The Three Elements of Effective Delegation

0:03Welcome to The Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of executive coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want to be perceived. I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today we're talking about the three elements of effective delegation. Nguyen was terrified her company was going to collapse. She had spent years creating a Hanoi-based clothing company that was completely locally crafted. She commissioned fabric from women on local farms. She oversaw designs in her studio, and she supervised local manufacturing. And the company had thrived. Demand had increased three years straight to the point where now Nguyen was struggling to keep up.

0:51To mix her blessings, a European fashion magazine was poised to feature the company in a lead article. Nguyen worried that a subsequent swell of orders could swamp the company beyond repair. There just aren't enough hours in the day, she told me during our first coaching conversation I've always done pretty much everything myself, but now there's too much I've got a staff, but none of them are A players They're what I can afford, but they're not ready to do what I do Even though it's their job, I asked She shrugged Like I say, it's who I could afford I asked, do you imagine they don't want to do the work or they don't know how to do the work?

1:36No, I think they want to, she said, most of them. I think they believe in the company. So it's a skills issue, not a will issue, I asked. Will? What does that mean exactly, she said. Wanting to do the work? I nodded, agreeing. the whole way they think about the work, their attitude, their readiness, their will. Does something in their will make them not ready to do the work? I hope not, she said. We'll figure it out, I said. The question is what do they need to be ready to do the work? If it's a skill issue, you'll train them. If it's a will issue, you'll coach them. Skill and will. You'll get them ready because the work is coming.

2:22She gave a little laugh. I hope. I held up a finger. We've gotten a little ahead of ourselves. Can I back us up? You said there aren't enough hours in the day. I immediately thought, some part of the solution is going to be delegation. This skills and will idea that we've been talking about is one part of delegation, but it's not the first part. The first part is figuring out what to delegate, identify the goal. So let me ask, if one part of your job could be better tomorrow, what would it be? What would make you happy if it were different? I would love to be back on the farms again, she said with real longing.

3:04That would make me happy. But I can't. Each trip takes days, and I can't be productive when I'm out there. I only get there once a year now if I'm lucky. I really miss that. But realistically, what would make me happy? not having to supervise operations. I would like to trust that operations are doing their job. That would make me happy. And what's in the way of operations doing their job, I asked. Orlando, she said. I don't trust him anymore. He tells me what I want to hear, and then I find out it isn't true. Things don't get done the way they should. Perfect, I said. So one thing that would make your life better is to manage operations less.

3:48But for you to step back, Orlando has to step up. So I would like to use that task, having you step back and him step up, as an example for effective delegation. Does that sound okay? Are you kidding? That would be amazing, she said. Okay, I said. So we just identified that managing operations is the task that's going to get delegated. Now you're going to screen this task and every task that you delegate against three filters. First is the skills and will filter we were talking about. Do they need training or coaching? You decide, then communicate that. The second filter is control. When you delegate a task, are you giving it away and you never want to see it again?

4:38Or do you want to maintain some involvement? Who has what level of control? You decide, then communicate that. The third filter is identifying the actual steps, the action items, the tasks, the milestones. Everyone needs to know exactly what has to get done and what their part in it is. You decide, then communicate that. She deflated. Oh my gosh, this sounds like so much work. I nodded. I know. I'm sorry. If you're going to delegate effectively, it's going to slow you down for a bit. When I can least afford it, she interjected. But it'll allow you to speed up later, I concluded. And she said, I really can't afford not to, can I?

5:26So, okay, can we use Orlando as an example for that first filter, skills and will? What should I be asking myself? I'd ask what does Orlando need to know or be able to do so you can be comfortable handing off work to him he has to hit his dates start dates, delivery dates, every date do what you say you're going to do and get it done and does he need coaching or training I asked probably some of both I haven't given him much of my time she said and pardon me for asking Nguyen, you're not delegating math to a dog, are you? What? She laughed. I said, a friend of mine had this gag for years. He would complain all the time about his dog, about how no matter how many times he explained math to the dog, the dog never got it.

6:20You know, the joke was his extreme disappointment that if the dog would just put in a little effort, he would get it. But of course, it's a dog doing math, right? It's never going to happen. So be realistic. Are you delegating math to a dog? She said, I have someone on the design team who I think is a dog doing math. She is not in the right role. But no, not Orlando. I think he can do it. And he needs some training and some coaching before he's ready, I said. So that's the first filter, skill and will, coaching or training. And number two is about control, right? She said, I want to hear about that.

6:58I said, right. The question about control is who has it and how much. So I use a model by a guy named Michael Hyatt. He talks about the five levels of delegation and how each level has its own degree of control. It's really helpful. I just pulled it up, she said, looking at her second screen. Okay, it has the five levels. Do you want me to read it? Well, sure, I said. First is level one, do as I say. I give direction, you execute. I decide when it's done. That doesn't sound much like delegating to me, but okay. Level two, research and report. You gather information, I control the decision. Level three, research and recommend.

