You're delegating tasks to your team. What's the one mistake you can't afford to make?

There are two ditches on the sides of the road of team empowerment: ?? Micro-Manage <-> Abandon ?? Both are unhelpful responses to a leader's need to advance organizational strategy through team execution. While no competent leader wants to micromanage their team, when faced with the harsh reality of approaching deadlines and unachieved goals, the inclination is to become more "hands-on" and pressure/manage the team to ensure success. The alternative is less nefarious—abandonment. In today's leadership lingo, we wrongfully call this "trusting you to be an adult," when, in reality, the leader may not be providing sufficient team support. We balance sufficient structure and life-giving autonomy to drive up engagement and ownership.

One issue most leaders face is the premise of 'I can do it better and faster' that eventually leads to micromanaging. Trusting your team and letting it unfold once delegated is the key to the success of delegation. Keep in mind that the team will take time to understand your expectations and get in sync. But once they do, you are all set. Don't fall into the trap of micromanaging, rather help the team with solution oriented feedback (tricks of the trade so to say). This will also add to the morale. Instincts to micromanaging is common, but sometimes we got to say NO to our inner-voice :) #apersonalexperience

Le micromanagement, c'est plus qu'une erreur; c'est un signal que vous ne faites pas confiance à votre équipe. Cela limite leur autonomie, bride leur créativité et diminue l'efficacité. En plus, cela augmente le stress et réduit significativement leur satisfaction au travail. Apprenez à lacher prise et à faire confiance à votre équipe pour exploiter pleinement leur potentiel.

O maior erro é o micro gerenciamento! Quando o líder faz isso, as vezes na melhor das inten??es acaba tendo o efeito oposto, quebrando a confian?a e distanciando as pessoas. O líder precisa saber exatamente as capacidades de sua equipe a fim de delegar bem, delegue as tarefas e mas também a responsabilidade. Um ponto muito importante é clareza com que você vai comunicar as suas expectativas.

The one mistake you can't afford to make when delegating tasks to your team is failing to provide clear instructions and expectations.

Few things are more effective at improving outcomes AND employee engagement than clear expectations. When delegating, it’s crucial to provide clear expectations on the *outcomes* that are expected. Simply delegating tasks without outcomes is a recipe for disaster. An effective way to accomplish this is to simply have the other person repeat the expected outcome back to you, along with the reason that the outcome is desirable. This approach offers the added benefit of clarifying meaning and purpose, which often translates to better employee engagement and a stronger sense that their work is interesting and meaningful.

In the earlier contribution above I talked about how it's easier once the team understands your expectations and is in-sync. But how can one achieve it? Some steps. The starting point: Hire the people with the right skillset ,build the team you need to deliver expected quality & volume of work. But that's not always the case, we work with what we have right? So here we go.. 1. On the job training: Give the team the ups killing they need ( soft skill and hard skill) that you are expecting out of them. 2. Lay it out. What, Why, How, When. Clearly communicate the task, deadline, resources, tips (if any). 3. Review & reward systems: Set time-to-time progress review and reward the progress (they are v effective)

La délégation est un art qui s'affine avec le temps et l'expérience. Pour ma?triser cette compétence, il est crucial d'apprendre de chaque erreur et d'embrasser le feedback constructif. Interrogez-vous régulièrement : vos attentes étaient-elles claires et réalistes ? Avez-vous choisi la bonne personne, en adéquation avec ses compétences, intérêts et disponibilité ? Les avez-vous soutenus sans pour autant les micromanagés, leur permettant ainsi d'agir en toute indépendance ? Ont-ils été tenus responsables de leurs actions et résultats ? Le résultat final a-t-il été à la hauteur de vos attentes, tout en vous permettant de gagner du temps et de l'énergie, et en offrant à votre équipe une opportunité de croissance ?

An anecdote: How I pissed off a senior product design engineer by micro-managing. As a 24 year old executive few years back, I was leading a particular project that required R&D from scratch and one of the many sub-task was 3D modelling & analysis where I stumbled upon this senior designer from whom I had to get the job done in a time frame. He was an expert and all I had to do was assign. But me being me, I constantly went to him with suggestions, followed up twice everyday, even questioned his methods. And one fine day, he just said. Why don't you do it! Turns out he had done this a hundred times before, and in this case did it again under the deadlines. That's that. lesson learnt.

While delegating tasks to your team, get rid of the principal-agent problem first. Stop micromanaging the team, as you can extract performance from the team members only if you create an environment that allows for autonomy, mastery, and a sense of purpose. Without autonomy, one cannot achieve mastery and the sense of purpose never gets imbibed in the person. I have mentioned in my researchpaper on the best project management practices concerning megaprojects that organizations should encourage participation in a community of practice that offers a low-pressure setting in which people can talk about their work, usually in the form of stories. The ability of stories to transfer knowledge and wisdom among people cannot be overemphasized.

Es importante definir con claridad con el equipo la problemática y las prioridades. Comprender las fortalezas de cada persona ayudan a poder asignar y dar libertad de ejecución de las tareas a delegar. Brindar contexto y los recursos necesarios para la correcta ejecución de las tareas es indispensable. La comunicación constante, así como la verificación de avances y retroalimentación maximiza las probabilidades de éxito. Finalmente centrarse en el resultado y no en el método ayuda a a generar confianza y aprendizaje a los miembros del equipo.