[upbeat music] Coming up on the Leadership Growth Podcast.[upbeat music] The ability to delegate to others is the essence of getting work done through others and with others instead of just through yourself. Which is one of the key distinctive elements between an individual contributor mindset and a leader or manager mindset. The ability to get work done with and through others. And this delegation idea of being able to then look at the things that I might think I need to do. And to say, "What can I release? What can I let go of?" So that I can spend time doing the things that I uniquely can do.[upbeat music] Hey, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Leadership Growth Podcast. I'm your host, Daniel Stewart, joined by my Peter,(laughing) I was going to say by my Peter brother. Yeah, by my brother, Peter Stewart. And we're here to take you through another fantastic episode talking about tools and ideas to help you grow your leadership capabilities. Today's topic, I will admit today's topic I've been looking forward to. It is one of the most commonly requested and challenging topics of any person that we coach, that we work with, and it is all about delegating. How to effectively delegate? What is delegation? What are the tips? What are the traps? How do you delegate more effectively? So essentially, all things delegation today. Peter, how does that sound? Oh, it sounds great. And you can call me whatever you want. You have for years.(laughing) That's the beauty of being brothers. We've called each other so many things over time. So many things. Oh, I love it.(laughing) Okay. All right. And so let's start off, though, with an Insight of the Week.[upbeat music] What is something, Peter, you were mentioning a very interesting insight that kind of took me back, I didn't realize. Go ahead and share that if you don't mind. Yeah. So I like learning about how we've ended up where we're at on certain things we just kind of take for granted, like what are the origins for these things? And I learned the other day of the origin of employer provided health care benefits. And like, when did that all start? And I learned that it actually is from World War II and the US involvement in World War II. In 1942, Congress passed what they called the Wage Stabilization Act, which tried to help stabilize wages, to help stabilize the economy, so basically all efforts could go toward supporting the war. Well, employers and companies still had to operate, and they still wanted to try and and attract workers to come work for them as opposed to their competitor. But they couldn't increase wages, so they got creative. And this is where I think innovation is, you know, what is it, necessity is the mother of all invention? You try and get creative. So they said, well, hey, we can't increase wages, maybe we can provide something else. So this idea of benefits came to be, and the first one was health insurance. Prior to World War II, only about 18% of Americans had health insurance. The system ran on a fee-for-service system. By the end of World War II, over 30% of Americans had health insurance. So this employer-based benefit really, really worked in that way. And so employers could provide benefits to their employees as a means to attract, to say, "Come work for us. will help cover your healthcare.”- So interesting, so interesting. And so it continues, of course, today, not just the benefits, but the clever and innovative thinking of what else can we do to attract talent, attract and keep and maintain folks here. And yes, benefits, but then of course, all sorts of other perks of various sorts. And so anyway, very interesting to see, and now it's just a standard. I mean, you work for an organization, you expect this, and it's now become, commoditized is maybe too strong, but it's just an expectation. Yeah, but you think about all the other ways organizations are trying to differentiate themselves as opposed to just salary,'cause that's not always what attracts people.-Mm hmm. You know, it's the environment. You know, you have the classic kind of Silicon Valley, like we've got a cereal bar in our break room, you know, or whatever it might be, or so forth. So we'll see where the future takes it in terms of what are those types of benefits, those value added enhancements to attract the workforce.'Cause everybody wants top talent.- I like the kombucha on tap approach. So you just have anything on tap, you just ready to go. So yes, and frankly, it might, it reminds me of all of the employee experience work that we do, because now it's so important to be able to map out what the current employee or leader experience is within an organization at all of the seven key points along an employee's life cycle. What is it that they think and feel and experience at each of those points, whether it's as a candidate or just joining or learning about their role or performing at a high level, or being able to then prepare for promotion and growth, and/or then exiting the organization. All of these are steps. It's key to then look at that employee experience journey across an organization and for a leader to reflect, what am I doing to contribute to that? Anyway, a topic for perhaps another podcast to dive deeper into, 'cause there's a lot there.- Well, there is.- Yeah. - There's an awful lot. And even how, as you kind of stopped at that exit of the employee experience and how that, actually there's that last phase that has become more prominent in recent years of the boomerang.-Mm hmm. Because you want that exit to go as smooth as possible. You want them leaving with positive feelings about the organization because the likelihood that they may come back is even higher.