Welcome back to mindful manager! Today’s issue is a short summary of what I learned so far on delegation and how to do it in an effective and respectful way.
In my (very brief) work experience, I had the privilege of managing different small teams. Delegation is one of the most important skills in a career, but nobody trained me for it, so I had to find sources and learn it on the job. Here’s a collection of my thoughts at the moment.
Effective delegation requires:
Clarity on the process: you don’t have to be a technical expert to delegate something, but you should be able to explain how every task fits into the bigger picture
Empathy with your people: every co-worker is unique, and the way you delegate should adapt to this uniqueness
The good thing is, you get better with practice. Just like writing helps you think better, approaching a job with a "delegation" mindset makes you more mindful about processes and boosts your empathy.
Delegation requires an active approach. You don’t do it as a way to avoid work and remove yourself from boring stuff, but as a sign of respect to your colleagues and your time. By delegating effectively, you make up the time and mental space needed to work ON your business and its long-term trajectory, instead of being busy working IN your business. You owe it to the people trusting you with their precious time and careers, whether you’re an entrepreneur or a manager of a team.
In the short term, proper delegation makes you useless, and that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, too many people mistakenly consider their value as directly correlated to how indispensable they are inside the organization, while it is quite the opposite. You’re a good manager if, leaving for a month, you come back and find things working just like when you left. If things have even improved, you’re a great manager.
If you delegate correctly, there will be times when your team will be busier than you, and many people feel guilty about it (I certainly did). You need to understand that what separates a manager and her team is the weight of the decisions she’s asked to make, not the number of decisions or the time spent thinking. Sure, if your people are constantly overwhelmed, there’s something you have to fix, but don’t confuse a balanced workload for a healthy team. You should aim for balanced responsibility, experience, and challenges.
Hope these tips can be useful, I’d be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments. Have a great weekend!