Six Components and Strategies of Successful Delegation

In your leadership journey, consider these six components and strategies of successful delegation to grow as a leader. In preparing to facilitate a women CEOs workshop on “Mastering Delegation,” I read two books to gain additional insight. The first one is, Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals through Accelerating Teamwork, by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy. The second book was given to me by a fellow board member, Lead Like Reagan by Dan Quiggle. These two books impacted my life. They made me think about how I do things in my own business. I also reflected on how I could have done better as a leader throughout my leadership journey.

I consider myself an excellent delegator. But I ran into some typical challenges when I was a banker. One of them was that I did not have enough “bodies” to delegate to, especially when we started the bank. Another challenge I encountered in previous jobs was that certain inherited employees did not have the skills for the task. Therefore, I could not delegate to them without having to do it myself anyway after fixing all their mistakes.

In this article, we describe six components and strategies of successful delegation to help you master this important skill.

Trust

It all starts with trust. I used to tell my employees at the bank that I trusted them in three ways. I trusted that they could do the job we hired them to do. I trusted that they were not committing fraud. Additionally, I trusted that they were not talking behind my back. You build a strong team when you put trust as the foundation of the relationship.

Strategies:

• Get to know your employees at the personal level.
• Give employees opportunities to earn your trust by delegating to them.
• As you delegate, avoid assumptions about team members’ willingness or understanding of new responsibilities; confirm and clarify as needed.
• Avoid micromanaging your employees. This is the sure way to instill “distrust” in your employees.

Opportunity

Leaders must provide opportunities to their employees if you want to be able to delegate to them. There are several ways you can provide those opportunities:

• Technical: Give them the opportunity to become the Subject Matter Expert (SME) in their department.
• Leadership: Provide supervisory experience opportunities to emerging leaders so they have a foundation to grow from.
• Collaborate: Place them in a team where they must collaborate with others to achieve results.
• Learn: Allow opportunities to continue learning at their job and also learn new things that are unrelated to their jobs.
• Growth: Incent them to grow within their own job to new levels of responsibility.

Strategies:

• Highlight the growth opportunities that accompany the delegated tasks, functions, or responsibilities to motivate and inspire them.
• Allow sufficient time for learning new tasks and accommodate mistakes as part of the growth process.
• Ensure the provision of necessary resources to enable the successful completion of delegated tasks.

Training

Often employees, managers, and even senior leadership team members get “dumped” on a new project without any guidance nor training. Leaders must provide employees with the appropriate training, tools, certifications, and allow them to go to educational conferences.

Strategies:

• Allocate budget for necessary training and provide the appropriate tools to support successful task execution.
• Alternate team members to attend conferences where they learn about the industry and develop relationships outside their company.

Responsibility

Part of trusting an employee is assigning them the responsibility of a task. As a best practice, add the new task or function to their job description. Ensure the employee understands the task or new function thoroughly. Communicate to the team that the function is now handled by a new person.

Strategies:

• Clearly articulate and communicate objectives by delegating specific tasks to ensure alignment and understanding.
• Stay in touch, provide feedback, and give them a second chance if they make a mistake. Notice I didn’t say give them fifteen chances. The first time the employee makes a mistake, ask what happened. Then decide if more training is necessary. At some point, however, you will need to decide if the employee “gets it” or not.

Authority

Responsibility must be accompanied by the authority to do the delegated function. Ensure you give your senior leadership team the authority to make decisions within their realm of responsibilities. Establish clear boundaries so they know where their authority ends and yours begins.

Strategies:

• Clarify why the authority granted with the new responsibilities is crucial for effective decision-making.
• It’s important to clarify roles, responsibilities, authorities, and boundaries with all involved.

Accountability

When responsibility is paired with authority, only then a person can be accountable for results. As Dan Quiggle states in his book Lead Like Reagan, “Facilitation of teamwork is impossible where there is no trust, collectively and individually. Not only must there be accountability for the team as a whole, but its members must be individually accountable.”

Strategies:

• Explain the consequences and impacts of the delegated tasks to ensure awareness and accountability.
• Ensure the performance review reflects the responsibilities, authority given, and accountability for results.

I hope these six components and strategies of successful delegation help you become a master delegator. As you continue your leadership growth, look for opportunities to ask Who can help you achieve your goals. The answer will transform the way you do your business while developing your employees and bringing more profits to your business.