4 Principles of Effective Delegation

We are a family that loves a good puzzle. It usually starts with an image we want to jump into. It can be a northwest forest, or a quaint New England seascape or a cozy fireside scene with sleeping animals and warm blankets. We start with the edges and fill in the middle. Once the edge is complete, each of us takes a scene from the middle to solve and we feed each other pieces to their part as we come across them.

When my kids were little, my youngest had a trick for making sure she played the most critical role in the collaboration. She’d tuck two or three pieces into her pocket and at the very end, whip them out to solve the puzzle. She felt very powerful. It drove the rest of us crazy.?

I was thinking about this the other day when I was talking to a client about the art of delegation and what it feels like to try to solve a puzzle without all of the pieces. Frustrating. Disempowering. Confusing.

For many leaders, delegation is a hard skill to develop. It means giving up the role of the effective doer, a role that may have served them well as they ascend in their career. It means reading the situation and knowing if it presents the time and space for a growth opportunity, in which case delegation will be more like mentoring, or if it requires quick, decisive action in which case the ideal delegate will be someone with a high level of skill who is trusted to function with autonomy. It means having the ability to be clear about the what and the why, something that can be difficult to translate from something a leader intuits to something they can explicitly define.

For a leader, successful delegation creates the opportunity to get out of the weeds and think strategically. For the team member, successful delegation feels like solving a puzzle with all of the pieces.?

Here’s how to do it:

1. Provide context: Make sure your team members understand how what they do contributes to the big picture and the purpose of the work. This is motivational and also helps people exercise their judgment in context.
2. Confirm understanding: To ensure you have the same understanding of the goal and steps to achieve it, ask the team member to describe.
3. Establish clarity around advise vs. approve: It’s important for the team member to understand where they have autonomy to make decisions and when they need to seek approval. Have a discussion about what steps the leader needs to be advised of once done and what steps need approval.
4. Accountability: The leader and team member should agree on how to check in on progress and what success looks like including timeline and outcomes.

If you want to be an AGILE leader who delegates effectively, Ebb Tide can help.?

Reach out to learn more.

Ebb Tide develops AGILE leaders who are:

Adaptive

Goal Oriented

Have Integrity

Are Lifelong Learners

And Emotionally Intelligent