If you want a job well done, don't do it yourself!

When delegating doesn’t work

For some people delegation is so unnatural and counter-intuitive that they really can’t get past the old mothers’ wisdom that “if you want a job done well you should do it yourself”.  And then when they try to delegate and it fails it only serves to reinforce their belief that they were right all along. 

But delegation fails, not because it is inherently inferior, but because of how it has been carried out.  Delegation fails when . . .

1.    Responsibility is delegated without  authority

One of the most frustrating and disempowering experiences your team members can have is to be given a task but not the authority to carry it out. 

I recently heard of a manager that was appointed to “clean-up” a certain organisation that had become inefficient and ineffective.  It was experiencing poor team morale, sales were down, productivity was low, and staff turnover and absenteeism were through the roof. 

But, the new manager was given no authority to performance-manage any of the staff.  She was not allowed to intervene in the production side of the business, she was not given up-to-date business information, and she was not allowed to hire and fire.  In fact the only thing she could do was drive the marketing and sales campaigns.  In a nutshell, she was not given the authority she needed to do the job! 

Although she made impressive gains in the one area she had control over, marketing and sales, it was only a few months before she left the job in frustration. (And I just heard she is thinking of setting up her own rival company!  Wouldn’t you feel annoyed with yourself if you were the leader who had let that talent slip through your fingers?)

Whatever the job, large or small, it is important that the delegate is given all the authority she needs for doing the job.

2.    The leader doesn’t understand the capacity of the team member

Understanding the capacity of the person to do the task you are giving them is an important skill for a leader. 

The strengths and inclinations of your team member should be a guide to what you can delegate, how close you should monitor, and the quality of work you can expect. 

There is a balance to delegating tasks and responsibilities that are beyond the team member’s experience. 

On one hand, it’s good to occasionally delegate so that the experience is going to be a growth and development opportunity for your team member.  You have to understand that you won’t get perfection this time round, but you are building for the future. 

On the other hand, don’t give him a task that is so far away from his skills, gifts and preferences that he will be entirely out of his depth.  He will flounder and feel that he is inadequate and incapable.  It will be a blow to his confidence, and may prevent his future growth.

3.    The job was not properly communicated

We all come to each interaction with a set of pre-conditioned expectations, and if your’s are different to your team member’s the scene is set for a delegation failure. 

This is particularly true of (but not limited to) those who work in a cross-cultural environment. 

Recently, I asked a member of my team to provide an account name and number on a document.  When the document arrived on my desk it had the account name and number but no other information. 

I had assumed that it was implicit that all the other information would also be provided and that I was giving instruction on this limited aspect of the form (Western perspective).  My team member had acted on the implication that I wanted only what I had specifically asked for (Eastern perspective). 

Of course, this misunderstanding was minor and easily rectified, but for a major task or role fixing the problem is not always so easy. 

These kinds of errors are common and I have often heard managers blame the delegate without properly analysing what went wrong.  The way I try to minimise miscommunication errors is three-fold. 

a. Start with verbal explanation of the task / role, 

b. Follow-up with something in writing, which could be some dot-points on a scrap of paper or informal meeting notes, through to formal meeting minutes or a position description (depending on what is being communicated), 

c. During the life of the task / role, make sure that you check-in with the delegate frequently, especially in the early stages.

4.    The leader interferes in the delegated task

There is nothing more tempting than the urge to take over a task that we can see is being done slowly, poorly or ineffectively. 

But this is an absolute killer to the trust and loyalty of the team member who is doing the job.  And the chances are that she will not remain silent about this this kind of interference.  She may or may not talk to you about your interference, but you can be certain that she will tell the rest of the team.  It is a sure way of building resentment and distrust in your whole team. 

Resist the temptation to take over.  Offer help, offer guidance, provide feedback, but only when the situation is really, really, really desperate should you take over. 

5.    The leader “sets it and forgets it”

A hundred years ago (give or take), I trained for management for the hospitality industry.  In one particular practicum I was assigned to a hotel as a “night controller”.  The incumbent of this now out-dated position worked through the night to carry out manually the accounting tasks now carried out in seconds by the computer behind the reception desk.  When you checked out, for example, did it ever occur to you that someone had been awake all night making sure that your bill, along with those of the 500 other guests, was up-to-date?

What a complex and time-consuming task this was (albeit simple in concept).  Billing information had to be gathered from every phone record, bar, restaurant, kitchen, service and housekeeping department.  It had to be made sense of, and charged to the right customer, all before the first of them began to check out at 7.00am or earlier. 

Now, in this complex and highly time-critical environment, this rookie trainee was blessed with a “set it and forget it” manager.  Her mantra was “I already told you how to do that!”

Consequently, until I got up to speed, there were a lot of customers that didn’t get charged all they should have, and possibly one or two that were overcharged. 

Further, because she was also a real dragon lady, I was reluctant to ask her if I was in doubt about anything.  The financial cost to the company could have been considerable, and the cost in morale (therefore staff turnover and absenteeism) could have been very high.  But my manager had no regard for these things. She was more concerned about the personal inconvenience to herself. 

Except in the most ideal of circumstances, the “set it and forget it” approach never works!

6.    The leader delegates then passes the blame when things go wrong

Napoleon is attributed with the words, “There are no bad soldiers; only bad officers’, a statement that has influenced my leadership for many years. 

A leader who delegates well will monitor with the right level of involvement so that things are less likely to go wrong.  He will make sure that the team member has all the information, authority, materials and tools he needs to do the job. 

When things go wrong he will absorb the criticism levelled from outside of the team, while appropriately and discretely apportioning it inside the team.  There is nothing more embarrassing that hearing a manager saying “It wasn’t my fault, it was XXX (name of a team member)”. 

When a manager says this to me, I know that he is really admitting that he failed to both properly manage his team member, and to take responsibility for his poor management.” 

If I was making a list of “Things that will engender distrust and disloyalty in the team as well as break down relationships with peer-level managers”, this would be near the top. 

Finally, a reminder . . .

In a previous post Why Tasks Don’t Stay Delegated I have presented a simple tool to help delegation decisions.   Take a look – you might find it helpful.