First-time manager tip: managing delegation
If you’re a new manager who is nervous at the prospects of delegating tasks to your new team, it’s completely understandable. Delegation is both one of the most essential and tricky parts of being a manager, but one that is particularly difficult at the start of people and team management.
Effective delegation can be derailed by mental narratives, too, such as perfectionism, imposter syndrome, or wanting everyone to like us, any of which can lead to management consequences ranging from low leader effectiveness/confidence, to overwork/burnout, to micromanagement.
Improve your ability to delegate with the following tips — and if these resonate with you, explore how leadership coaching can help you unlock your full potential as a new leader and manager.
Don’t just throw tasks over the fence
Before delegating a task, be sure to:
Document the process
Clarify and communicate clear expectations to your delegate
Define the metrics or criteria for what a successful delegation looks like
Also, try to discuss the task live, rather than via Slack or email, to allow your delegate to ask questions and fully learn what is being asked of them.
After delegating, schedule a check-in meeting
Set a meeting 2–4 weeks out in order to touch base and check in and see how things have been going. This locks in an opportunity for you and your delegate to reflect and make adjustments as-needed. This is a key management move that especially helps people who may not be comfortable to proactively raise issues, but who would if given a particular space to do so.
Expect mistakes/learning
Give people the space to learn the new task and be prepared yourself to expect mistakes as part of this learning process. While you know the task intimately well, your delegate likely does not, so empathize with them and have patience.
A manager does need to remain be open to the possible outcome of reassigning a task someone else if it absolutely doesn’t work out in the end, but before giving up or taking it away, try a retro with the person to gather feedback and try coaching them.
How to increase motivation before delegating
Spending too little time on explaining why, or skipping it entirely is a key mistake many managers make. Without discussing the why, peoples’ motivation decreases, and managing can become an exercise in “herding cats.”
Define why a task is being delegated before going into the what/how of the task. You can break the why down into a few components, too:
Why is this task important for the team? The company? Delegation is often about “me and my time” as a manger, but the bigger picture is often a more compelling why, vs saving you time.
Why is this person the best fit to own it?
Why is now the right time to delegate?
Do a quarterly delegation exercise
Once a quarter, map out:
Your delegate-able tasks
Your team’s strengths (use the DISC assessment or Ray Dalio’s “baseball cards” exercise) and their career development goals
Then, match tasks to people.
Delegate with your team, not only to them
Try sitting down with your team to figure out what to delegate, and to whom. This comes from executive coach, Muriel Wilkins from the podcast “Coaching Real Leaders” who adds:
“While some tasks you delegate may be not the best use of time for you, they may be developmental growth opportunities for your team.”
Remember that it’s not only about delegation
Oftentimes, your real goal in delegation is to free up more of your time for other tasks that are more important uses of your time.
Other tools of freeing up your time include:
Saying no
Changing, compromising or negotiating tasks
Adjusting your expectations of self and others. The reality is that not everything needs to be done to the same bar of standard, and ignoring this fact imperils your ability to do your job and do the things well, which truly do need that high bar of standard.
That’s all for today! Stay tuned to The Musing Mind for more new manager and leadership tips and sign up for newsletter to get more career advice and inspiration delivered regularly.