Delegate to Accelerate Lesson 3: How to Plan the Delegation Process to Ensure Success
This third “Delegate to Accelerate” recording (first can be found here; second can be found here) addresses how to plan the delegation process to ensure its success.
We cover these topics:
Why we need to develop a delegation culture
How to decide what to delegate
Building others’ skills and efficacy
Be clear on tasks and outcomes
Listen in to the below recording to learn more and to bring yourself that much closer to true acceleration!
Oh, and by the way, I mention a special offer in this video that you don’t want to miss!
Full transcription below.
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00:01 Hey, it's Naphtali. And welcome back to the "Delegates to Accelerate" mini-lesson series. And we are up to number three. And in this presentation I'm going to focus on how specifically the planning part of delegation. How do we delegate? What are the processes and steps necessary to be successful so that when we delegate, we do it right? We cover all of our bases. And a lot of it, of course, has to happen in the planning stage. We'll unpack all of that shortly. Just a brief review or recap. I am an executive coach. I have been helping leaders on a variety of levels for a number of years. But this particular focus is all about helping leaders who struggle to manage their workloads and get home at a decent hour. That's the dilemma so many of us have and that has been the focus of our conversations together.
01:02 And so I help leaders delegate and be more productive so they could scale profits with less stress. And there are many other benefits as well, some of which we've already talked about. Empowering our people. Creating a leadership pipeline. General workplace satisfaction, from the leader feeling that you are making a massive impact and helping others feel that they are contributing as well. So there is so much that we can do with delegation to bring us to our happy place and move us from the left, which for many of us may be 'present you' to what we all want to be in terms of 'future you.' How do we get from somebody who is overwhelmed with a desk full of stuff, feeling just that they're constantly falling further and further behind with their to do lists and whatnot to a place where they are happy and content, productive,
01:55 their workload is manageable, they're getting out at a decent hour, spending quality time with the people that they admire and they love and still doing a fantastic job as a leader? We all want that and we all want to do it. Even if we feel we're doing it okay right now we want to be great at it. Because that's really what creates impact. That's what creates legacy. It's really the transformative piece in the leadership puzzle. So, let's jump in because I'm like beyond excited to talk about how we're going to move this process forward and get us to that 'future you.' Before we do though, I want to remind you that we've spent some time already talking about key elements of delegation. Everything from what delegation is, why it's so important, when to delegate, when not to delegate. We also talked about who to delegate to and how to properly train them.
02:51 So we've answered a bunch of questions. We've answered 'when.' We've answered 'who.' We started to answer 'how,' at least on the training side. But now we're going to talk about the 'how 'as it relates to planning. And for those of you who did not listen to those other recordings, they are important. They don't necessarily have to be listened to in advance of this recording, but certainly I would encourage you to get your hands on those. We're going to link them up to make sure that you can and that you get the full picture and the full benefit of this mini-series. So please do get those recordings. And of course when you do, I'd love to hear from you on that as well. So, let's move on in our conversation. This is number three and we're going to be focusing on the planning piece.
03:39 So we know when and we know to who, but we still need to make sure that any delegating that we do is successful. So we're going to focus now on how. And one question that was presented, and this is very common language that I got in the survey and just in conversations with clients and others, is how do I delegate certain jobs in my organization to others? And the continuation of it is to ensure that it's not a one and done and it's successful and it doesn't harbor resentment and everybody feels good about it and it lends itself towards future delegation and all of that. So we want it to work, we want it to be successful. And nothing is successful that is meaningful that doesn't have a plan on the front end. So we're focusing on the bottom right side, what we might call, let's say about four o'clock if we were looking at this as a clock setting, 'clear objectives and plan.'
04:37 So if we know what the task is and we know who we want to delegate to, we still have to have a plan in place that's going to make sure that any delegation that we undertake will be successful. And from there we could talk about implementation, monitoring, evaluating. We will touch upon some of that in this recording, some of it in a future recording. But either way we have to remember where we are in the process and ultimately how setting clear objectives, having a meaningful plan and then executing on the plan, is such a critical part of the success of a delegation process. Now, before we get into the details, something that I'm not sure that there's a better place to insert this. But I do think it's critical that we talk about the culture. You know, oftentimes when I present on delegation and I ask participants, what was the biggest revelation?
05:29 What was the piece that they would not have on their own anticipated as part of delegation or being an important piece of it? Their answer often is this one right here. That there's a culture that we create, or at least potentially we should be creating a culture around delegation that people should value it. They should understand that we value it and not only should leaders be thinking about delegation and considering the process and all of this. That they should be delegating more often for the benefits that we've talked about, but their people should be looking to be delegated to because they should see the benefits as well and they should understand how it helps them, their company, et cetera. So give them permission. Let them know that it's okay for them to remind you if they see something should be delegated but hasn't been.