7:48You pitch ideas, I control which ones advance. Oh, I wish people did that more with me. Level four, decide and inform. You control the decision. I get kept in the loop. Oh, boy, does that make me nervous. But I've got to get there, don't I? And level five, you own it. You move forward independently. I may or may not know about it. I cannot picture Orlando ever getting to level five. But even if he were at a three, that would help. I asked, can you imagine talking about this with him? Showing him the model and talking about what exactly is in his control? Yeah, she said, that's helpful. I never thought about levels of control.

8:39I've always thought about delegation like a switch. Either it's mine or I give it away. And these levels, they could change over time, right? Sure, I agreed. This is good. I'll keep this, she said, pointing at her screen. Great, I said. So filter number three is quantifying how the work gets done. What steps get taken? Who's going to do them? How will we know when they're done? She shook her head and said, I'm not good at following up. Once I let go of something, it's out of my mind. And as a company, we've gotten really bad at knowing how we're doing, and I think that's my influence. But I'm going to have to start, aren't I?

9:17I said, if you don't measure what you delegate, it won't go well. Nguyen put energy into developing her delegation skills. She broke down tasks and screened them against the three filters. It made her workload bigger until one day she realized a task had happened without her knowing. And she celebrated. It gave her hope the company was moving toward the look and sound of leadership.

9:50Nguyen was in a really dire situation, right? So there she was. She's a founder. She couldn't carry the load alone anymore, but she didn't know how to give it away and still have the company run. For her, delegation was really do or die. But most of the clients that I talk with, they're not founders. For them, delegation is not do or die. And I really hear them suffer with their calendars and their workload And at some point, as one way to ease the pain, we talk about delegation. With Nguyen, I talked about three elements of effective delegation. I called them filters in the episode. When I talk with my clients about delegation, not every client needs every filter.

10:32Different people need different tools. But what I've seen over the years is that these three tools do seem to be the ones that help people delegate effectively. They are skills and will, coaching or training, control, who has it and how much, and measurement. How does each task become complete? As a way of helping you remember the filters, we've created a new PDF for you. It has all three filters. The PDF is in the tools bin in our website. It's live now. The link is in the show notes. It's free. Help yourself. In this part of the show, I want to introduce a completely new framework around the whole idea of delegation.

11:16I want to give three ideas about the filters. And I'm going to end with a story that goes off in my head every time I hear someone say to me, oh, I can't delegate, it's just faster to do it myself. So first, the framework. So this idea was not in my conversation with Nguyen. Here's the idea. For you to delegate effectively, your primary job is to get your people ready. That's it. Delegation is about prepping your people. If you can get them ready, delegation is going to be easy, right? You will be able to hand off work. It'll get done. You'll need to manage it. That's going to be your job. But the work will get done by someone who is not you.

12:06If there's a task that you're hesitant to delegate, it's probably because you think your people aren't ready in some way or another, right? So fix it. Get your people ready. You can use these three filters. So that's the reframe about delegation. Delegation is really about getting your people ready. Now, one idea about each of the three filters. First, skills and wills. In the PDF on our website. There is a skills and wills matrix. Skills is on one axis. Will goes up the other axis. It's called motivation. And it can be high or low, so you get a four-quadrant mix. The deepest value of this matrix is that it slows you down and it asks you to put each person in one of the four boxes?

13:00What does that person need to be ready to do the work? What does this person need to be ready to do the work? And how am I going to make all that happen? The matrix really makes you think about all that, even if you're only delegating to one person. And by the way, what if you're delegating to a team, right? You have to think about each person and how you're going to provide what they need. And then you're going to talk to them about what you think they need to do to get ready to take on this work that's coming their way. You're going to tell them what they need to learn or be able to do in order to be ready.

13:40I know that that conversation is a struggle for a lot of leaders. Talking about performance and development is not comfortable for a lot of people. I mean, boy, do I hear it during review periods. But I want to tell you, over the years, I've done so many episodes to help you talk with people about their development. I know you can do it. And if you want to delegate effectively, you have to be able to have that conversation. So skills and wills, that's the first filter. It will help you get your people ready. Second filter, control. The five levels of delegation, they're great. I want to be sure that you don't hear control as a negative.

14:22This does not mean controlling like authoritative. Control here just means decision making. Who is making which decision? One day when I was coaching Nguyen, I suddenly got an email from her and attached to the email were job descriptions for Orlando and one of his peers. She'd been thinking about the five levels of delegation, and she realized she didn't actually know who was making which decisions. And then she went, well, it's no wonder there's confusion on the team because they didn't know either. They're just like making stuff up, right? She wrote job descriptions and specified decision-making responsibilities in the job descriptions.

15:07The five levels of control helped her think about who was ready for which tasks and who was going to make the decisions. And one of the nice things, if you are doing the delegating, you get to decide who has how much control, including yourself. Nguyen kept decision-making control over the parts of the business she loved the most. She made it clear to everyone whose decision was whose. I encourage you to take a look at the levels there in the PDF. Number three, measurement. How are you going to know when the work is done? I hear this as a direct cascade from filter number two. Filter number two is identifying who has control.

