Delegating can make you a better leader

“‘You need to make yourself redundant in your current job, to take up a higher job’, ‘ Learn to delegate!’ everyone says the same thing. I know you are going to give me the same gyan.” My colleague was totally frustrated when I went to ask her to come for a cup of coffee with me. “Delegation has created problems for me. The projections do not make sense.  Finance will laugh at it.

And in this other case – the project is running late by a month! I had delegated the work and nothing is done as it should”

“Now I will have to spend double time on it, plus be late for all submissions”

“Hmm, you are in the soup here. But tell me, have you prepared yourself for delegation?”

“Manjiri, I am delegating to someone! I don’t need to prepare”

“That is where we go wrong dear!  One also needs to prepare to delegate to next level”

“I had a meeting with the managers, I explained each thing to them, I showed my previous work to them”

“ I think you should let them come to their own conclusions, if you give them the solutions directly – then they don’t own it.

You should first understand the working style of the person you are delegating to. Define what are the points and “tells” of that person.  By tells what I mean is – some will keep coming to you with each question – some will just with the final product that has gone orthogonal. Both are not desired.  So you will have to coach them in separate ways – The first one will have to be encouraged to think on his own. Second one to tally his path with what is the requirement.

On the other hand, you should also be prepared to accept that there could be a different way to achieve the results. It is a journey you both need to take and allow it to settle.”

“it’s a time investment you make in them now so that you have more time later”

“Time to drink coffee?”

“ yes and time to work with me to take up more work off my hands”