It is always good to get positive feedback from people (and important to give it, too), so I was really pleased when someone said that some advice I had given her was the most effective she had ever received. The advice was on how to delegate. She was a specialist who had taken on an important management job, involving several workstreams, frequent unexpected and complicated additional tasks, and a team of people of varying experience.
When I first met her she felt she was having too many problems, had too much work to do, and not getting enough from her team. A few questions showed that she was doing work that others could do for her, that she was not expecting enough from her people, and that she was spending too much time reacting rather than controlling.
She wanted to delegate, but had found that it took longer to explain than to do it herself, and she had to spend too much time ensuring tasks were done and then allocating and defining the next.
I suggested that the key to her problem was that she was delegating details. one after the other. By concentrating on specifics of how to do something step by step, rather than allocating a specific outcome and leaving the person to work out the steps for themselves, she was taking far too much of her time, and the other person's.
The secret to effective delegation is to accept that someone else may not do something the way you do, and may take a bit longer the first time, but that is still better that you doing it, or micromanaging the other person to ensure they do it your way. The way it is done is usually far less important than getting it done. But delegating outcomes still has to be done properly to work.
Here are my views on the key factors:
Delegate outcome, not tasks: ask someone to organise a meeting of sales managers, off site, one day, rather than a succession of tasks allocated one after the other, such as find a venue for a meeting of 30 people near the office for a day, and then check diaries, and then contact all the sales managers, and then set up speakers etc etc. You don't want the tasks done for themselves, you want a sales conference set up.
For this to work, you should provide a clear, succinct brief. Unless you are setting up a relatively big project, one page is usually enough. Writing it down is not essential, but helps to clarify your own understanding of what you want, as well as being helpful to the person you are delegating to. It should state the desired outcome, the important factors that apply, the timescale and the budget available, for example, an expanded version of this:
Arrange Sales Managers Meeting in May, on a Friday, all day, off site
Conference room with projectors, white boards and usual high level stuff. 30 attendees.
Subject: new sales and marketing campaign – coordinate with marketing department and sales director
Budget for event £50k. Use secretarial support from team.
Give me weekly report: one page: Achieved this week, planned for next week, problems and issues.
Seek advice where helpful. Inform me of issues that need my help. Complete arrangements within six weeks.
This approach should ensure that both parties understand what they are trying to achieve, and the general terms of reference.
As a manager you should bear in mind two overriding points. Firstly you may make someone else accountable for something, but you can not delegate your own accountability: you are still accountable for the outcome even if you did not do the work. Secondly, you are responsible for ensuring the person can do the work: it is your job to remove barriers, enable them by giving them the right resources and authority, and encourage them to develop new skills. One idea is to include in the brief the fact that the person should also produce a checklist and short guide for the next time something like that has to be done, whether they do it or someone else does.
Future pieces on this blog will explore some of the issues here in more detail.
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