The Consequences of Not Delegating

0:15 - Welcome back to extra shot of leadership.

0:16 - Welcome back.

0:17 - Welcome to our next episode. And this one, I'm ready to sing a song. I don't know about you, but I have been missing our song.

0:24 - I have no songs for you.

0:25 - I got a song for this topic topic today, and it is delegation. We're going to delegate and have a good time.

0:37 - For the celebration song. Who sings that?

0:39 - Cool & the Gang . Remember that?

0:45 - I got the dance moves right here.

0:47 - Do you remember what was the show that I remember, man, growing up as a kid, was it Solid Gold? Did you watch that? Yeah. Oh, heck yeah, I watched that. I remember watching Solid Gold, and I think it was one time I saw the Pointer Sisters on there and they had their purple jumpsuit and they were just dancing on that stage. And I was like, man, that is awesome. I love Solid Gold.

1:07 - I think Solid Gold. And what was the other thing that came on right before it? Man, I think that's where I learned my dance moves.

1:13 - Is that right?

1:13 - Yeah, there was another one that was right before it. I cannot remember.

1:16 - I don't remember. Yeah, but I love solid gold. I can't remember Soul Train. Was it Soul Train? And I can't remember who the host was. But I loved those shows and all of those music shows. I was into it as a kid.

1:27 - I dug that the dancers are up. On the top things. Like they had different stage layers than the ones at home.

1:35 - I know what you're talking about.

1:37 - Somebody else does, too. And they're like, no, it's not Soul Train.

1:41 - I don't know. So anyways, yeah, we're going to talk about delegation.

1:45 - Delegate. I'm going to sing that probably all night.

1:49 - All night long.

1:51 - And there's another song.

1:53 - What you got.

2:01 - That was so sad?

2:03 - Oh, my God. We got to get through this. All right, let's talk a little bit about delegation because this one is a fun topic. There's a lot of early career leaders out there. Bosses, supervisors, whatever we want to call them. They're figuring out this whole leadership game and manager game. I think we have a topic there, but it's around delegation in this whole piece of how do you do it? Is it hard to figure it out? Because if you don't do it, what happens? Right. So let's just in general, have you ever had a problem delegating to other people?

2:37 - Oh, yes.

2:38 - You have?

2:39 - Yeah, and I think it was a problem for me when I was an individual contributor as a project manager. Right. And I had to get other people doing things, so I had a problem with it then. And then I moved into leadership as a supervisor, and it was a problem then. It was just something that was really hard for me to learn. And I got myself in quite a few jams. Not delegating enough.

3:03 - What's the jam? So what happens? Let's go into your supervisor and you're with a team and you're not wanting to delegate, what happens? What is the issue that happened to you that you remember?

3:16 - Well, I think there's a problem for me, and then there's problem for the team. The problem for me was I'd be the one sitting there at night 07:00 with a deadline the next day or in the next couple of days, and it's all in my lap, right? Because nobody else can do it. Nobody else even knows where the project is at. And so there's people that are walking out, and they're like, how can I help you? Is there anything I can do? I'm like, no, right, because it would even take more time for me to be able to teach you and bring. You up to speed with where we're. At, because I have kept everything to myself.

3:50 - Because you want to. You don't trust others. You like it. What is it? What was it?

3:55 - I think in the beginning, I wouldn't think about it, right? Because I'm used to being the one that's doing all the work as the individual contributor, so I wouldn't even think about somebody else could help me with this. I think part of it was, if I'm honest, it's because I didn't think they do as good of a job. I think part of it is because we're busy and it takes more time sometimes to slow down and teach it. To somebody else, certainly. So sometimes it's a combination of all of those things.

4:22 - Yes.

4:22 - But many times I would find myself there in that spot, just frustrated and frustrated and even going into a meeting with my supervisor, and they're like, Why are you not delegating those things? And I'm like, that's an option.

4:39 - What does that even mean? Early on, yeah.

4:42 - And so it was hard for me to learn.

4:45 - Well, and I know there are many supervisors that in that transition, right. For their first time taking on a team, figuring that piece out of, do I do it all? How do we break up this work? Do I give it all to somebody else? What does that look like? That, to me, is one of the most difficult and challenging aspects of growing into a supervisor position to a real kind of now I'm managing the work of this group. I still have my own work, but I'm paying attention to I'm keeping all of these plates moving, helping everybody move forward, and they're all working on things that are achieving whatever major goals that we've established. So how did you figure out, hey, look, this sucks. I got to figure this piece out. I got to figure out how to delegate? At what point was there a situation that happened that you were like, okay, I'm over this. This is dumb?

