Do You Hesitate to Delegate?

I was just doing some research while adding a delegation section to my leadership training: Presence, Productivity and Time Management.

I found an excellent article from a website that provides a variety of leadership tools. It covered when you should delegate, to whom, and detailed steps on how to do it effectively.

There was one point I found to be true, but not nearly complete: Why People Don’t Delegate.

The only reason the article listed involved the leader’s aversion to taking the up-front time required to delegate well. Yes, absolutely, that is a concern. 

What I have found in my work, however, goes way beyond the issue of time.  

I coach primarily on the Director level and above, including a healthy roster of C-Suite executives. Many of my clients are high-achievers with protectionist tendencies. More often than not, I find my new clients exhausted, spread too thin, working all hours and completely overwhelmed. On some level they know there must be another way because they see others in their world having a different experience of their roles. That’s why I’m hired – to lead them to that other way.

Sometimes they’re frustrated because they are not being considered for the next level and don’t understand why. Through our work, the client inevitably discovers that their current way of working is unsustainable, so the last thing that they need is the ascend to the next level with an even larger span of responsibility. Their supervisor could see this clearly – they could not (until our work together).

The key to shifting out of overwhelm and stepping into an even larger accountability? Masterful delegation.

OK, makes sense, sounds good - so why not just delegate? Of course, as the article stated, the up-front time required to delegate successfully is a concern for the already overwhelmed, but time and time again, I’ve found there is more afoot in the resistance to delegate.

There is often a deep seated belief that manifests in a series of fears that make it difficult, if not impossible to delegate. That root cause is the real cause.

I’ll break down one very common example I’ve heard over the years:

Surface Fear: “They won’t do it as well as I would. I can do it better and faster, so I’ll just do it myself.”

• Problem: This may be true, but if you default to this thinking, you’ll have an insurmountable pile of to-dos and be completely underwater. Also, you likely won’t be working at your pay grade or in the unique gifts and talents that brought you to where you are today. In addition, you'll be preventing your team from having valuable development opportunities.
• Subconscious driver: “Everything that comes from my area must be perfect (120% actually). Anything short of that runs the risk that I will be in trouble.”
• Root cause: A deep belief that you’re not good enough and a compulsion to compensate or cover that up.

Other surface fears that lead to the same or similar root cause:

• “If I delegate, I’ll lose control of this project.”
• “People will think I’m a slacker or dumping work.”
• “I won’t get the credit if I delegate it.”

What I know for sure:

You can have the best delegation training or execution plan in the world, but if your inside isn’t aligned, it won’t matter. You’ll remain in the same patterns that have plagued you for years, taken a toll on your health, threatened your next promotion, and negatively affected your family time. 

When you address the root cause, strangely, changing things on the outside becomes quite easy.

That’s my special mojo as a coach – instead of simply dealing with surface strategies, I’m able to help you identify the root cause and address it in a way that feels safe and possible. 

When we snip what’s not working at the root, you'll be free of those old ties that limited you. You'll feel powerful as you step into the level of leadership and scope of influence you’ve always known you’re capable of. And the sense of freedom and self mastery doesn't stop there...it ripples into all areas of your life and work.