Episode 63 | Why Delegation Is Hard (and How to Make It Easier)

Hello, hello, you're listening to the Better Workday Podcast with me, Niamh Moynihan.

 

Welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. If you are new, if you're a new listener, I am delighted to have you here and I look forward to sharing some ideas and ways for you to create a better workday. And if you're not new here, if come back, I just want to say I really appreciate you tuning in and supporting the podcast and I hope you find it helpful. Now, one thing you might notice or might have noticed if you have been listening for a while or maybe even from the beginning is that some things have changed lately.

 

things sound a little bit different, maybe like my intro is different, outro is a little bit different. And that's because I have started taking more of my own advice and I got some help. Yes, I have delegated the editing of this podcast to one full person, Lachlan Hart, and I am all the better for it. So in this week's episode, I want to talk about why delegation is so important. And more importantly, I want to address

 

many, many reasons why we don't delegate, especially if we're in a busy workplace. And as always, share some ideas to get you started because, you know, take it from somebody who finds it hard to delegate and who's very, very busy. I know how you feel, but I also know firsthand the absolute gains and benefits when you start delegating. And of course, this isn't my first time doing it. It's just the most recent time.

 

And every time I get help and outsource something or get support in an area, I just always think why haven't I done it sooner? So anyway, there we are. Let's get into it. Let's talk about delegation and get you on the road if you haven't already started.

 

So we'll start with the benefits of delegation. Why should you keep listening to this episode? Well, if you are busy, one of the first benefits is it gives you more time. And yeah, I know at the start it can feel like it's taking up a lot of time. We'll talk about that later on.

 

But in the long run, you know, give it a week or two, three, and you want to start getting your time back. And once you start getting the time back, it just keeps on coming. All right. So definitely that's one biggie. But for me, another part of it is, you know, help develop other people. Right. So especially if you're working in an organization, like the delegation isn't always about you. Like I always say, how did you get experience in your role? How did you get to where you are? It's because somebody delegated work to you once by a time.

 

And so delegation is absolutely crucial, actually, to the ongoing development of an organization's talent and employees. So it's a must do in developing other people. And, know, because then we're kind of making the best use of everyone's time and talent, it makes the company more effective overall. So like at every level from you to the other people, to the organization, it's a win, win, win. And I'm sure you can agree with all that, but you probably are also saying to me, Niamh, that's easier said than done.

 

I'd love to delegate, but I can't. And when I talk to people about this, there's usually a couple of things that come up. And so before I talk about, you know, how to delegate, let's just address those. OK, so some of the barriers that I see, the first one is the biggest one. And it's the idea of, know, if you want things done right, do it yourself. Now, I've seen this a lot and I know that some people believe it's because they're micromanaging or because they have to control and all of that.

 

And I do think there's an element of that, you know, a fear of letting go. But I also know that it's not always the full story. So with a couple of people I've worked with over the years, it's kind of become more apparent that sometimes it's not the fear of letting go. It's the fear of your head being on the block if things go wrong. All right. So if, let's say, for example, if you're a manager and it is a huge amount of pressure put on you as an individual to get it right.

 

And, you know, if a mistake is made, you know, on your head, be it, you know, this is all resting on your shoulders. We're relying on you. You know, you are the key to the success. You, you, you. Then, of course, you're going to be afraid to give it to anyone else because, my God, if they don't do it right, then you're going to get in trouble or you're going to get landed with the blame. And so, again, I talk with psychological safety a lot in the podcast, either directly or indirectly.

 

But like this is one of those situations where like, you know, if you feel you can't fail, if you feel you can't make a mistake, if you feel you can't rely on other people, if you feel you can't talk up, then that's one of the biggest barriers to delegation, I feel. Another one then is like you thinking that the other person or whoever it is you're thinking of delegating to either doesn't want the responsibility or they're too busy. Right. So you have an idea of what the other person wants to do, what the other person finds interesting, how much time they have available.

 

and you think all those are working against you. Right. So there's no point even asking for the help because they'll say no or they'll take it on and won't deliver because they just don't want to do it. I suppose the other big event for me, honestly, is a lack of delegating experience. So if you haven't delegated a lot in the past or if you haven't delegated successfully, then you're going to be afraid of like failure, mistakes, the work being put back on your desk in a mess. You haven't fixed it all and all that kind of stuff. if you haven't

 

had experience in delegating work, then all of that can be a bit scary. And again, just for anyone listening who is responsible for training or developing other people, delegation is not something that people are born knowing how to do. You know, it's something to skill, especially workplace delegation to skill that, you know, can be learned and training in it, I think is very, very important for anyone who is moving into not even a management role, senior team members, you know.

 

that point, they should be learning how to delegate so that again, like I said earlier, they can spend their time on the work that's most valuable while also helping to develop the other people on the team. And then of course, that stands for them if they choose to move into team leader management roles in the future. All right. So the biggest one, of course, is either the fact that you don't think people have the time or even fear of going wrong and maybe you get in the blame or you're having to fix it. Right. So there is a

 

good framework that I came across and it showed different levels of delegation, right, that, you know, you don't have to delegate the whole thing. And when I saw that, was like, my God, there's actually more options here available than we think. Right. And whenever I show people this, it's a game changer because you'll be able to see, yeah, you might not be able to delegate in the way you thought, but there are other options there. Right.