5:41 - Yeah, I think there were a couple of things. It was too many of those nights where I'm here and everybody else is at home with their dog, their kids, and their dinner.

5:49 - Correct?

5:49 - Yeah. Chilling out. And so I'm left kind of holding the bag. And if I really reflect, it's on me. But I think sometimes it took my next level supervisor to even bring that out. Like, why are we here? Why did you not delegate? Who else can help you with this? And I'm like, I'm starting to answer all those questions, and I'm like, Honestly, just never thought about it. But I think once you start having those conversations, then you can still even get back in that point, and you're like, I've done it again. And so you have enough of those painful points, and you will start to look for, well, maybe I can delegate this, or maybe I can delegate. And then once you see that they can do it, they're waiting for you to delegate to them. Then you're like, oh, well, let me try this, or Let me try that.

6:35 - So what if my team is busy, right? I mean, my team is just too busy, because I've heard that oftentimes when I'm talking to other supervisors and managers, and when I'm talking to them, hey, how's it going? Oh, my gosh, I'm so busy. How are you sharing, spreading work? Those kinds of questions. The most often answer I get is, we're just so busy, and they're so busy, and I genuinely feel bad giving them the work.

7:00 - They're making you feel bad? Yes, because I used to do it to my supervisor.

7:07 - I'm busy. I'm like, oh, my God.

7:09 - Again? Yes. That's a tactic they use so that you don't give them more.

7:15 - Oh, there's a tactic. So as a leader, then as a new supervisor, I better get quick to knowing what that tactic is.

7:25 - Yes. And it's easy to figure out if they're really that busy. And we're like, okay, let's do let's just meet. Let's just see what's on your plate, right? So when you really start to dig into what's on their plate, maybe so maybe one of them really is busy. But if you really start to dig in, there's always a little spot, a little opportunity that you can find.

7:45 - Hey, look, I see 15 minutes right here. I love it.

7:50 - Day after day after day.

7:51 - This is Kim. I don't know what you went and drank in Mexico, but I love it. You're like. It's a tactic.

8:00 - I've used it. I've been there.

8:02 - I love it. I love it. Okay, so you figured out you're sitting there 09:00 at night in the office, and you're like, this is for the bird. I got to start delegating. What did you do? What was your next step? Did you read a book? Did you go get some, hey, show me how to delegate. Did you pick up a model? What created your style of delegation?

8:23 - Yeah. Start asking myself questions, right? So a lot of times, you're asking other people questions, but this time, I need to start asking myself questions. So as things start to hit my plate, the first thing I'm like, when does it need to be done? Or even make a list of all the things that you have that are on your plate, when does it need to be done? Because that's going to determine who's going to do it. Right? Then it's, who is this for? Right? To what level, what's the quality? Whatever this task that it needs, or how critical is this, how critical is this? Then that also determines where you're going to be able to delegate it. And then I really turn into an out. I'm like, who is going to get this one?

9:03 - Oh, my goodness.

9:05 - And literally, as things start to hit my plate, now, I'm that owl.

9:09 - Like, I'm going to remember that forever.

9:14 - Yeah. And so when you find yourself busy or your plate is too busy, you're too stacked up, you start looking at your task, and it's like now when you're deciding who to delegate it to, right?

9:27 - Yeah.

9:27 - You have to know those things, right? When do you need it done? To what level do you need it done? Because if it's not a short time frame, you have time to teach somebody something. If it's not a high level project, well, then you have time to start with someone that might need that skill and start from the bottom up versus someone that may already have the skill that you can hand it off to them and they can do it for you quickly.

9:49 - So kind of the quick things right now that I'm hearing is timeline. Timeline is important to know when do I need to get this done by, and criticalness of it, or visibility, whatever you want to call it. Is there a third one?

10:04 - Then I start going into that. Who needs to be developed, right? Who needs this skill? Who should have this skill, who doesn't have this skill, that type of thing.

10:12 - What if I only have one person on my team? Like, I only got one who. I love that there's not a bunch of who's. Just me and the who. It's me and the who. And I really feel like that person is jammed up. Is it just like, oh, well, too sad, so too bad, or do you have any recommendations around that?

