Mastering the Art of Delegation

Welcome back to the Morning Blend. Are you someone who easily delegates work like our boss, Greg? It is an important skill for a leader to have, but our next guest says it goes beyond assigning tasks.

Beth Ridley is back and she is a leadership and a workplace culture consultant. And today's topic is delegating. If you haven't figured that out, good to see you.

I feel like Greg should be on the couch here.

I know.

I want to learn from him next time, right?

Yes, yes, yes. So delegating, tell us a little bit about it. What are the benefits and why should people choose to delegate, especially if they're a leader?

I think sometimes the word has a negative connotation because it kind of implies I've got work and I'm just going to pass it off onto somebody else so my life can be better. And it's sort of like the person receiving the work, you know, doesn't get all the benefits. But there are a lot of benefits to delegating if done well and strategically. So, yes, some of it is the person who's delegating, you do get to, you know, free up some capacity for other work. But if done well, the person receiving the work, it builds morale. It's skill building, relationship building. It can benefit the individual and the whole team.

To me, I used to think, oh, it's assigning somebody else a task, like you said. But now I also see it as a way of trusting your employees and the people who work for you, trusting them to do the job. And that's why I love your first tip about the do's and the don'ts. And you say, don't necessarily delegate the tasks. It's more about the outcome.

That's exactly right. So delegating tasks, it can feel really piecemeal and it can be a little degrading maybe, and also puts you in the position of kind of micromanaging like, okay, do this. Are you done with it? Okay, do this. The next thing, if you just sort of paint a picture of the outcome, you know, the long term success of what you want to achieve, and then be open to the individual owning it and deciding how they're going to achieve that outcome, they feel that you're entrusting them again, they feel a greater sense of ownership, which is really good for engagement and morale.

Yeah.

So another do or don't is delegating based on future potential, not just current needs.

What do you mean by that?

Yeah.

Okay.

So a lot of times if you've got something that you want to delegate, you're just thinking near term, like how do I get this off my plate to save time. And you might go to the person that has time, which is not always the best person.

Yeah.

And you might go to your go to people, the same people, someone who's always done this, you know that they're going to do a good job. That's a short term fix. Long term, if you want to build the capacity of the whole team, also think about someone who's maybe eager to learn something. They don't have the skill yet, but they want to learn. And investing in them in the short term builds the capacity.

Long term makes sense. Yeah, I like that. It does deepen skills too, doesn't it? It broadens a bench because sometimes when someone takes on a task, they might have to involve other people on the team, for example, and learn something truly new by interacting with other people to try to get the job done to reach that outcome.

Yeah, it can be really good teamwork. And you mentioned broadening the bench, which is a really important thing. Again, don't go to the same people. That's kind of our tendency. Right. Because we're sort of comfortable with that. But that can signal favoritism, which doesn't feel good for other people on the team and also can lead to burnout. If one person is always getting asked to do the extra work.

Another one of your final do's or don'ts is taking time to teach. Do that, not just offloading. That's something I don't know that everybody always does.

Well, does Greg do that? Probably depends on the level of the task.

I don't know.

I should be careful because I may not be invited back. Greg, I'm sure. I think you have a meeting after this, but yeah, a lot of times they're like, oh, I'm going to delegate, I'm going to free up and it's going to free up my capacity. Well, the truth is, again, if you're thinking long term and strategically, you are going to invest time to coach, mentor, guide someone. So it's a different kind of time. But long term you gain, the other employee gains. But you gotta think long term, not just short term.

Yeah, you're gonna reap the benefits.

I think that's interesting. Cause when I think of delegating, I think of giving somebody a task that you yourself maybe aren't good at. So in that case you wouldn't necessarily be teaching them. They might be better at it.

Have it actually better. Yes.

So that's an interesting one.

Look at you. That's a good delegating tip. That's why I like coming on, because I learn things from you all as well.

I don't know if that's supposed to be a tip.

So. So what can leaders do right now to be better at delegating?

Okay, right now. So after the morning blend, of course, take a look at your calendar and like look at the tasks that are on your plate that honestly, it's not the best use of your time. And we all have things like that, things that we do, we have to do, but it's really not what we ultimately hired to do. The best use of our time. Look at those things and then think about the people around you, the members of your team. And again, think of their interests, their capacity, their willingness to learn. And, and then kind of think of who you could delegate. But then always have the conversation first. Actually have a conversation to make sure it's gonna be successful and a good fit as opposed to just assuming and then assigning.

Yeah, makes sense. I also think you could do this at home with your family. Cause I think a lot of moms in particular, maybe dad too, delegate more to your kids.

Absolutely. And it's a really good way for them to learn life skills too. Emptying the dishwasher and sometimes it actually takes more time. I got really frustrated cause I'm like, it looked like a clown loaded the dishwasher because glasses are up instead of down. But again it's like, instead of like do it myself, you call em down and then you show them and then next time. And I have successfully delegated so it actually gets done well.

Yeah, see, I like it.

You're not handicapping your kids. You're enabling them. You're enabling them better and more, you know, better adults.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you. Great topic.

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