06:27 And if they want something, they see a project that they feel they can make a meaningful contribution to and that it could help them as well, let them ask for it. You may not choose to give it to them, but let them at least understand that this is something that we want better, that more too many people are asking for it, then nobody's asking for it. So let's think about creating a culture, because if that is part of the way we operate, it's going to make everything else so much easier to work with. So now that we've established the need for a culture, let's talk about the actual delegation process. And of course sometimes you don't have the benefit of this, but if you have a little bit of runway and you're playing the long game, as we've talked about, and you have somebody in mind, but you're not sure that they're ready for a full, let's call it distribution of tasks.
07:17 Or maybe that's even the right term, they're not ready to take on a meaningful responsibility or new responsibility yet. Try to identify something a little bit smaller and a little bit more flexible. A small project. One that doesn't have to be completed in a specific way. Because when you have that freedom and they have that freedom to make mistakes and be creative and learn from the process, everybody's going to feel good about it and it's going to make it that much easier to get them to not only do this particular project but subsequent projects as well. So the right choice can make a big difference both in terms of who, but also what it is that you are asking them to do. And this goes back to some of the content we've been discussing in the previous recordings. Who is the right person to delegate to?
08:09 What's the right kind of task that we should be delegating to them? And that of course factors into our planning. Planning operates with a who and what consideration. And again, the more freedom and flexibility we offer the likelier it is that success will be achieved on some level. And there'll be something to base off of moving forward. Now, this is a familiar slide for those of you who saw the previous recording because I did include it there. I wanted to include it here as well because it does tie into where we are in the process. Once we know who it is that we want to delegate to, we have a project in mind that is low stakes, flexible, all which we just talked about. We also want to make sure that if there is extra learning that is necessary for others to engage in, in order for them to be successful, that we provided for them.
09:08 And the same questions we've mentioned before. So what do they still need to know or learn? How will they learn it? And if there's a skill to practice, how will they practice it? So, for example, if you want your delegatee you want that your coworker, your direct report to start producing a report. Or you want them to begin to manage certain processes that are ongoing within the company that you've been handling until now, but you're ready to give it to somebody else, you have to go through the various steps and say, what is the information they need to know? What kind of modeling do I need to provide? What kind of skills do they need to master? And all of these questions. And once you tease that out a little bit, you ask yourself, well, what do I think they know
10:01 presently? We talked previously about the skills gap analysis. What is the gap between what they need to know versus what they presently know. And start to fill in those gaps. And once you build knowledge and you build efficacy, the sense that I can do this. I'm confident. I know that with time, if I don't know it already now, I'm going to learn it, and they feel good about that, they're going to have much more motivation to do the job and do it successfully, so that you can really move it onto somebody else. And then from there, this is a critical, critical piece that you need to have in your own mind. And then of course to share it as well. So once you have shared this idea that you have a task you want to delegate, you have a person in mind.
10:53 Now you have to be very clear on what exactly it looks like and what are the timelines and the deliverables involved. By when do I want to have this done and what do I want to get at that time? Ideally you want to get all of the information, all the guidelines, everything that needs to happen, you want it in writing because if it's in writing, then everyone can refer back to it. The goal here is not to create a basis for any form of litigation kind of thing. You know, in the office. It's not about checking up on people or telling them that, Oh, you didn't do what I said. It's not so much that. It's just a matter of I can refer back to what did I really ask you to do and you can refer back to what was asked of me.
11:45 I have something to check on, I have something to refer back to. And then of course is the basis for subsequent conversation. So put it in writing. Make it very clear. Ask lots of questions. Say, do you understand? What do you think it should look like? Get as clear as possible. Have them articulate that to you as well. And of course if there are any questions or concerns it's best to find out at the outset what those are and see if you can deal with them effectively. So a brief review of what we've talked about so far. We talked about creating a culture. We talked about making sure that people feel that delegation is part of the way that they roll. They should be proactive in asking for things as necessary. And then we discussed how do we make sure that the people who we are identifying are as prepared as possible so that they can move right into the task and do it properly.
12:38 And of course, make sure that they have a clear sense of what needs to be done and by when. And in a perfect world we're going to try to get a project that is manageable, not too large, has some flexibility built into it, so that they can feel that they are succeeding and you still have room to make whatever corrections need to be made. But it's not a 'my way or the highway' type item. So that if you know, in the event that something doesn't go exactly right, it's not as if we have to throw the whole thing out and start again. Typically speaking would be able to take advantage of what they've done while still correcting and making adjustments moving forward.
13:19 Now with all of this planning, it's obviously not everything. And one of the logical concerns that people have in articulated to me all the time is that, "even though I've done all of this, the job is still not going to get done." So, here are some quotes that appeared in this survey feedback. Number one: "being 100% certain that there's effective follow through." So let's just say for example, I have the right person and we have a commitment and they know what the job is. But how do I know they're going to get it done? You know, so often, people just don't follow through for whatever the reason. Another quote that, "the jobs don't get done unless you follow it up and then you might as well have done it yourself."