10:39 - Well, my go tos are prioritization, right? What needs to be done right now? And if it all needs to be done right now, the very next thing I'm going to do is go aligned with my next level supervisor, right? Because it's like, I'm jammed up, she's jammed up. Do we really need to do all this? Let's look at my priorities and all the things that are on there and her priorities, and then maybe there's an opportunity to get contract help or another person on the team. Because if you have done a good job of lining out where we're spending our time and what we're spending it on you and the who, then you're probably going to get something from the next level. Supervisor is like, okay, I said it was a priority, but it's really now.

11:22 - That I see everything else in context. Yeah, that's right.

11:25 - You're right. We do need to get you some help, all right. Because it's going to go one of those two ways.

11:29 - But ultimately, when I think of this conversation around delegation, I do see the opportunity for leaders to reflect and say, why am I not delegating? Is it because I'm so good at this and nobody is ever going to be as good as I am? You know what? Maybe not. Maybe nobody is ever going to be as good as you. But you know what? Maybe they're going to be better than you. You just never know. But it does take some true reflection to say, why am I holding onto this stuff? What is it? Do I have a bunch of people on my team who are just terrible and I don't trust anybody? Or is it I can't let go. I got to hold on to this because I love doing it so much. Now what's?

12:12 - I want the spotlight because I've seen that, right? They don't want to let it go. They don't want to turn it over because they want the spotlight. I'm like, get over it. Let it go.

12:22 - There's so much to do.

12:24 - Let it go. Let your people shine.

12:26 - Yeah. Give them that opportunity. You know what reflecting is? I'm not going to do that. I'm going to keep holding on to this because I love it so much. What are the consequences other than me working late, being frustrated? I'm literally locking the door to the building because I'm doing so many hours. What is the consequence of that? Long term one?

12:50 - Yeah, you're going to keep doing it and you're going to be there long term. So if you enjoy that, just keep on doing it. I think when you look at the team, the team is going to be stifled. Right. Their growth, they're not going to develop. They're not going to get new skills. And I think they're going to get frustrated. Right. Because majority of people, I do think, have a desire to learn more, do more, grow. And so they're going to feel a lack of trust. They're going to feel like you don't trust them. They're going to feel like you can't develop them or you won't develop and you're not willing to develop them. You're not even willing to share the spotlight. Right? They're going to feel all of those things, and things just start to deteriorate. They can also get complacent. We're like, well, that's all you need out of me. Okay, peace out. 430. I'm done. So I think you just start to create some really bad environments. Just not a healthy environment. What would you say?

13:40 - My big thing is, as the leader, you yourself don't grow. I mean, I think your point is well made of, you know what, you're going to do it, you're going to keep doing it, but while you keep doing that same work, you yourself don't free up time to do new things. And really, in my mind, grow into your role the minute you take on a new team and you are holding on to work and not delegating appropriately. Right. The right work. I think you're right on the money with time and what is it and visibility and critical and all of that, I think that's spot on. But the minute you just keep maintaining doing that and I think what's important, the thing I would say is that release of work needs to happen in the first six months at the very latest first year. If you're not doing it past the first year and you're still holding on to work, oh, man, it's unlikely you're going to ever let it go. And if you don't let it go yeah. You don't free up time on your own schedule to learn new things. Right. You're not able to advance in your own progression and doing new or more or different. And you're stifling your own development by holding on right. So desperately. It's like, but I need this visibility or they can't do it or they're too busy. No, that's not your job. Your job is to help them get unbusy. Your job is to help them learn how to do it. And you've got to make progress on that.

15:06 - And I think that is really good. It's almost like you're going to see the whole department stuck.

15:11 - Right.

15:12 - That leader and everybody underneath them is just going to be stuck because you can't get out and think strategically, like, what else could we do? How could we do it differently? Which is the role of the leaders.

15:21 - That's exactly right. And that to me is what happens with leaders who don't transition into that true position of leadership, is they stifle themselves and they ultimately don't know what else to do. Right. Because what they're thinking is, if I give this work away, what am I going to do? I don't really know what I'm going to do. And they don't have either enough direction coming down. Perhaps the direction from their next level supervisor is not, hey, I need you to be working on, or hey, can you make some progress in this area? Or have you considered doing this? That information is not coming. So they don't see anything bigger. And that's troubling because I think you're right when you say they're kind of stuck. I see like the ice Age is what I see, right there in blocks of ice and you're kind of chipping away at it and they're stuck there and there's just no advancement. And I don't mean advancement and promotion, I just mean advancement in thinking and ways of doing things.

16:22 - Yeah, but as you say, it like I think about that promotion, that proper promotion is probably not coming. One is you're not able to develop those people that you need to replace you, and you haven't been able to develop your own thinking into a higher level to get you ready for that next level position. That's good.