 

And so let's just start with that, because I think once you understand that there's different levels, again, you'll see the options, you'll see the opportunity. So there are six different levels. All right. And again, as always, the details of this will be in the show notes. OK, so when I do my show notes, I kind of do a summary of the podcast and some key takeaways and bits and bobs like that. And this is probably one of those episodes that you might want to click on the show notes to have a read if you want. Or of course, you can play this back again, as well. That's an option.

 

So there's six different levels and the base level is like do as I say. Right. So this is you are asking somebody to follow an SOP, a standard operational procedure, list of instructions to follow a recipe, to follow the steps exactly as you want. And we do this a lot with highly repetitive tasks and actually a lot of the time at the moment we're asking ourselves

 

If it can be done the same way time and time again without any change, you would be asking AI or automation to take care of that instead of burdening someone else. it just on that note, delegation is not just delegating to people. Sometimes it is delegating to tech. So that's the very first level. Do exactly as I say, you know, follow to the letter and we should get the expected results. That's pretty straightforward. Now people often don't like to

 

delegate at this level because they haven't the process documented. All right. So if that's what's holding you back, what I'd say to you is the next time you're doing it, just record yourself doing it and grab the transcript from that. So if you record it in MS Teams or Google Meet or Zoom or whatever, get the transcript from the video, then pop that into Chat GPT or Gemini or whatever it is you use and ask them to create a draft SOP.

 

And you're halfway there. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect, but you can definitely start with that and then you can get the person to do it with you once and you can correct the SOPs you go along and boom, you've got your started. All right. So there you go. Level one. Now, the second level is this idea of just asking people to look into something for you. Right. So you're just asking them to get information for you. So maybe, you know, you're looking to do some research and you're like, we'll just take a look online and see what you can find on this topic.

 

Right. So they're not actually delivering any results to anyone other than to you, but they're saving you a lot of time. And now, again, I know a lot of people are using AI and stuff for this, but I'd argue that maybe in this case, depending on the topic, you might need to go the old fashioned route, you know, through Google and through other search tools. And so you need some just to kind of do a bit of digging, proper research for you, right. Or even to use AI and then just double check it and make sure you're getting the information that you need. So that's a really nice one.

 

to give to somebody who maybe you're like, I don't really trust you on the execution yet. Maybe lack of experience, lack of skill, but can you look into it? And the nice thing about that is when you get them to do that work for you, they're starting to get domain knowledge. They're starting to get industry knowledge. They're starting to get an understanding of what that topic is. So that's going to benefit them. Right. And then perhaps after they've done that for a while, you can ask them to give you their opinion or their advice and you'll still decide.

 

But, you know, they have gone done all the research. They've gone, you know, looked at the report. They've looked at the metrics. They've looked online for the research, whatever this is. And they're coming to with a recommendation. Right. And again, you know, if you are somebody who has to make a lot of decisions day in, day out, and, you know, for spinning lot of plates, I'm telling you, like to reduce a bit of that decision fatigue, to delegate that can be, you know, a big, big help. All right.

 

So I do this a bit actually with the podcast. So my sister, you might have heard her on the original intro, actually she gives me a hand with the podcast in the back end. And sometimes I just say to her, look, take a look at the performance of the podcast. Give me your advice on, you know, some new topics. I decide. Right. And it's great. It's just great to have that little bit of, oh, I don't know, weight taken off you. All right. So those two, like look into something for me and give me your advice. both kind of information delegation, we'll say. And then we're looking at the

 

level of denigration then. we're getting a little bit more, I suppose, experienced. You're taking more risk with the person, you know, because you're giving them more responsibility. But I suppose at this stage, maybe they've built up that knowledge and shown that, they are capable and you know, the trust is there because look, that trust is needed. Now, the next level is focused on the outcome. All right. And at this stage, now we trust the person a little bit more, they have more experience.

 

they've got more domain knowledge, they've shown that they're capable and interested and able to take it on. And so you might ask them to look into it and not only just give advice, but maybe make the decision for you and then just check with you before they press the button. So at this stage, you're just giving the other person that extra little bit of autonomy to make the decision, but just to run a by you first. you might do this for a few reasons. It might just be because there could be other stuff happening in the company, like there might be some political stuff going on or

 

other bits and pieces that you can't actually share with the person you're delegating with. And so that's why you want them to check with you. So it's not always, you know, because you don't believe they're going to make the right choice. just sometimes that's what makes sense. And actually this level is very interesting because a lot of people I know hold off on delegating here because like that, they're like, no, no, there's a few different factors to consider. And I'm yeah, but what if the person made the decision but just didn't do one thing about it?

