How to delegate successfully?

I learned to delegate because I grew tired of long hours, stress, and negative impacts on my team. Exactly. Themoment I realized the impacts on myself, and the impacts on others, I started to transform my behaviors to have more fun, results and time!

It’s been quite a journey. Do you know how to transform your behaviour? Through practice and by sharing our learnings with others. Then, inevitably, mistakes occur and a certain humility is created.

And you know what? Despite a few mistakes, I’m still alive (sarcasm), I’ve achieved ambitious business goals in my professional career as a leader, and even… I’m in my 4th year in business!

Mistakes, because they generate learning, are the fastest path to success.

Beyond the risks, it’s always good to remember the benefits of delegating:

To be able to carry out a task that makes the most of our deep contribution;
Reduce your stress;
Work less;
Increase your energy;
Advancing Your Career / Getting a Promotion (with more time… you will be able to develop your leadership, political acumen and strategic skills!)

I like simple and pragmatic methods, which is why I offer you two keys to delegating well: clarity and trust.

1- A relationship of trust to delegate

It will be better/faster/more efficient/etc. if I’m the one who does it!

Currently, who would you trust to delegate? If your answer is: few or no collaborators, then hurry up and read on!

Food for thought if you have little or no confidence in the abilities of your employees and colleagues:

What do you need to trust your employees?
What skills are you looking for in your employees and colleagues?
What skills would they benefit from developing? How can they acquire them?
What are your employees and colleagues doing well?

If you had confidence in the abilities of the people around you, how would that change your perspective on delegation?

An exercise:

Answer the following questions.

What are you depriving yourself of by not delegating?
What are the advantages for you of delegating?
What do you have to lose by delegating?
Where is your contribution most useful?
Name two qualities/strengths for each of the people around you and indicate how these people can help you.

2- Clarity to delegate

Here’s a bit of a “how”: define the deliverables, tasks, modalities and everything else your collaborator or colleague needs (nuance with what you think he or she needs!).

A- Define the what (tasks, projects, etc.)

You have just thought about your value, the greatest contribution of your talents in the organization. List your activities and now decide: what tasks will you delegate?

Define the “what” by prioritizing the value of your contribution.

Common Mistake: Delegate the least inspiring tasks… Find the right balance between pleasant and interesting tasks and those that are not, because an employee performs better when they are happy and motivated!

Another common mistake: Delegating an entire project without any real support planned with the person. Yes, mistakes allow you to learn, and stay logical!

Key to success: Start by delegating small tasks and offering support.

B- Define the deliverables:

What level of detail do you expect? Can you provide an example?
Communicate important dates: milestones, different delivery dates, the date you will present everything to management, the final date, etc. ALL the important dates, as you go.

Ask the person what they have understood.

The nuance between the following two questions is not trivial: Did you understand? or What did you understand?

I invite you to make intermediate validations. Don’t wait for important milestones, don’t leave your employees without support. Especially for the first few times you delegate to a particular person. This will allow you to track the progress of the task and have a rough outline of the results.

C- Define the follow-up:

Find the right balance between control and autonomy. You don’t want to become a micro manager. At the same time, acting too detached will not make you feel more confident.

What structure can you put in place to be confident and demonstrate your confidence?

Some inspirations for your follow-up:

Defining everything together
- Think about your ideal type of follow-up and frequency.
- Ask the employee(s) and/or colleague(s) what would be appropriate in terms of frequency and type of follow-up.
- To reach a common understanding.
Establish an effective structure
- Create iterations:
  - an iteration has one or more deliverables;
  - An iteration is short (1 to 4 weeks depending on the duration of the project).
- Validate
  - With each iteration, ask yourself what went well, what didn’t go well, and what you need to be better next time!

Following up on concrete deliverables helps manage risk! See the result and adjust.

In conclusion

Successfully delegating requires a relationship of trust and clear expectations. I hope you are inspired and in action on this topic, which we will talk about soon!

Practice delegating! Don’t wait for a crisis to occur… You will be all the more zen in important moments.

Start delegating tasks that you understand well and for which you can clearly express your expectations.