16:38 - So what are you doing now for delegation? I mean, do you delegate everything or you get work and you're like, delegate, delegate? Are you like, what's happening?

16:47 - It's like a hot potato. You put it on me and I'm like, with this thing, it's hot and I'm looking for somewhere else for it to go. Now, that does not mean that I'm not engaged in whatever has been hitting my plate. Right. I'm still checking in, I'm still following up, I'm still talking about the expectation of what I need done, making it really clear. Do they understand I may be still training or developing? So there's a lot of involvement that's still going on with whatever, that hot potato that came to hit my plate, but I'm not necessarily doing the task of whatever it is.

17:27 - Yeah, I think that's a great point. And that is once I delegate, am I like, no more? I don't have to do anything anymore. It's theirs now. What does that look like? You've delegated something to what? You're the reviewer. What are you doing? You're keeping a pulse of the work? What does the check in progress looks like?

17:47 - Yeah, I think one I'm just checking in, like, are we making progress depending on the time frame of it? I'm checking in to make sure that they have understanding of what it is they're doing so that they're not stuck somewhere. If they need some help, like giving them some ideas of where they can go get help, they could come to me, but there may be somebody else where they can go get help looking at it from those kinds of things.

18:10 - Is there a question that you ask to ensure understanding? There are so many questions I have for you right now. It's like, what's my one tip to I've just delegated. I'm following up in a week. Is there a go to question you use with your team to say, yes, they're on track or we might not be on track?

18:28 - Yeah, I think for me, that I have some just simple go to where are we at? What's going well? Right. And is there any place that you're stuck? Any questions that you have? Is there anything that I can help you with?

18:41 - All right, simple man. I like it. Make it real simple. And as a manager or as a supervisor, you're like, OK. Based on their responses, I know if we're on track because I've done this work before, I have some experience in this space.

18:54 - Yes. And I just want to know, are they recreating the will? Are they just trying to figure it out on their own? I'm cool with all that because what I don't want to convey in that meeting is I don't trust them. Right. I fully trust you, and you can go do this a different way. It doesn't have to be my way. I just needed to get it done, and I just want to make sure you're not stuck, and is there anything I can do to help?

19:16 - Okay, so trust is important to you. I'm going off with a little bit of a tangent here. How do you know if you've busted trust, what crosses the line that now you're like, oh, man, I probably shouldn't have done that. I probably shouldn't have said that. Now they think I don't trust them.

19:31 - I think it's more like the micromanaging questions. Like, tell me how you're doing it. Tell me why you did that. Sometimes you want to know why they did it, but I think when you really start digging in questions and you're steering those questions over to the way you do it, then I think it starts to feel like on their side. You don't trust me to do a good job with this just then just tell me how you want it done.

19:56 - Okay. That's a good tip. I really like that the minute you start to kind of guide that conversation over towards, why aren't you doing this? Or, how come you didn't talk to this person? Or, why didn't you write it this way? Now all of a sudden, they're starting to feel stifled, and they're starting to feel like, hey, you know what? If this is your project, then go ahead and do it. But this is my project. I'm trying to do it the best way that I can do it. And I think the mindset is important for the manager. Right. At the end of the day, the managers got to believe, truly got to believe, that there is more than one way to do the work and that their way is not the best way, and it still might be the best way, but you know what? Perhaps they find a new way through the process.

20:39 - Yeah. And the one thing I always say, just because we do it differently doesn't mean one way is better than the other.

20:48 - We're all winners over there, Kimberly.

20:51 - Not everybody's getting a trophy over there, but we can all get to the finish line a different way, and I'm okay with that. And I think the other thing is the frequency of when you're checking in. Right. Does that feel like a lack of trust? I have until next Tuesday.

21:06 - Right.

21:06 - Why are you coming over here every day? I'm just checking in periodically.

21:11 - Okay. So there's some sort of tempo that you've figured out? So it's not every day. Probably depends on the work.

21:17 - It depends on the deadline, really. Like, is it a short deadline and a lot of work? And I'm just checking, like, do you need any extra help with this, or is it a long deadline and I can give them some leeway to kind of find their own way, then I'm not checking in every day. It may be once a week, once every other week type thing.

21:37 - So shorter deadlines, you're going to handle the work, longer deadlines, you're going to start doing the owl dance?

21:43 - Pretty much. Okay.

21:44 - All right, now, any one tip when you're thinking about delegation, you're talking to somebody, you're delegating a task. What's one tip? Your one takeaway it's. Like, if you don't do this, you have fumbled the ball.

