Delegation: The Throttle of Your Business Part 1
Written by Guest User
This post is a continuation of You Can Grow or You Can Control, but You Can’t Do Both. In that post we discussed that excellent decisions are one of the chief characteristics of an empowering culture. Making excellent decisions is the first of three skills, the practice of which at every level of church management will greatly enhance a culture of empowerment and confidence. The other two are delegating authority well, and engaging in healthy dialogue.
Delegation determines the church’s throttle, speed, and power to reach the destination. The word ‘delegation’ – from to delegate – is defined first as, ‘to entrust to another.’ What are the threats to effective delegation? The leader may think he has not enough time to spell out all the details necessary to delegate a task – writing a task-description, clarifying expectations and reporting instructions, and taking the time for all of the necessary dialogue that goes with delegation. Or the leader fears losing control over what may be a special idea or project of his. There may be an ‘I can do it better,’ mindset on the part of the leader. Or there could be fear that he won’t get credit for what, after all, was his idea. Also, there may be a fear of losing tasks that he likes. The leader may lack confidence in his team members that they can execute the task well. Finally, the leader may fear push-back from the person on the receiving end of delegation.
That’s truly a long list of threats to effective delegation. Making excellent decisions consistently requires skill; I believe effectively delegating work requires more skill because at the core of most of these threats is the issue of trust. I hear far more complaints about leaders failing to delegate well that I do about leaders making bad decisions. Part of that is because decisions are more point in time and delegation requires longer term relationship, trust, and dialogue.
So, by examining the threats to effective delegation, we can identify some strong delegation-skill characteristics that would counter the threats and allow for delegation to flow well in the organization.
Four of the threats - not having enough time, losing control, “I can do it better,’ and lack of confidence all have one thing in common, that is, the leader wants it done right. That’s fair. Everyone wants it done right, but that’s no reason for the leader to keep the task himself.
There’s no way to avoid the upfront time involved of clearly writing a task or assignment description. Thinking through the details, then writing them down, perhaps getting some up front approval, or having some dialogue around the task, and then, finally, explaining the task description all takes time. All told these steps could take 10-20 hours, and that may be over a period of weeks once the idea has been conceived. That’s a group of hours; it will take time, but this is a finite number of hours. Holding onto the task for not wanting to take the upfront describing work, will in fact cost you time and that number of hours won’t be finite. So many things can come along and soak up time along the way. The leader can’t afford to sacrifice leadership time for project management time. Take the time up front!
The other three “I want it done right” threats are remedied by addressing trust issues between the leader and his team, or amongst the team members. If trust won’t show up, delegation is going to be a problem one way or another. If some trust is there, then build it up. If trust is strong, then the leader just needs to check his ego at the door and get on with delegating the task.
Here’s an amazing quote from Reggie McNeal (www.reggiemcneal.org/):
Teams use trust as currency. If it is in short supply, then the team is poor. If trust abounds, the members of the team have purchase power with each other to access each other’s’ gifts, talents, energy, creativity, and love. The development of trust then becomes a significant leadership strategy. Trust creates the load limits on the relationship bridges among team members – Reggie McNeal
If trust is too low at the time of considering delegating a significant task, then the leader has to step back and spend some time building trust in the team. That takes time, and it requires urgency. It is now the most important priority for the organization. The time it takes to build trust should be projected out with clear and measurable objectives spelled out along the way. The leader will have to evaluate what part of the mistrust and suspicion he is responsible for and fix it. He should be candid with and involve his board by identifying to them the underlying reasons for the mistrust. That may be exhaustion, having been disappointed by other failed delegated tasks, not feeling supported in his role, or other reasons. This is not the time to be the Lone Ranger. Leaders are human and deserve to receive help so they can complete the mission.
Next Post – The Throttle – Delegation Part 2 – further defining effective delegation and identifying the often missed ingredient to a superior job description or assignment description.
– won’t be worth it versus me just doing it myself
losing control – I want it done right
‘I can do it better’ – I want it done right
won’t get credit – threatened by others success
losing tasks that he likes – can he continue to be part of it even if feeking good to see others grow
lack confidence – I want it done right
push-back – I don’t want to deal with the complaints, passive aggressiveness, etc….
Dialogue determines the church’s alignment, keeping the church on task and using resources efficiently. Dialogue includes reports, meetings, one on one interactions, evaluations, corrections, support, training, and more
Dialogue – through + words – exchange of ideas or opinions, with resolution in mind
Mistrust, Adversarial Relationships (under the surface), Tension, Invulnerable
Leadership today is all about two words: It's all about truth and trust. You've got to have their back when they didn't hit it out of the park, you've got have their back when they hit it out of the park.
