By Mike Hoban
Delegation. Granted, it’s not as sexy or as au courant or as seemingly transformational as other leadership competencies such as vision creation or organizational talent building. In fact, the name itself sounds a bit stodgy and shop-worn, compared to its cousin “empowerment.” When’s the last time you saw a CEO’s picture on the cover of Fortune magazine proclaiming him or her to be best-of-breed delegator? Me neither.
But it’s a foundational skill for leaders and I find in my executive coaching work that it’s a competency many leaders struggle with. That leadership philosopher, Tommy Lasorda, who just happened to make a living coaching in major league baseball, said it so very well: “I believe managing is like holding a dove in your hand. If you hold it too tightly, you kill it; but if you hold it too loosely, you lose it.” Drucker or Deming never said it so compellingly or so succinctly.
Not delegating well can be a barrier to a leader’s – and the organization’s - success. Decisions get bogged down; staff doesn’t get developed; managers put too much focus on what Juran called the “trivial many” instead of the “vital few;” managers get burned out working too many hours trying to handle everything themselves. Being a poor delegator can also overshadow and contaminate even a good leader’s reputation (“Micromanager!”).
Let’s get specific about what this thing called delegation is. Effective delegation is about defining the “what” but allowing others to have a substantial hand in defining the “how” within established constraints. That is, the manager needs to define what the outcome is, what the “specs” are (cost, timing, quality, satisfaction, etc.) and where the chalk lines are drawn on the field for discretionary and independent action on the part of the delagatee. Technically, that’s called “defining latitude.” When a manager defines both the whats and the hows it’s not delegation – it’s simply a task assignment.
At the same time, Lasorda also said holding the dove too loosely is also a bad thing. Just providing the “whats” to someone and giving him/her absolute freedom for getting it done without any guidance is not delegation. That’s called abdication and is akin to throwing the non-swimmer into the deep end of the pool.
Seems simple enough, so what’s the deal with not being able to do it effectively? Well, let me count the ways…
Some managers:
- Are unwilling to let go of tasks or activities they like to do and which got them promoted over the years;
- Have a perfectionist type of personality and find it difficult to not do things themselves because ONLY THEY can accomplish it with the excellence that they think is needed;
- Need to always be in control and find relinquishing even the “hows” to be an unnatural act;
- Take on too may things because they believe their own staff is already overworked and they don’t want to further overwhelm them.
In most cases, the above tendencies are “fixable,” assuming the individual has self-awareness and has made the decision that the cost of the fix is less than the cost of continuing down the delegation-free zone. The perfectionist personality is probably the most challenging because those people’s “wiring” contributes to and often drives the behavior.
One final point. Delegation is not about letting go of the appropriate attention to detail. It’s about finding the right balance. Steve Jobs is considered by many to be a spectacular CEO and he has steered Apple to great success in the last 10 years. Yet, Jobs is notoriously hands-on when it comes to product and functional design and he gets very personally involved in many of the decisions about product style, look-and-feel, color, etc.—things you’d expect a CEO to delegate to others. But he also focuses on the big picture – the strategy, cultural caretaking, talent management, alliances, board relationships, etc., and in fact considers his obsession with the product details to be part of his strategic focus.
Come to think of it, this delegation stuff is pretty sexy and transformational after all…
Mike Hoban is a senior consultant for Development Dimensions International (DDI).
Great succinct message, Mike. My experience is that the "some managers" behaviors you highlighted are quite common for a myriad of reasons. Perhaps we drop the word "delegation" and its pesky connotations and craft a new word for engaging a team member in the execution of a task incorporating clear "whats" and boundaries for the work space of the "hows". Instead of thinking in terms of "delegating down" we could create growth UP. I suspect the results would be amazing.
Posted by: Sue Melone | 09/01/2010 at 01:19 PM