How to Create High Impact Leadership
Who gets further, those who delegate or those who don’t? Delegate or die. Delegate or stagnate.
If your plate is full and you can’t delegate, look around,
you’ve reached your highest potential.
Delegating is the path to exponential impact, seizing opportunities, flattening organizations, and leadership development.
Why do so many find delegating so difficult?
- They have more skill than others.
- Losing control frightens.
- Needing the limelight.
- Lack of time.
- Lack of trust.
- Tried and failed.
- Ignorance; they don’t know how.
- Discomfort with being held accountable for the work of others.
Delegating as development:
Delegating is more than getting something off your place; it’s the path to developing leaders.
If you don’t delegate they don’t grow.
Delegating authority moves people from theory to practice. People learn best when the rubber hits the road, when decisions matter.
Listeners think they know; doers learn they don’t. Real life bursts the bubble of perceived knowledge and opens the door to real learning.
Effective delegation lifts people from followers to leaders.
“Delegating tasks creates followers.
Delegating authority creates leaders.”
Craig Groeschel at The Global Leadership Summit.
How much is too much:
“Delegate almost to the point of abdication.”
Warren Buffet.
The less control you exert the greater engagement you inspire. Are you ultimately responsible? Absolutely. It takes courage, preparation, and planning to use delegation as a development tool.
High potential projects are high growth opportunities. Doing things where failure matters strengthens people.
Bonus tip:
Delegating requires sharing information. Information is power. Sharing information empowers.
How can leaders delegate effectively?
What delegating mistakes should leaders avoid?
Dan-
I think leaders delegate effectively when they share knowledge, give away increasing responsibilities, and the make the time to debrief. As we give increasing responsibilities to people, some things will work well for them, while others do not.
As we model the behavior we wish to see, and share important information with them, they will grow and so will we. The debriefing sessions bring their experiences back to the sharing table, but it will also bring their perceptions of how/ why things did/ did not work, and likely add new insights and ideas on how to make improvements which will be beneficial to everyone.
Dear Dan,
Delegation has great potential to create leaders. There are two things happen in delegating- delegating responsibility or delegating accountability. When leaders delegate responsibility, they create confidence in others. But when they delegate accountability, perhaps they instil fear in others. But when leaders delegate responsibility and take accountability, it really create leaders. But this process should not be continuous. This is basis step and should be followed by delegating accountability as well. However,delegating accountability should not be absolute one. In case, leaders need to take stand, they should stand up and back up the decision made by others.
Leaders should create trust in the process. But blindly believing someone could be fallacy. So, leaders should temper the person trust from time to time . It makes effective leaders.
Great post Dan.
Your wrote:
‘Delegating authority moves people from theory to practice.’
That’s worth the price of admission right there. 🙂
A few weeks back in one of the twitter chats, one of my answers addressed this very thing. I said something along the lines of, ‘Theory is often very different from true experience.’
At the time, I was recalling all the ‘theory’ I learned in textbooks in nursing school BEFORE we began our studies with actual patients. And then years later. When my husband passed away. I had to study death, dying, and the grieving process in school. I’ve even had some patients who were dying. Witnessed the grief of family members when they did die.
When my husband died, all that ‘theory’ I learned is no longer theory. I have first hand experience. Now all that head knowledge on that subject is a ‘knowing’ in the heart and soul because I’ve now lived it.
Thanks for writing another great post.
One way that has helped me delegate better is to write instructions down and then go over them verbally. This way the person has something to fall back on if they begin the project and are unsure of what is next.
Mistakes, not allowing others to help you does stagnate their growth and excitement about their job.
“Real life bursts the bubble of perceived knowledge and opens the door to real learning.” Love it!
Your post reminded me of a piece of advice a leader from my past shared with me. I was young and felt that I had to do everything myself in order to prove my worth. She gently informed me that when I held everything close, I lost opportunities to learn from others, I created walls and missed opportunities to build new relationships, and I didn’t have the time or energy to focus on next steps.
Learning how to delegate effectively and then actually doing it is hard, but so beneficial.
Nice post, Dan.
Here are my two cents. I think that delegation starts with analysis: choosing the tasks that the manager could, and should, delegate. These tasks need to be clearly defined. This will help to appoint the right delegate and provide an accurate and succinct brief.
Whatever the role, proper briefing is essential. People cannot be held responsible for vague or undefined tasks.
wow – I know exactly what you mean and I have firsthand fresh evidence how wonderful this habit of delegating is. It is true also that it comes back – tenfold to you!!!
Please let me share this story 🙂
For five years I delegated, gave due praise and criticism. I was very careful to tell what was done excellent. If something was not good enough I said what was wrong and shared the underlying prinsipp that ruling the matter. I left the solving of the matter to them. They were the experts. So after three years I could tell them that their labor had given a great reward in terms of expanded authorizations. Meanwhile they and I saw how things got smoother and was done with much integrity. It was lovely to see this! I think I can say that we all grew.
Futhermore I came back to me – suddenly – I was given a big raise, a wonderful new opportunity and large authorizations myself. That was SYNERGY for you!!!
Yes, delegating is powerful and it works …. wonders!
Nice. One person can’t do it all. It takes teamwork and delegation is just one part of being on the team. When everyone works together so much more can get accomplished. Plus, it help others be empowered to contribute to the team.
Never a better time for me to read this! I have always struggled in this area and I am doing it now. I realized this mistake this past week because I am overloaded and understaffed. I am fascinated with true leadership concepts and ideas yet I still find myself struggling at times because I don’t step back and observe myself and what I am really doing. Self reflection is absolutely imperative at this point in my career and it is time to practice what I know to be the right thing to do. Thanks for the wake up!
Thanks for this powerful article!
So true. I love my boss. The is very good at delegating and it does empower you. Thanks.
The man who I consider my mentor told me over 30 years ago, “If you truly have your company’s best interests in mind, you never want to make yourself indispensable.” It was his way of emphasizing the value of delegating and how one person cannot successfully do everything without becoming a huge bottleneck.
Delegation is one of the main areas that could do with a boost in our HEART Arts programme! Already I feel better equipped to manage my team through thoughtful delegation.
Great article. The problem I have experienced is that my bosses have delegated because they could not do the job. I have an expectation that the boss should be able to do the job. This has happened more than once. I don’t mind doing the job as it adds value to the team, but when they delegate because they are not capable of doing the job and pretend they can do the job I see them as frauds. Any comments or ideas on the way I see it?
Reblogged this on Freddy G's Review and commented:
Delegate is one of the most important challenges of a leader. It is being accountable for the growth of others.