- Right, and the messages that they will then share to other people who might consider joining either through Glassdoor reviews or LinkedIn posts or just Thanksgiving dinner table conversations so they can champion. Yes, critical as we think of all of those employee experiences and ensuring that there is positive and they match what people actually experience with what is espoused as well.- Yeah, and it's that theme that has come up so often throughout our podcast and as we're consulting and working with organizations, It's making sure we're staying focused on both the business and the people results. You can never be too lopsided on one or the other. You have to keep looking at it. And what we're really highlighting is you have to monitor the people results. What is that experience that your people are having across the lifespan that they're with your organization and beyond?- Yeah.- So fun little tangent there.- That's great. Great Insight of the Week. Thank you, Peter. Always good to keep those fun things in mind as we keep learning. All right, on to the topic at hand, delegating. As I said, I don't know about you, Peter, but so many leaders at all levels who I coach, who any of our consultants or coaches coach and facilitate and support, delegating is one of the most common challenges. And the word delegating isn't always the one that's used. It could be workload management, prioritization, time management. There's so many different ways of looking at calendar management, email management. All of this can have implications with delegating and really looking at to see what can you uniquely do-Mm hmm. and how do you then spend your time doing that as much as possible. So let me just run through the four steps of delegation. And then let's riff off of these and talk through what are the challenges, how do we even approach it. So first, identifying the tasks. And this is critical to be able to understand. I often call it make the list. What's the list of everything you do? Identify the tasks that you can do, what can be delegated. Second, select the who. Select the candidates. Select the people with whom you might delegate, understanding their strengths, their performance challenges, what they want to do for the future anyway, et cetera. The third one, assigning those tasks, explaining the why, explaining the background, making sure they have the resources to do it. And then the fourth, which is oftentimes the most forgotten, which is following up, to be able to sustain that as well. Okay, Peter, so those are the four steps, but let's back up. What is the definition of delegating? What is it that we wanna keep in mind even before we dive deeper into these steps? Let's now back up a second. What is it? I think when we look at delegation, it really is... it's that process of sharing responsibility for results. I think that's one of the simplest definitions of delegation. It's the process of sharing responsibility for results. And notice there's not abdication in there. It's not a dump and run. It's a shared responsibility in which you are clearly communicating results that need to be done, a task that needs to be accomplished, but you don't take away the responsibility you have as the delegator with that. So that helps encapsulate, I think, a lot of the processes as you just went through those four steps. The word "shared," Peter, that's the one we can dwell on for a moment. Because there is this notion that if you're on my team and I say, "Hey, Peter, can you please take care of this report each month? I really would appreciate that. That's great." And now it's on your plate, it's off my plate, done. Great. However, isn't there still a shared responsibility of some sort? It's not the same expectation that I'm going to keep doing it, but the shared responsibility for the results is that I then follow up. I then ensure that you have the skills, the understanding to be able to do it well. And not just to let you surprise me at some point, but rather to say,"Hey, and I would like to see that report a week before each time, or I would like to have a check-in before it's due." Something, some follow-up, and this follow-up component is the essence of the sharing. And again, it's too often kind of forgotten or not done.- Yes, that shared responsibility. And I think this is where in some ways a lot of individuals experience in school growing up and being a part of group projects and teams and other things has contributed to a reluctance to try and delegate, to relinquish some of that control. Because many times what happens in group projects, and as you go in grade school, junior high, high school, is you have a couple of highly conscientious individuals(laughing) who are doing it all, and others can just kind of skate by and not have to do anything. Yeah. And maybe those highly conscious individuals actually aren't allowing other people to do it because they have a certain standard or they just can't let go of the control of it all. So there's some personality challenges. There may be some shared history challenges of why people can struggle with the concept of delegation even before they try and do it. But then I think even as people try it, they're not paying attention to all of these four steps. And so their efforts to delegate are not fruitful.- Yeah.