Leaders might err in one of two directions. Some cannot let go of things they have done for years. Others hand off assignments prematurely to a team member who is not ready or able to take on the new assignment. Both are mistakes, but which is worse?
Not letting go. Three bad habits contribute to hanging on to too much too long:
Bad Habit #1: “I stay in the weeds because I can do things faster and better than anyone else on my team.”
Bad Habit #2: “I stay in the weeds because I don’t have the time needed to get someone else up to speed to take over a few of my responsibilities.”
Bad Habit #3: “I stay in the weeds because our current growth projections create daily urgencies and organizational stressors. It means I have to take assignments back from the team and do them myself in order to meet customers’ expectations and keep their business.”
Handing Off and Letting Go
Delegation avoids both mistakes of hanging on or randomly giving away current responsibilities. Done effectively, delegation is the leader’s initiative to give a team member full responsibility and full authority to take on that new role or an added assignment.
Handing off is the decision to give the responsibility for a specific assignment to one of your direct reports.
Letting go completes the delegation process by also giving that team member the authority to make final decisions and commit organizational resources needed to fulfill that responsibility.
Four leadership styles represent the best and the worst of this too often neglected leadership competency.
Which style honestly describes your default leadership approach to balancing tactical leadership with the strategic leadership your role demands? Do the operational weeds too often take precedence over strategy and keep you from delegating many of those tactical responsibilities?
Recapturing Limited Time
Developmental delegation is a time saver by equipping direct reports to take on new assignments that stretch their work capacity and fulfill the organization’s commitment to their professional development. Four phases are necessary to delegate full responsibility and full authority.
Each phase is essential to handing off and letting go. Yes, time is limited, but there is a way to protect more of it. When you do, then you have a choice: What to do with that extra time not previously available.
The 80-20 Leader
When you consistently go 100 miles an hour in 12 directions, It is hard to prioritize the strategic work that you should be doing versus the tactical work your team should be doing more of than you. Three rules of the road guide your use of recaptured time to accomplish the most important leadership assignments:
Do it. This implies focus and execution of the highest priorities among all the things you could be doing as an executive leader.
Delegate it. This includes all the operational tactics your team should be doing.
Delete it. This addresses the distracting work that is often someone’s urgent idea that always interrupts the most important. Maybe it doesn’t deserve anyone’s attention at this point in time?
Where you focus time and attention determines what you accomplish. Identify the 20 percent of tasks that yield 80 percent of the desired results. Effective and efficient leaders spend 80 percent of their time on the top 20 percent of their priorities. Your 20 percent is often the difference between the urgent and the important.
Appearing busy might impress others, but it does not result in progress toward your highest priorities. Procrastination is the other enemy of strategy. 80/20 Leaders give their best working hours to the 20 percent. It’s all about the prioritization of the time you save by delegating some of the 80 percent.
- Start by admitting your excuses that justify working below your pay grade.
- Identify the first thing that you keep doing but could be handed off to others.
- Invest in the short-term development of a high potential team member in order to get the long-term benefit of leading at the highest levels of organizational complexity.
The Sum of It All
Strategic leadership is seeing around the corner what others do not yet see. If you can recover one hour per week when you successfully delegate, it adds up to 48 hours in a typical year of work. That is six full eight-hour days to prioritize your daily work.
Schedule a Strategic Thinking Day every other month and go offsite to avoid expected interruptions. Gather the most relevant data ahead of time. What is the current reality of your industry, product or service, competition, employee engagement, technology, and your three major financial statements: balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. Analysis always finds a story in the numbers. Synthesis is your critical thinking conclusion of what is needed to move you from your current story to where your team, department or organization needs to be in 12, 18 or 30 months.
The Triple Crown
Delegation is a win, win, win approach to leading. It touches the leader, the team and the entire organization.
The leader wins by recovering limited time to shift their work balance from less operational leadership to more strategic leadership.
The team member wins when they are trusted with a stretch assignment that contributes to their professional development, enabling them to lead at higher levels of organizational responsibility.
The organization wins by maximizing its productive potential when everyone works to their highest potential.
The Invitation
Leaders will never have enough time to do everything they are capable of. You’ll never find time, but you can make time for the 20 percent when you get out of the weeds. What are you willing to hand off? Are you able to let it go? Which team member is ready for a new stretch assignment? Invite them into the four phases of developmental delegation. How long will you procrastinate handing off your first task? Why not let go of one thing today?