When they trust you, you'll get truth. And if you get truth, you get speed. If you get speed, you're going to act. That's how it works.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/truth-trust-crap-how-jack-welch-looks-leadership-today-daniel-roth
“Low trust causes friction, whether it is caused by unethical behavior or by ethical but incompetent behavior (because even good intentions can never take the place of bad judgment). Low trust is the greatest cost in life and in organizations, including families. Low trust creates hidden agendas, politics, interpersonal conflict, interdepartmental rivalries, win-lose thinking, defensive and protective communication—all of which reduce the speed of trust. Low trust slows everything—every decision, every communication, and every relationship.” ― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything
Delegation determines the church’s throttle, speed, and power to reach the destination. The word ‘delegation’ – from to delegate – is defined first as, ‘to entrust to another.’ What are the threats to effective delegation? The leader may think he has not enough time to spell out all the details necessary to delegate a task – writing a task-description, clarifying expectations and reporting instructions, and taking the time for all of the necessary dialogue that goes with delegation. Or the leader fears losing control over what may be a special idea or project of his. There may be an ‘I can do it better,’ mindset on the part of the leader. Or there could be fear that he won’t get credit for what, after all, was his idea. Also, there may be a fear of losing tasks that he likes. The leader may lack confidence in his team members that they can execute the task well. Finally, the leader may fear push-back from the person on the receiving end of delegation.
That’s truly a long list of threats to effective delegation. Making excellent decisions consistently requires skill; I believe effectively delegating work requires more skill because at the core of most of these threats is the issue of trust. I hear far more complaints about leaders failing to delegate well that I do about leaders making bad decisions. Part of that is because decisions are more point in time and delegation requires longer term relationship, trust, and dialogue.
So, by examining the threats to effective delegation, we can identify some strong delegation-skill characteristics that would counter the threats and allow for delegation to flow well in the organization.
Four of the threats - not having enough time, losing control, “I can do it better,’ and lack of confidence all have one thing in common, that is, the leader wants it done right. That’s fair. Everyone wants it done right, but that’s no reason for the leader to keep the task himself.
There’s no way to avoid the upfront time involved of clearly writing a task or assignment description. Thinking through the details, then writing them down, perhaps getting some up front approval, or having some dialogue around the task, and then, finally, explaining the task description all takes time. All told these steps could take 10-20 hours, and that may be over a period of weeks once the idea has been conceived. That’s a group of hours; it will take time, but this is a finite number of hours. Holding onto the task for not wanting to take the upfront describing work, will in fact cost you time and that number of hours won’t be finite. So many things can come along and soak up time along the way. The leader can’t afford to sacrifice leadership time for project management time. Take the time up front!
The other three “I want it done right” threats are remedied by addressing trust issues between the leader and his team, or amongst the team members. If trust won’t show up, delegation is going to be a problem one way or another. If some trust is there, then build it up. If trust is strong, then the leader just needs to check his ego at the door and get on with delegating the task.
Here’s an amazing quote from Reggie McNeal (www.reggiemcneal.org/):
Teams use trust as currency. If it is in short supply, then the team is poor. If trust abounds, the members of the team have purchase power with each other to access each other’s’ gifts, talents, energy, creativity, and love. The development of trust then becomes a significant leadership strategy. Trust creates the load limits on the relationship bridges among team members – Reggie McNeal
If trust is too low at the time of considering delegating a significant task, then the leader has to step back and spend some time building trust in the team. That takes time, and it requires urgency. It is now the most important priority for the organization. The time it takes to build trust should be projected out with clear and measurable objectives spelled out along the way. The leader will have to evaluate what part of the mistrust and suspicion he is responsible for and fix it. He should be candid with and involve his board by identifying to them the underlying reasons for the mistrust. That may be exhaustion, having been disappointed by other failed delegated tasks, not feeling supported in his role, or other reasons. This is not the time to be the Lone Ranger. Leaders are human and deserve to receive help so they can complete the mission.
Next Post – The Throttle – Delegation Part 2 – further defining effective delegation and identifying the often missed ingredient to a superior job description or assignment description.
– won’t be worth it versus me just doing it myself
losing control – I want it done right
‘I can do it better’ – I want it done right
won’t get credit – threatened by others success
losing tasks that he likes – can he continue to be part of it even if feeking good to see others grow
lack confidence – I want it done right
push-back – I don’t want to deal with the complaints, passive aggressiveness, etc….
Dialogue determines the church’s alignment, keeping the church on task and using resources efficiently. Dialogue includes reports, meetings, one on one interactions, evaluations, corrections, support, training, and more
Dialogue – through + words – exchange of ideas or opinions, with resolution in mind
Mistrust, Adversarial Relationships (under the surface), Tension, Invulnerable
Leadership today is all about two words: It's all about truth and trust. You've got to have their back when they didn't hit it out of the park, you've got have their back when they hit it out of the park.
When they trust you, you'll get truth. And if you get truth, you get speed. If you get speed, you're going to act. That's how it works.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/truth-trust-crap-how-jack-welch-looks-leadership-today-daniel-roth
“Low trust causes friction, whether it is caused by unethical behavior or by ethical but incompetent behavior (because even good intentions can never take the place of bad judgment). Low trust is the greatest cost in life and in organizations, including families. Low trust creates hidden agendas, politics, interpersonal conflict, interdepartmental rivalries, win-lose thinking, defensive and protective communication—all of which reduce the speed of trust. Low trust slows everything—every decision, every communication, and every relationship.” ― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything
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