22:02 - I'm thinking about, like, if I'm trying to delegate so that someone else can learn a skill, can learn something. I can't do just one pepper. I can't it has to be two.

22:13 - All right, do two.

22:15 - Making sure you're crystal clear in what you want and what needs to be done or what is the outcome, what is good look like, what is bad look like. And then whenever it comes back to you when it comes back to me, I feel like I've got to be honest, right? Because there's a whole, like, you got them, like, yeah, you did it, but I think you've got to be honest in, did we get where we needed to get? Don't close the door and do it yourself. And I say thank you so much. This was so great. Thank you so much. And then you do it yourself, not it all up.

22:45 - And they're like, hey, where's that thing I gave you?

22:47 - Or they'll never know, right? Maybe you're taking it onto your boss and they're never going to know that you're going to be like, that's not what I wanted. I'm just going to do it myself. No, you've got to go back and give some honest feedback. Like, this is really good, or, we missed the mark on this. This is why. And let me explain all that to them because they're never going to get better if you're not honest with them. So those are my two tips.

23:10 - So be crystal clear what is good look like, what is bad look like, and give honest feedback. So I am aligned on number one. Be crystal clear about what you expect. Like, what is it that you want? Be like, not paint by numbers. You're not telling them how to do it, but you're telling them what the end result looks like. My number one tip. That's one. I got to do two, too. I'm with you. I need the timeline. No timeline, we're sunk. You absolutely have to give that. I need this in 4 hours. I need this by the end of the day. I need this in three months. You have to give the timeline. I think without the timeline, it's like it will just go on forever. And to me, there's just this awkward dance around the time frame when you don't give it.

23:59 - Yes.

24:00 - I think as the leader, you're kind of in your mind, you think you've given it, and you probably haven't. And so they have no idea when they're supposed to be following up or the urgency behind things. But I think I mean, sometimes I'm giving assignments and it's like, I need this in 30 minutes.

24:16 - Yeah.

24:16 - And I don't want people wondering, how quick or how much time do I have in order to give this back? So timeline, timeline, timeline. I think that is crucial when you are delegating a task to somebody else.

24:29 - I love it. So what was that other one?

24:31 - It's the whole good look. Like, bad look. Like, those are my two.

24:35 - You taught me that. I was like, man, because that keeps them out of the ditch. Right. Because as an employee that wants to do a good job, you're never going to show up with, what does that look like? If you already know what that looks like.

24:47 - Yeah. And be real clear. If that is a white document with just black letters on it, then say, I expect some graphics on here, or I expect this to look customized to our organization, or I don't want that on here. That's too much for this audience. To be real clear, what you're looking for in your in report or you're in spreadsheets or whatever it is that you're making the assignment on so that people know what target they're shooting for.

25:17 - Yeah. I mean, I was just listening to kind of your conversation. My conversation? I'm like, now I'm seeing it in skills. Like, you need to have good communication skills, right? So you can be crystal clear. You need to have good time management skills. You need to have good skills on feedback. There were some specific skills there that I think that you need to be that you're developing when you're delegating and that you need to develop as you're delegating.

25:41 - And you know what? I think the other thing that I would say to this is give yourself a break because you're going to screw up. Right. When you're learning how to delegate and learning how to give ownership to your team or allow your team to have ownership over the work, it's hard. There's a like, oh, is it mine? Is it theirs? Whose is it? Give yourself some grace because you're likely going to step over the TrustLine, right? Or you're going to step over the shoot, I didn't give them the deadline or Shoot, I wasn't clear enough. This doesn't look right. And now I have to give them feedback because Kimberly said I have to give them feedback, and they're going to say, well, you didn't tell me that. If you would have told me that, I would have done that. Yeah, you're learning, right? But number one thing is to delegate. You got to learn to delegate. As you start taking on more teams, more responsibility, learning how to allow people to reach their full potential.

26:34 - Yeah. And then there's one last thing.

26:38 - I love it.

26:38 - Just say thank. You whether it was a good job or not at such a good job or whatever, just say thank you. Honestly. Because you can't just be like and do this and do that and do this and do that. You just got to be I am so appreciative of all the things that are being able that I'm able to take off my plate, push down, push out, and other people are doing to help me and help the organization. I'm just like so thankful.

27:01 - Don't forget to show some love and appreciation.

27:03 - Show some love.

27:05 - Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Extra Shot of Leadership. We hope you have enjoyed this conversation around delegation. If you have any tips for delegation, reach out to us on LinkedIn or through our email.

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