3 Big Mistakes Tech Leaders Make with Delegation and How to Fix Them
We’ve all been there. Teaching someone else to do a task seems like much more work than just doing it ourselves.
But what we often fail to realize in that moment is that it hurts us and our employees in the long run.
There are many benefits to delegation. And actually, doing it well is key to the success of any leader. So, let’s take a look at 3 big mistakes that leaders make when it comes to delegation and how you can overcome them.
1. Sabotaging and Limiting Beliefs
As a tech leader, your role shifts from an individual contributor responsible for your own tasks, to a leader who must engage and inspire your team to get results.
Unfortunately, past successes as individual contributors cause many tech leaders to subscribe to self-sabotaging beliefs about delegation. Here are some common examples.
I can do it better and faster.
It’s easier for me to do it than to explain it to someone else.
I like my way of doing this best.
Giving this to someone else will cause them to resent the extra work and I’ll end up doing it anyway.
Although these thoughts may make sense in the short term, they will come back to bite a leader. Tying up your time with tasks that should be done by your team leaves a leader without time for strategy, team support and planning.
Shifting your mindset and taking action is a good way to overcome these beliefs.
Instead of “I can do it better and quicker faster.”
Shift to “My goal is to support my team in doing collaborative work which I help accomplish by delegating this task. Maybe someone else will come up with a better and faster way (you won’t know until you try).”
Instead of “It’s easier for me to do it than to explain it to someone else.”
Shift to “Taking the time to explain and delegate the task to someone else will free up my time in the long run. It will also give someone else an opportunity to learn and grow.”
Instead of “I like my way of doing this best.”
Shift to “I may like my way, but there may be a better way. I won’t know until I give someone else a chance. As a leader, I need to be flexible and model collaboration.”
Instead of “Giving this to someone else will cause them to resent the extra work and I’ll end up doing it anyway.”
Shift to “My people may resent me more if I don’t give them opportunities to grow by delegating. This gives someone a chance to learn something new. It also will help me build trust with the team by training them on this task and not taking it back to do it myself while they are learning.”
2. “Dump and Run” Handoffs
When I was new in my career as a leader, I delegated a responsibility to one of my people with no training and little follow-up. It was a big mistake on my part. Thankfully, she was courageous enough to tell me she was frustrated, so we hit the reboot button and started over. Unfortunately, I’ve seen other leaders make the same mistake. I call this dumping and running.
Delegation takes time and thought to be successful.
Before delegating, it is helpful to answer these questions and share them with the person you are delegating to.
What are the details of the project or task you are delegating?
How will you train them?
What will a successful outcome look like?
What is the timeline needed for completion?
How will you follow-up, answer questions and monitor progress?
3. Failing to Delegate Authority
I once witnessed a VP level leader delegate a project to one of her people. The person was clear on the assignment and well equipped to do it, but there was one big problem. Everyone in the company was used to the VP doing this task, so they all went to her with their questions – and she answered them.
Essentially, this undermined the success of her employee. No one saw him as the new owner and the leader’s time was still absorbed with answering all the questions and providing direction. Her mistake was failing to delegate authority to her employee along with the delegation of the project.
Delegating authority well involves the following:
Specifically describe to your employee what authority they will have and when they need approval from you. For example, you may want to be more involved in approvals or authority in the first phases of a handoff and then step away when they become more proficient.
Equally important is letting everyone one else know that you have delegated authority to your employee so they are all clear on ownership and who to approach with questions.
Let others know you support and backup your employee on their decisions. Things can quickly spiral to a “if mom says no, I’ll go ask dad” pattern if people think you are really the person making the decisions and not your employee. This undermines their success.
Support your employee when they have questions to help build their confidence.
And lastly, if someone still comes to you after you have delegated the responsibility, send them to the new owner. Continuing in the old way reinforces the wrong habit, takes up your time and undermines trust with your employee.
If someone still comes to you after you have delegated the responsibility, send them to the new owner. Continuing in the old way reinforces the wrong habit, takes up your time and undermines trust with your employee.
Learning to delegate well is not an easy task but it is well worth the effort and is an essential component to extraordinary technical leadership. If you’d like to learn more about how I can help take your technical leadership from ordinary to extraordinary, click here to schedule a leadership strategy call with me..