Delegation: a tool to develop the skills of others
Every single interaction with a team member is an opportunity for that person’s growth and their supervisor’s freedom.
Each time you interact with an employee if, instead of answering questions, you ask questions, then you are continually developing them.
Example:
Employee: I’m not sure how you want me to set up this report you requested.
You: What are your ideas for setting it up?
This type of interaction accomplishes three things:
- You get a glimpse into how that employee thinks about work.
- You hear his/her solutions (and one of them may be better than yours!)
- Since s/he was involved in the planning, you gain “buy in.”
This is called the Socratic Delegation Process and results in direct employee development (we used to call it “hands on development” but that term is problematic these days).
For the Socratic Delegation Process template, click here.
Most direct supervisors act as “answer machines” when it comes to interacting with their direct reports. The trap here is that you then become indispensable–and it is a trap.
If your department cannot function without your presence then you can kiss any potential promotion goodbye. Taking you out of the department would be too risky for the overall business or organization.
More importantly, you end up with a team that is “phoning it in” because they’re not engaged–they think that’s your job.
Good Delegation = Greater Productivity
Years ago I came across an amazing piece of data from the Productivity Management Institute:
1 hour of uninterrupted work time = 7 hours of interrupted work.
And you know what? The data hasn’t improved. In this world of constant communication via text, emails, phone calls and “drop in” visitors, it has become increasingly difficult to concentrate.
What does this have to do with effective delegation?
When details are not delegated clearly at the front end of a task or project, then the person or team working on it has to interrupt their concentration to seek out clarification. Therefore, a task or project that might take only an hour of uninterrupted effort could easily turn into a seven-hour job. It doesn’t take an efficiency expert to understand the impact on productivity and the cost in terms of labor, money and stress.
The question I want you to continually ponder is:
Why is it we don’t have time to plan in detail at the beginning but we ALWAYS have time to fix things when they’re done incorrectly?
(Adding more unproductive time to the equation.)
Whenever I mention the name of my workshop, How to Get Others to WILLINGLY Do What Needs to Be Done, I inevitably hear, “Wow. I need that!” or, “My team could sure use that!” If either of these matches your reaction, then give me a call today. Allow me to come in and work with the leaders in your organization to improve productivity by teaching them how to delegate skillfully.
What could you do with the time gained?
Keeping Your Top Talent from Walking Out the Door
You worked so hard to attract this talent. What are you doing to keep them?
How many millions of dollars have been spent by organizations trying to retain the best of the best? Is it working in your company? While benefits and perks go a long way to keeping you competitive, in the end retention almost always boils down to employee engagement and that ALWAYS boils down to the individual’s immediate supervisor. I prefer the word “leader” to “supervisor” or “manager” but calling someone a leader doesn’t mean that she fills those shoes.
There have been entire books written about retention. I myself have devoted many blogs and live programs to the critically important roles that both good delegation and solid feedback play in keeping employees engaged and wanting to stay.
Today I want to focus on one important aspect of keeping your top talent from walking out the door.
You may consider it to be: Management Heresy
I call it the 80/20 Rule of Good Leadership.
If you want to retain your top talent you must demonstrate to your team that performance counts. To accomplish this, it is imperative that you devote 80% of your leadership time to your top performers and only 20% to those who aren’t making the grade.
It’s counter-intuitive, isn’t it?
Not when you consider that you cannot teach someone something he doesn’t want to learn. Your low performers have undoubtedly been given many opportunities to improve. Maybe you have mentored them, sent them to classes and/or spent time putting them on performance improvement plans. All of that is required to give them the best opportunity to deliver the outcomes you need.
If, however, they are taking up the bulk of your attention at the expense of time spent with your top performers, it’s a recipe for trouble.
Your top performers have a much more significant impact on productivity levels
You would think that getting low performers to increase their results would improve productivity and the bottom line and it will—a little. Conversely, getting your top performers to increase their results will improve the bottom line—a lot!
Your top performers don’t need attention to do their jobs; you can almost always depend on them to get the job done under and any all circumstances. However, If you continually demonstrate that the way to get attention in your organization is to be a low performer, they are much more likely to walk out the door.
Existing jobs cannot compete with the allure of new promises from other companies unless your employees feel appreciated for the talent, skill and knowledge they bring to the table each day.