10X Your Leadership Impact – How To Delegate Like A Boss!

Are you overwhelmed, burned out, or caught in a tactical whirlwind of to-dos? Or are you calm, balanced, and focused on the bigger strategic plan?

Which picture most describes you as a leader?

Leaders who find themselves closer to the end of the “overwhelmed” spectrum often treat the symptoms instead of looking for the root causes of why they feel overwhelmed by an overflowing list of tactical work. They reach for solutions like better time management, productivity tools, work-life balance considerations, and stress management tactics. While these are all helpful tools, the biggest assist might come from one of the most underutilized tools in the leader toolbox – effective delegation skills!

You might be thinking, “I’m great at delegating, yet I still feel overwhelmed, burned out, and caught in the tactical whirlwind!” If that’s you, then one question to consider is: How effective are your delegation skills?

The four M’s of effective skills in delegation are Meaning, Motivations, Mindsets and Methods. Let’s consider each one.

Meaning:

What delegation is NOT:

• Dumping – handing over tasks and responsibilities motivated only by your unwillingness to handle them yourself.
• Emergency use only – hitting the “wall” or deadline on a project and, at the last minute, parsing out tasks and pieces of it to available team members.

What delegation IS:

• A growth and development tool for your team members and peers. Delegation of projects and transferring ownership of them is one of the most impactful yet underutilized growth and development tools in a leader’s toolbox.
• A doorway to more strategic and less tactical focus for you. It makes sense! If you are handling projects and deliverables that others are capable of doing, you are not making the time for strategic thinking and forward planning.
• A pathway to leading at the level of your “license.” You are generating outputs and deliverables that defined your success in the past, but they are not helpful at your current elevated leadership level. As you rise within the levels of leadership, your definition of success needs to evolve, as well. No longer are those outputs and deliverables likely what’s expected of you now; you need to be focused on something bigger. Now you’re in charge of growing and developing your team and thinking more strategically! Really reflect on what your new vision of success means, and step into leading at that level. Delegation is your secret weapon to all of this!

Motivations:

What becomes possible for me as a leader when I 10X my delegation capabilities? On a scale of 1-10, how important is focusing on the strategic vs. tactical, growing and developing your team, and leading at a higher level? On a scale of 1-10, how effective are you now in focusing on those things? How motivated are you to uplevel your delegation skills in order to close the gap?

Mindsets:

What are your attitudes and perceptions related to delegation? Take this quick self-assessment to uncover your current underlying beliefs and attitudes toward delegation.

Read each statement and choose the answer that most closely matches your current attitude and approach toward delegation.

How to interpret results:

• Answers to 1,3,7,9 will measure your healthy delegation attitudes.
• Answers to 2, 4,5,6,8,10 will uncover your excuses, attitudes, and fears toward delegation.

What are the attitudes and mindsets that support your delegation skills? How are the excuses, attitudes and fears holding you back? What is this costing you?

Methods:

Do you follow a defined process when you are delegating?

There are two key considerations for building a process for delegation and for improving your delegation skills. Both work together and both are required for success:

1. The steps to effective delegation – follow a structured process.
2. Create an action plan for delegation.

Implementing and executing the steps to effective delegation require some thoughtfulness and planning. How many of these are you doing today? What would the impact be if you added those that are missing?

• Consider goals and resources
• Provide context or rationale – the big “why”
• Establish standards and deadlines
• Give authority
• Get commitment
• Provide support and anticipate problems
• Monitor performance and follow-up

Let’s take a deeper dive into some actionable steps you can take to incorporate effective methods of delegation.

Step 1: Action Plans for Delegation

Directions: Identify all new tasks, projects, or activities that you are personally responsible for today. Then answer the remaining questions for each.

Step 2: Project Analysis

Directions: List the projects, tasks, or activities you listed in Step #1 that could be delegated.

Step 3: Employee Analysis

Directions: List each employee. Identify their potential for development through delegation, without regard or consideration of the project analysis in Step #2.

Step 4: Delegation Action Plan

Directions: Combine information from Step #2 and Step #3 to define your delegation action plan.

Conclusion:

Let’s go back to the question posed earlier. How effective are your delegation skills?

Armed with the 4 M’s – Meaning, Motivation, Mindset, and Methods – you can effectively determine what is going well, what isn’t, and know which “M” will be most effective in closing the delegation gap.

If a complimentary 30-minute strategy session would be helpful as a next step to upleveling your delegation skills, click here: https://calendly.com/qualia-inc/30min. Let’s do this!