You would think delegate was a four letter word. Suggest to someone they should try to delegate a task and they look at you like you’ve just called them incompetent. As I work with management teams I’m finding that delegation is one of the least understood and most underused management tools.
To delegate is to assign a task to someone that presumably you could do yourself. Easy to say hard to do. For lots of reasons, said and unsaid. One of the most common stated reasons is: “It will take me longer to delegate the task than to do it myself.” This is a very tactical position to take. It may take longer the first, and even the second, but the third through nth occurrence it will probably save time. Not to mention the positive benefits of training and engaging an employee.
One of the most common unstated reasons is the fear of becoming obsolete. We appear to be in an age of almost constant turnover (voluntary and involuntary) in the ranks of management. Unfortunately this has led to a perception by subordinates, peers, and senior management that if you as a manager are not mucking around in the details then you must not be adding value.
If everyone has their head, arms, and legs in the muck, who is going to make sure that all the oars are pulling together? Who is looking out for that next change in wind direction? There appears to be a direct relationship between the amount of delegation and the amount of strategic planning that occurs within an organization. Management teams looking for a leading indicator on top and bottom line performance may just need to measure the amount of delegation taking place within their organization.
Comments