How to delegate like a (good) boss

Delegation challenges have been a hot topic in my client coaching conversations lately. And I get it — delegation is hard for many of us, myself included.

In this week's Two-Minute Tip, I'll walk you through a personal story about my own delegation struggles to bring two common pitfalls to life. You'll walk away with practical insights and tips you can apply immediately to master the art of delegation.

• Read the video transcript

  So, delegation skills have come up two times in the last two days in coaching conversations which tells me it's a hot topic.

  It is a challenging skill for many of us, for a number of reasons.

  And let's dive into a couple of those reasons through a story, and we'll go personal, because personal stories are always more fun and entertaining than work stories, right?

  So, one area where I struggle to delegate well in our home is the dishes. And not that my job is to delegate here. That's not the picture that I'm trying to give, right? But it'll still illustrate what I'm trying to say.

  So, first of all, when my family loads the dishwasher, I am one of those people who goes and rearranges the way that they have loaded it. And I think I get this from my father, kind of an embarrassing confession, right? But I look at it and I'm thinking, this is not effective at all. We could fit so much more in here and make sure the dishes get cleaned well if we rearrange. So I go in and rearrange and it drives them crazy, rightfully so.

  The other thing is, if I ask my husband to do the dishes, in my mind, I want them done right then, right? And in his mind, and usually this is, you know, evening time in his mind he's thinking, well, I'll just keep spending time with the family and I'll do them after everybody goes to bed because he stays up later anyhow.

  And I don't like that, right? Instead, then I end up passive aggressively going and just doing the dishes right then because he's not doing them right then.

  And we had a conversation, this was a while back, because he said, like, what is the difference? I am going to do them tonight. You'll wake up in the morning, the dishes will be unloaded, the dirty ones loaded, the other ones washed. It really doesn't matter, just a couple hours difference, right? You need to let it go.

  And so, this is what happens with delegation at work though. One, we set unnecessary expectations. Perhaps the bar you have for yourself is not the necessary bar that's needed in something you're delegating. And so, I would first ask you before delegating something to think about what is the minimum necessary desired result here? And let's align with the other person on that end result needed. Not what bar would you set for yourself, but what do we actually need here?

  And then two, when they are performing the delegated task, don't step in. Don't go passive aggressively start to go do the dishes. Don't take over. You need to step back and provide space. And as long as they deliver on time in terms of what you agreed upon at the beginning and they meet the expectations around quality in what's delivered, then it really doesn't matter how and when they got there. You've gotta step back and let them do it their own way and then just make sure the agreed upon result is achieved.

  So, if you struggle with the same thing, I hope that this example helps. It's a skill that I'm constantly trying to work on as well because it really is challenging. But in the end, strong delegation, A- it frees you up more, lightens your load. And B- it gives your employees, your team members an opportunity to take on more responsibility and to approach it and tackle it in a way that feels meaningful to them. And maybe, just maybe they will approach it in a way that's actually even better than you would've done or at least different bring some more creativity to the team.

  All right, there's your Two-Minute Tip today.