14:04 In other words, if I have to sit on top of you and make sure that you're doing it and constantly hudge you for the work, et cetera, then why am I even bothering to delegate to you? These are real concerns and we have to make sure that we address them. Because at the end of the day, if it doesn't get done, all of the planning is not helpful. So we have to move from 'plan' to 'execute.' And that is the objective of our next training. So to recap where we've been so far. We know who it is that we want to delegate to. We know the kinds of jobs we should be delegating versus the kinds that we should not. We have a sense of how we should be planning the process. Identifying kind of job. Creating the right culture. Getting people on board. Setting expectations, timelines and deliverables. All of that.
14:58 The one thing we still need to talk about in this continuum is, how do we move to execute? How do we get to a point where we feel really comfortable and confident that people will follow through and get the work done? So actually I just articulated the content of this slide, but as you can see over here a brief review of everything we have discussed. And so you see that we're close, right? We are nearing the finish line, so to speak, at least in our mini lesson version of the delegation process. We have really covered a lot. There's so much content here that it should give you a very good preliminary sense of what delegation is, how it works and how we could use it to help us succeed. But like anything else, there's only so much we can cover in these shorter videos. And I have an offer coming in my next video that I think is really special.
16:01 I think it's going to be the transformative piece. It's going to take everything that we've been talking about until now and bring us to the next level. It's going to take us so much deeper on the "Delegate to Accelerate" concept and help us to achieve breakthrough results. It has to do with creating support, creating a community, and tackling some of the most important issues of delegation, some of which we have gone into in this mini series and some of which we have not been able to touch on. And let's take a look at some of the things that we will learn if or when the offer is released. And of course hopefully you will take advantage of it. So what you will learn by participating in that offer. Ationable tips. Number one, actual tips to delegate with clarity and confidence.
16:54 We've mentioned a bunch. There's so many more still to share. The many benefits of delegating for leaders and for their people. Why it's important. Again, we've discussed this, but we will be adding more because the more that we make a convincing argument or compelling argument to delegate, the more you will do it. Even in the past you've known you needed to do it, but practically speaking, in many cases you have not. So we want to make sure that it gets done. When you should or should not delegate. How do identify the right person, the right tasks to delegate? Many of these, again, we have begun to discuss in previous recordings. How to plan. That was our focus in this recording. Ways to delegate without coming across as lazy or shifting responsibility. A big concern that many leaders have. Why am I giving it to somebody else?
17:45 It should be, maybe, my work to do. Proper balance between and micromanagement. How much should I be overseeing somebody else's process? At which point does it sound or feel like micromanagement? Number nine, strategies to monitor projects to ensure proper completion. We began to talk about this in this recording and that's going to be the focus primarily of our next recording. I have empowered the person or maybe I haven't - I'm sort of letting the cat out of the bag - I've informed the person, I've gotten them on board with me. But how do I get them to actually do the work? And then finally as needed when and how to pull projects back that are not operating effectively, are not being properly managed, the work isn't getting done, but it still does need to get done? How do I manage that process as well?
18:39 So be on the lookout for that offer. I think you're going to really appreciate the opportunity to take advantage of it. And of course because you are loyal and you've been listening this far into the process and throughout these recordings, you will have first dibs on the offer, which is going to be limited both in terms of time as well as space. It is a limited time offer. It's only going to be one week between open cart and when the offer closes. So I would encourage you to take full advantage and get it on the action right away because there's also a limitation of how many participants will be in this group that we will be discussing. And that's because I want to maximize engagement. I want to make sure that I am responsive. I want to make sure that everybody has a voice and a seat at the table.
19:33 I want everybody to feel like they are learning and contributing and really growing and it's difficult to do that when the size is too large. So please understand that there is a limitation to this offer. So please join me as soon as you hear it. Obviously, I want to make sure that you can be incorporated into this exciting opportunity that we will discuss further. So we're going wrap up this recording with another request of please help me out. I feed off of your energy. As an introvert and as somebody who does need external stimulus so to speak, in order to get fully energized, I want to be able to participate with you and take advantage of your interaction and your feedback. So please do comment. Please let me know your thoughts. Of course, if you know other people that are interested in this, please share it as well.
20:30 Pass it on in social media. Pass it on via email. However you feel is most appropriate. But I definitely would love to have this content spread far and wide so that we can make the kind of impact that we have been talking about so that so many more leaders you can delegate to accelerate, to clear their plates, to be able to find the time to do the right work and still minimize stress, empower their people, and get home at a decent hour. So for today or for now, I want to thank you again for joining me for this recording. We've covered a ton. We have so much more still to do. One more recording coming up and a special offer. So do be on the lookout for that. It's coming soon. And in the meantime, thank you for joining me and, um, have an awesome day.