which we need to overcome,

Time vs Value

This is the most important shift in our thinking required to delegate effectively. All through our life, we have been taught to manage time effectively. But managing time method falls flat when we are confronted with work items which are of different value.

For example in school & college days, we had 6 subjects and time table allocates an equal amount of time for each subject. That is fine because each subject carried 100 marks. This is a simple time management of allocating equal time to tasks.

This sort of time management we are used to even in professional life. During the initial part of the work, most of the tasks are defined and time is allocated equally.

But as we move to leadership roles, running a business, we start owning a diverse set of activities.

Here not all activities carry equal value like 100 marks in school subjects, but we allocate equal time to these. We need to learn to prioritize the activities and develop a habit to outsource, automate, delegate, eliminate the low-value activities.

Setting high standards

This is similar to perfectionism. You would have mastered a work or activity very well such as debugging code, creating presentations or doing accounting work. You expect from day 1 someone with similar quality of deliverable as you do and cannot tolerate substandard work. We will discuss later, how this can be overcome

Familiarity with work

Some of the work you are so familiar you feel to do by yourself instead of letting someone else do. Delegating involves defining the clear process along with helping initially for them to start producing results which you find too much overhead.

Not clear of how to delegate

This is an easier problem but the reason this exists because of the general nature of being in a hurry to get things done. Learning about delegation is not given importance among 10’s of other things we want to master.

How do we develop the habit of delegation

In the book “The Checklist Manifesto” Atul Gawande describes that there are 3 different kinds of problem exists. Complex, Complicated & Simple problems

Complex problems are like raising kids. Inspite of having an experience of raising the 1st kid, 2nd kid raising doesn’t become easy!. No recipe exists which we can rely on. But it is not impossible. We will raise kids, the only thing is it is complex.

Complicated problems are like launching new products!. There are many tools, techniques available, different expertise, skill sets required to get it done the first time. But ones the process is defined, it is possible to repeat the same and achieve similar success.

Simple problems are like baking a cake. There is a recipe exists and all that one needs to do is refer the same and practice thoroughly to gain mastery. You can repeat the success again and again.

Delegation is a simple problem, but we need to address this using clear techniques, by having a recipe for success.

But before understanding the recipe for the delegation, let us understand the benefits of delegation. This is important because unless you see value in the delegation, you won’t invest time to learn and make efforts to become good at it. 3 important benefits to consider are,

Delegating to get better work done: There is no way we can be good in all. There are others who are better than use and delegating to them improves the quality of work as well as gets delivered faster. This doesn’t apply in cases where you want to build expertise in that area example accounting, doing presentations, etc.
Delegating so you can focus on higher-value activities: This is quite important. More often than not, we end up doing work which can be actually done lesser experienced individuals. Now the result of not delegating these value works means, we are lowering our productivity.
Saves our energy and helps to focus: By taking up many things and keeping busy, can easily drain energy. Delegating helps us to free from many tasks and gives that free time and energy.

Art of Delegation

Now that we are clear of the mental barriers to the delegation as well as benefits of delegation, let us address the art of delegation and how to master it.

One of the best to way to tackle the simple problem as explained above is by developing a simple mindmap, recipe or checklist. Below picture gives a mindmap of delegation. All we need to focus on is 3 important steps as per this,

Step1: Identify the task to be delegated

What is actually the task and why you want to delegate? Based on the nature of the work, some of it can be a one-off activity frequent or ad-hoc. Knowing this helps to prioritize this delegation activity. The highest priority should be for activities which are of frequent in nature.

Along with defining the task, it is best to define the timelines.

Step2: Defining how-to of the delegation

The challenge with delegation is mostly due to the wrong expectation. The tendency to expect quick results from others on a task where we have mastered ourselves. Delegating to others requires defining a clear process, setting timelines, understanding the excellence required as well setting priority.

This is a challenge for most people as they lack patience. If tasks are of urgent nature, we lose hope quickly of the ability of others to deliver on time. Need to understand this and give time. On the other hand, many times it can happen when given the chance, the team member outperforms by delivering better.

“When you delegate work to a member of the team, your job is to clearly frame success and describe the objectives.”
– Steven Sinofsky, former Microsoft executive

Also, I have seen, many can accomplish the desired result — and improve the underlying process itself. In this case, both the manager and company benefit from that simple act of delegation.

Step3: Define the outcome of delegation

It is definitely great to empower others to take up tasks, but the level of control you want to delegate depends on the type of tasks and importance. So it is best to define clearly before delegating, what you expect. The best way is to consider all different possibilities such as,

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”
– Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft

Keep the decision to yourself, delegate only the task. (Ex: Send me 10 candidates resumes for interview)
Keep the final decision to yourself, but delegate the task along with recommending the best possible actions. (Send me the final proposal before sending to the customer)
Delegate the task as well as any decision and request to keep you in the loop (Example, Send the proposal to the customer and keep in the loop)
Delegate task, decision and request for only the final outcome. (Send proposal to the customer and update me next week on what happened)
Empower fully (Hire 3 resources so you can deliver the project the on time)

So here you go, the delegation which is the most important tool for any leader to get more done.

Would love to get some comments and what do you think, you will face challenges in delegation using the method shared?