delegate

 

What is the one thing that keeps good leaders from becoming great?

The one thing that keeps good leaders from becoming great leaders is successful and effective delegation. Most don’t fully understand how to harness this superpower of effective leadership. It can mean the difference between making the game winning goal and pulling your hair out by the roots, wondering why you are still on the bench. That is quite the analogy, but I hope it paints a clear picture for how important this should be to you.

Realize that in order to be a more effective leader, the responsibility is yours to ensure you are using the strengths within your team to accomplish more.

In the early days of my career, before I really started piecing together the importance of personal and effective leadership, the one thing that really held me back was the art of delegation. I struggled with the ability to delegate tasks effectively. I mean, leadership is just telling people what to do, right?

In one particular incidence, I was in charge of a small department of about five personnel. Our department was continuously bombarded with tasking, and the team’s success depended on how efficiently we tackled each one. The first thing I did was assume that I was to do all of the work on my own, enlisting help only when I got overwhelmed. As my frustration arose, the strength of my team declined. It was the guidance of a strong and respected mentor that started me on the path to be a better delegator.

“No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” Andrew Carnegie

Leadership isn’t telling people what to do. It is more than that. It is showing them the way so that they can succeed and it is the leader’s responsibility to make the team successful.

A leader’s effectiveness relies on his ability to give direction, or to point others in the right direction.

1. You can be more effective, productive, and accomplish more.

2. Your team needs to be led. They want someone to show them the way.

3. You are not expected to complete everything on your own.

4. Effective delegation requires the ability to spot and target the strengths of your team and leverage them to gain the most productiveness.

5.  When you have effectively delegated, you are free to do your best work.

6.  Believe it or not, you are probably not the best person to do every single task. Accept the fact that there are actually people on your team that can do better, for whatever reason.

“The great leaders are like the best conductors – they reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players.” Blaine Lee

5 Steps to Better Delegation

1.  Model those who are obviously doing it right.

2.  Shift your perspective.

3.  Pay attention to your people.

4.  Don’t assign tasks because you don’t want to do them. Do it because you know someone else is better suited to accomplish it.

5.  Just do it. Like with everything else we strive to get better at, you have to practice the art of delegation.

 Have you always been a good delegator?

Photo Credit: Chris Owens via Compfight cc