 

until they checked it and sometimes that little gap there between, you know, decision and action is what people need to feel more comfortable. And maybe then, you know, after that you can say maybe, especially if it's financial, you could say, look, actually, you can make the decision and go ahead as long as you're working within certain limits. So I said, don't certain spending limits, certain revenue limits, certain discount limits, whatever it is, you know, if it's within that band, work away. And then finally, at the very, very top of this is just to ask somebody to take care of this for me.

 

You're not giving them an SOP. Ask them to look into it or give you their advice or to half take care of it. You're saying, look, I need your help with this. You just take care of it for me. And there's a lot between the very first thing to do, as I say, and taking care of this for me. As we move through each of those levels, the person you're delegating to takes on more responsibility. They have more freedom over the work that they're doing and the way that they're doing it. They're bringing more to the table.

 

And so what I'd say is you have to be there to support them through that and to allow them to make those decisions, maybe if you make a few mistakes and to still be available to them if they have questions along the way. But I hope that even by listening to those different scenarios, you can start to see that there is more than one way to delegate. And perhaps the way you've been looking at it won't work right now, but one of the other ways will.

 

And the other really big thing I want you to consider when it comes to delegating, if you haven't been doing it so far, is to make sure you're selecting the right person. So maybe you've been looking in the wrong places to delegate. right. So there's a few different things that you should consider. So first of all, is the skill. Like, so do they have the ability or do they have the potential to be able to do it? So again, like when we're looking at developing people and we're setting growth goals and stuff.

 

You know, it's OK if they can't do it all as long as you believe that they can learn. know, they've demonstrated being able to learn and take on new things in the past. And especially today with so much learning and training available, like if they have any capability at all in the area, then, you know, that's probably going to be fine. What's more important actually is their level of interest in what you're doing. And you might think that what you're doing is very boring, but they might actually find it really, really interesting. And funnily enough,

 

You may be looking at somebody who's got a different personality style to you might be a good idea because if you're finding a particular task of one year or frustrating or whatever, somebody with a different personality might absolutely love it. All right. So again, if you're looking kind of for your, so you the mini me, it's somebody who's exactly like you. That might not be the best idea because again, if you don't want to do the work because it's not something you get joy from or it's a burden on your day, then somebody just like you might feel the same. The other side of that, of course, is

 

You may need somebody who is exactly just like you, very similar personality, because the reason you can't keep doing it is because of your workload. But you know that it's something that you love doing and somebody who has a similar work approach to you would also love doing it. So think about that. Think about why you want to delegate and then just the concept of team dynamics, especially if you're a manager, you know, that you're not always delegating to the same person or that you're not giving other people an opportunity. It's very important to not assume.

 

what people do and don't want to take on and that links in with workload. like even if you are responsible for the team and for assigning responsibility, you might not have a full picture of their workload because, you know, people pick up tasks from all places, especially in big companies. You know, you're asked to help out with one project or somebody from the team sends you an email and you're working on that. Like there's all bits and pieces going on. so.

 

somebody who think has a very mandatory workload might actually be struggling and vice versa. And so what you don't want to do is free up your own workload to the detriment of somebody else.

 

So with that, way that I found to be very helpful over the years is to literally, first of all, you make a list of your tasks and mark them against those levels, in terms of like what could you delegate or what level could you delegate, right?

 

and make decision that you're going to move some of your stuff off your desk by, I don't know, the next three months, six months and bring that list to your team and say, I haven't picked any of you for this, but over the next three to six months, this is the stuff that I need help on or I need to move off completely or whatever it is and ask for their contribution, ask for their thoughts, their opinion, share it as a team and then maybe follow up in your one on ones. And you might be surprised.

 

at who wants to step up or who wants to take things and the conversation that will unfold. Because the final thing I'll say on delegation is it's funny, people try to make those decisions in a vacuum. Like I know it's currently your work and it's on your desk. Well, you don't have to be alone in making the decisions around what to do with it. So coming back to the podcast and my decision to get somebody to help me to

 

edit it and make sure it's the right quality and to take, I'm not joking you know, about three hours a week back of my life, which, you know, I'm now able to use delivering and researching, which is amazing. But I made that decision with the help of other people. So with Trisha, my sister, I mentioned, was one or two other people who helped me in the business in the back end and we had a conversation on the pros and cons, you know, so it wasn't a solo decision. And maybe that's one thing that you can do differently around delegation is to

 

share your workload ideas with the group and invite them into the conversation. Don't just wait until you're saying to them, I'm assigning you a new task. So that's it from delegation. I know it's a bit of a meaty topic in terms of the levels and all that kind of stuff. So again, do check the show notes if you want to read a little bit on this and do listen back and if that suits you better. As always, if you found this helpful, please share with a friend or colleague who you think would benefit from it.

 

And you can let me know if it helps you by leaving a rating or review and subscribe to the podcast. That's what helps me be found by other people on the podcast platforms. So that's really good. And if you want any more detail, of course, head over to a better workday.com. And as always, feel free to get in touch if you do anything differently as a result of this episode. OK, that's it from me for this one. And I'll be back in your ears next week. Until then.

 

Stay well and have a better work day.