15:55Number three is about what that person is going to be responsible for exactly. And what about everybody else? How are they going to help? This step is really just a management challenge, right? And so there are lots of tools out there to help you. In our PDF, we put the RACI model. It's pretty common. R-A-C-I. It's a grid, and it clarifies who's doing what. Each line is a task. Each column is a person. And then you, the boss, get to fill out each box with a RACI letter. R stands for responsible. It's the person you want to do the work. Who's going to execute the task? And every task has to have at least one R, but no more than two.

16:44A stands for accountable. This is the person who ultimately is answerable. They don't do the work, but they're going to sign off on the work, and there can only be one A, the person who is answerable for everything. C, consulted. This is someone that you get involved as a provider of expertise and guidance and advice, and you can have as many as you want. I stands for informed, and these are the people that you need to keep posted on what's happening for whatever reason. And again, no limit on these. So that's the RACI model, and like I say, you can see it in the PDF, but you should know that RACI isn't the only tool out there.

17:29There's Dacey and Ratsy and Rapid and there's lots. They all ask you to measure progress effectively. They are management tools. In the tools bin, there is a PDF called Responsibility Charting. It also helps you measure progress effectively. But unlike the RACI model where you as the boss fill out the boxes ahead of time by yourself, responsibility charting is an activity the team does together in conversation. So it's the same goal around measurement, but it's a very different method. And I have heard from several listeners who have used responsibility charting with their teams. They all said it was a really positive experience.

18:16I encourage you, listen to the episode, get the tool, do this with your team. You can do it. But what this was really about were the three filters. And the third one is measurement.

18:32When I talk with clients about delegation, one of the things that I hear from people all the time is, it's faster to do it myself. And every time I hear someone say that, it triggers this image in my head of two young boys standing together, one's a little older than the other, and their mom is bending down to tie the shoes of the older kid. That's the image that flashes in my head when I hear someone say, It's faster to do it myself. I will tell you the story of that image right after this month's gratitude. I was very grateful to hear from five different women this month, all of whom wrote about small ways the podcast has been helping them.

19:12I was so grateful to read those stories. Thank you for sending them to me. I'm grateful to talk with you about coaching. These are great conversations. It's always a pleasure. I'm very grateful. And as always, I am so grateful for your reviews. Thank you so much. This month from the U.S., thanks to a fellow colleague and coach, Ed Nottingham. Thanks, Ed. And AB in Indy. Thank you both for your reviews. And Ed, I know it's not your first review, so I am really grateful. I'm grateful for every review. Thank you. Okay, that image. So you can picture this, an older boy, younger boy, the mom's kneeling down to tie the older boy's shoes.

19:54So where did that image come from and why does it get triggered by? It's faster to do it myself. This story goes back to when I was acting and my family was growing and I was exploring ways to supplement my earnings. One of the paths that I went down was to learn American Sign Language. and I even got trained to the point where I got certified to be an interpreter for kids in schools. When you learn sign language like that, you start meeting deaf people. And it became apparent to me really quickly that the deaf culture was really strong and there were a lot of people who were really angry about things I had never even thought about.

20:42And so I was really curious and interested and tried to get educated. I read a book. I wish I knew the author or the name of this book. It's out of print. I cannot find it. But it had a story in the preface that I have never forgotten. In the beginning of the book, the author is making the case that deaf people get misunderstood all the time. And here was the example. There's a hearing mom with two boys. One boy was five, one boy was seven. The five-year-old was hearing, the seven-year-old was deaf. And the hearing mom let the five-year-old tie his own shoes, but she still tied the seven-year-old shoes.

21:28Why? Because she didn't believe the seven-year-old was capable. Because the seven-year-old was deaf. She didn't know how to communicate with her seven-year-old, and so she didn't know what he was capable of. She underestimated him and he got underdeveloped. When someone says to me, it's faster to do it myself, I think about that mom. Yes, of course she can do it herself, but why? There is someone perfectly capable right there who could do it for you. Don't underestimate your people. Get them ready. If you ever think to yourself, oh, it's just faster, I'll do it myself. I hope you'll think about that mom for a second and just ask, is that you?

22:11You're not really helping anybody if that's you. Learning delegation is crucial if you want to grow as a leader. If you want to dig deeper, this episode lives in the library in three categories, leadership, management skills, and communication skills. Those are all searchable categories in the podcast library. The link's in the show notes. Help yourself. Five specific episodes you might listen to are Coaching Your People. This is going to help you get better at those development conversations. Creating Devoted Followers. How to Talk So People Understand You. This is sorting and labeling. And I think you will delegate more effectively if you can sort and label your information.

22:56The Human Element. And Leadership Through Delegation. This is from 12 years ago. so I had really different ideas and I liked it. It's good. All the links are in the show notes, including the links to the PDF and the responsibility charting tool. All right, that's it for me. Until next time, I'm Tom Henschel. Thanks so much for listening.