The move into a leadership role involves a fundamental shift in how work gets done – from delivering work yourself to delivering work through others.
As a leader, how many times have you thought:
- “I don’t have time right now to delegate this to one of my team, I’ll just do this myself.”
- “This work is important to get right, I can’t invest the time to train someone right now.”
- “This task is tedious I don’t want to lump my team with crappy work.”
If these thoughts sound familiar, you aren’t alone. But, if they are your daily drivers, then you are doing yourself – and your team – a massive disservice. You’re hitting a ceiling on your own productivity and denying your team the opportunity to grow.
The ‘too busy’ paradox
I’ve coached many leaders who feel there is never enough time in their week. Bouncing from meeting to meeting, squeezing in desk time to do ‘actual’ work, taking work home or staying late and constantly running to keep up are typical features of many leaders’ weeks.
Unfortunately, this “tyranny of the immediate” has consequences. Working late nights or weekends impacts your health, wellbeing and personal relationships. While delegation isn’t a magic panacea, it is a critical lever for reclaiming your time and fuelling your team’s development.
Yes, it takes time investment in the short term but the payoff in the long term is exponential.
Shift from ‘expert’ to ‘enabler’
Most leaders transitioned from being highly competent ‘experts’ in their field to leading a team that does the work. As an expert, you were in total control of the process. As a leader, you have to let it go.
I know this first-hand from my career in HR. Like most experts, I was particular about approach, quality and output. When I moved into leadership, I had to work very deliberately on shifting my mindset from “I’m in total control of what gets done” to “My role is to guide others to deliver well.”
This requires a deliberate choice to trust your team and shift your focus to the actual mahi of leadership – supporting others to grow.
The Three Pillars of Great Delegation
1. Invest Time Upfront, Create Some White Space: Delegation fails when it’s a “dump and run” in the two minutes between meetings. Great delegation requires you to pause and create “white space” in your diary to think. You need time to plan the big picture and articulate the why and the what clearly. If you take the time to frame the project well, you set your team up for success.
2. Focus on Outcomes, Not Methods: As an expert, you’re used to controlling the how. As a leader, you must let that go. A fundamental mindset shift is needed: move from “I’m in control of what gets done” to “my role is to guide others to deliver well.” This means setting expected outcomes and timeframes, then deliberately trusting your team to control the approach and the execution.
3. Be a Sounding Board, Not a Hawk: Many leaders struggle to step back, instead “watching like a hawk” from the sidelines—which is just micromanaging by another name. Once you’ve communicated the desired outcomes, your role must transition. By stepping back to be a mentor and a sounding board, you provide a safety net for your team to grow their own capability without feeling hovered over.
And once you get this right, I can guarantee that you will free up time in the long run and grow the skills and capability of your team.
If delegation is your ‘Achilles heel’ as a leader and you need help making the shift then Clearway coaching can help. Contact Rebecca Mowat or phone 027 807 1533.