Delegation Skills Training For Managers

Effective delegation is an important aspect of self-management, people management, and indeed outcome management too. The couple of things to really bear in mind in terms of delegation. First of all, delegation is entrusting someone or a group of people to deliver an outcome, however small, however large, however simple, however complex. It's you equipping, enabling, and encouraging them to deliver that outcome. Abdication is you've got a Teflon desk, nothing's going to stick. You don't want to do the task, you don't want to do the project. So you find someone conveniently to do it on your behalf. That's abdication. I don't recommend it. Please don't do it. On the other side of the coin, there is this point about you're not expected to do everything, even though sometimes it might feel like it, even though sometimes you might feel everyone else has got so much going on already, I'll just be loading more work onto him, her, or them if I delegate this. This is why planning and preparing and prioritising is so important. For now though, we will look at the 6-step delegation framework. It's beautifully simple. It's really easy to do. And remember, whilst I'm sharing this information with you, it is a conversation you have with your colleague or colleagues, not here's a load of instructions, now go and do it. We go into far more detail on priority management time management, focus management, and delegation in the full programme if you choose to get involved with that. For now though, let's take a look at the model. And it's Effective Delegation the Easy Way. Again, simplify, simplify, simplify. Don't overcomplicate things. And this is the model. You can access this through the download as well for you to have immediately available. The first step, what's the objective and what's the outcome? If there's no clear objective or there's no clear outcome, It's not delegation, it's just a chat. But as Stephen Covey would say, begin with the end in mind. Help your colleague or colleagues understand what the outcome is, what has to be achieved, what's expected, and indeed why it's the outcome, why it's expected, and why indeed it's important. Second step, responsibilities. In terms of their responsibilities, what decisions is this person able to make? Without referring back to you? What decisions can't they make and shouldn't they make? And also, in terms of communications, what do you expect from this person in terms of communications, in terms of updates, formal and informal, in terms of asking questions? Do they know that they're welcome to ask you questions without feeling foolish or that they haven't listened? And also, Relationships. What relationships with stakeholders, customers, suppliers, whoever it may be, uh, colleagues in different departments or divisions, are they expected to step into and develop so that the outcome can be achieved as quickly, seamlessly, and easily as possible? Third is standards. In terms of timescales, please bear in mind that timescales are to be agreed. They're not there to be imposed. Because if you impose a deadline, you own it, not your colleague. So please manage your own reality testing and remain objective on what can be realistically achieved. Realistic optimism is what we're after, not my goodness, my boss has given me this to do, so I'm giving it you to do and we can all panic together. That's not management, that's survival. So what timescales? Are to be agreed or put in place. Now, bear in mind, if you're agreeing a timescale and this is an additional task or project that your colleague is about to undertake and begin to own, what about their existing priorities that you're trusting and expecting them to do? What will happen to them? Are they to be reassigned, postponed, or something else, or just forgotten altogether? Don't forget things altogether, but some things are more important than others. You can often look for someone else to undertake them or at least postpone or change the timescales. Reporting. As you will see in this programme, there's ABC reporting: achievements, benefits, and concerns. What about reporting on progress? What about reporting on anticipated issues that may occur? You don't have to wait until you're fully delegated to explore this. You can say, you know, with this objective, what do you anticipate might be a challenge that could be faced in the first few weeks of the project? Let them tell you. They may think of nothing, they may think of something, but get the conversation going early. And in terms of ownership, use this as a principle: you win together, you lose together. So you're not delegating and abdicating, you're delegating and supporting and equipping and enabling and encouraging. So what is this person owning? In terms of quality? What is this person owning in terms of communication and, uh, in terms of ensuring things are progressing on time as agreed? Then the fourth, uh, step is resources and support. What technology, what materials, what people are available, including you? Now please be aware that if you say my door's always open and, uh, especially in the early stages of a project or a task that they're unfamiliar with, uh, and there's no established way of doing it. She or he may be coming to you day after day, hour after hour, asking questions because they, they're unsure, they're uncertain, and they don't want to mess up. But please be aware that it's up to you to initiate the conversation about how about We think about this, uh, today. We'll meet at 3 o'clock tomorrow, and then you tell me what support you'd appreciate from me, what you'd welcome from me. Don't say what you need from me, because people's brains tend not to want to be needy. What support you might want from me, what input you might welcome from me, and when, in the early stages and as the project or the task progresses. What materials, whether it be technology, whether it be data, whether it be key performance indicators, service level agreements, whatever it may be. But just establish at the outset what is available, and perhaps if anything else is required, discuss it then. What support from you? How about we check in in the first 2 weeks of this 4-week project? We check in on a Tuesday afternoon at 3 and a Thursday morning at 11. For 30 minutes so we can progress with the project, so we can explore any issues that have arisen or may arise, and we can nip them in the bud early, and also to refine and optimise the approach you're taking. Step 5 is information and progress check. So we've just mentioned in step 4, resources and support. When are you going to be meeting up formally? When will you catch up informally? In what format will it be? Will it be in person? Will it be over Slack or email? And there are different challenges to, uh, anticipate and resolve with Slack and email and other online ways of reporting. Things can easily get lost in there. Structure check-ins and refinements. You may find if it's, for example, 3 or 4 week project, in the early stages your colleague may want regular checkups, progress checks, to make sure things are going well and they're not messing up. But we teach the children to walk because we stop picking them up, and it's up to your colleague to share with you when they're confident and happy that they can progress on their own with reduced support and progress checks. And commitments— this is a one really that closes it off Brilliantly. What commitments to each other? So this isn't, we'll meet at 2 on Tuesday, 11 on Thursday, and that's it. You as manager initiating. So for example, uh, if it was me with a colleague called Jane, Jane, it's really important that we don't just rely on structured check-ins for progress updates. I want you to understand it's important for me, and I hope it is for you, that if you have a question you ask me quickly. If you anticipate a challenge, tell me quickly, and we'll explore it, we'll discuss it, and we'll agree how to respond to it, how to resolve it. Also, in terms of commitments, be aware that people do take holidays, and people sometimes are absent due to illness. Bear in mind Do you require a backup resource that can take over this project if it's of any period of time? What will you do in terms of holidays? Plan them in in advance? Or do you anticipate requesting any holidays during this time? Oh, you have got a day here, a day there. Okay, 2 days. That's absolutely fine. But let's just make sure that we refine timescales or refocus so the timescale can be achieved. So that is really, really simple. Now, what you've got here on the next page are those 6 steps. So it's really straightforward. You can print it off or type into a PDF, but this is for you to rehearse what you're going to be delegating. So remember, what's the objective? What's the outcome? Why is it— why is it the objective? Why is it the outcome? If we don't understand the why, It's just a task. If we understand the why and what value is expected to be delivered through this task being completed successfully, this project being delivered on time, that's where the person begins to own the meaning of it and they begin to own the responsibility for delivering it. So 6 steps, beautifully simple, and it works. It really works. We've used it thousands of times in hundreds of different organisations and it works. It's not without bumps along the way because people are people and communication is so important. So just remember, you can use the ABC reporting framework with this, but use it as a template. Download the documents in this lesson and start to use it. Pick 3 situations with 3 different people that you can delegate something to. Get used to it. If it feels a bit awkward in the Outset, good, you're learning. Refine it. But also remember, you can delegate upwards. You can delegate understanding, you can delegate decisions, and also you can delegate the trust for someone to actually do really well at this. So give that a go and then just share back how you're doing.