- So then they stop trying. And so it's like, fine, I'll just do it. My solution for things is I'm going to throw hours at it, and that's how I do it, which is a limiting factor for one's growth and progress, as well as the growth and progress of others around you. You're hitting on one of the key reasons why. So let's talk for a second, why delegate? Why is this a need? Why is this something that's even important? Why should I consider this as a leader? And one of the things you mentioned so key, the ability to delegate to others is the essence of getting work done through others and with others instead of just through yourself, which is one of the key distinctive elements between an individual contributor mindset and a leader or manager mindset. The ability to get work done with and through others and this delegation idea of being able to then look at the things that I... I might think I need to do and to say, what can I release? What can I let go of so that I can spend time doing the things that I uniquely can do? So there's that one element. Delegating is very valuable to be able to help manage workload, one's own workload, because inevitably, a manager leader is going to have a lot on their plate by default, and it keeps growing. OK. How do you look at it? How do you prioritize? And how do you then shift accordingly to others? So the workload element is key. What other reasons, what else is there as to why we delegate? Yeah, it helps to build and develop others. It's a great way to look at it. It's a mindset and it's that shift of, it's not you trying to just offset all the things you don't wanna do. Right. It's looking and saying, I'm giving my team or I'm giving somebody else the opportunity to do this. And maybe they haven't done it before. And obviously then at that point, you need to be sure you're providing a little bit more support and clarity on that one. But if you look at every task as this is a development opportunity for somebody else, that's a paradigm shift. And it can help look at, oh, okay, I'm not just giving this out.-Mm hmm. It's I'm blessing their lives with their ability to do this. Maybe that's a little extreme.(laughing)- But I like where you're going because the idea is not just workload for yourself. It is developing other people. And a third reason would be simply being able to leverage the strengths of each person, which is very close to that development idea, you want to then give tasks to people who are dang good at doing specific things. And it helps leverage you, it helps leverage them. And yes, the development idea also. It's so critical. So delegating for development, that phrase right there is a powerful one to keep in mind'cause you're able to then help challenge other people. And whether that's increasing their visibility in the organization, because they're able to do specific tasks with specific individuals, whether it's to help expand and strengthen some areas and improve their skills, whether it's to help them get exposure to specific industries or topics, all of this is powerful and it really sends a message of, I know you on my team, I care about you, and I wanna challenge you, which is one of the most effective ways of being able to convey, I believe you can make a difference. And here, I wanna give you something to help you make a difference as well. And the other element is, sometimes what we delegate might actually be part of the other person's job in the first place.(laughing) Yup. This is where it starts getting a little wacky, what we do as humans. We will take these other responsibilities onto us as a manager, and yet it actually can and should sometimes be done by others, but we keep it. And oftentimes for good reasons, we care about the people, they're so overwhelmed, or we believe we do it so dang well and we don't wanna let go. And I heard years ago that when you don't delegate, you're actually insulting your team. And I thought that was a little strong until I kept thinking about it. And I'm like, actually, you're insulting them in a way that you're not allowing them to do the very job that they were hired to do. And part of that is to do stretch assignments. Part of that is to help support you, help support the team, do other additional areas that help them within their, yes, general role, but to stretch and to learn.- And to expand on that, even taking it one step level or one step further, it's you are impairing the growth and efficiency of your organization. Because there can be this mindset of, I have value to this organization. I have value to this team because I am the only person who can do this as well. Nobody else can do it as good as I can, or as well as I can. And that is a limiting, very restrictive mindset. So you're creating bottlenecks within a system. And we know that bottlenecks are fundamental inefficiency to a flow. So by expanding and allowing others to build their and enhance their skillset to cross train, to build and to do these things, not only are you potentially freeing up time for yourself, we've highlighted your developing others, you're also helping to enhance the optimization of the organization by having more efficient mechanisms.- Yeah. Oh, so good. So two other points with this. One is delegation actually helps avoid the compression of levels because too often in organizations, you may have a director who really is actually acting like a manager or a manager who's actually really acting like a supervisor, or a supervisor who's actually really acting like an individual contributor, because they're not willing to let go of previous tasks, a previous identity, and then assume and build up to a different level. And delegating is one of those ways that helps people recognize, wait a minute, what is it that I, in my role, not because I'm better than other people, no, my role needs to focus, which leads to the second point. So all of the work that we do in healthcare, there is a great phrase, and I love this phrase, it's to work at the top of your license. In other words, you go to your annual physical, you talk to your primary care doc, and he or she, they absolutely have the skills to be able to take your weight and your blood pressure and your height. They don't. There's a medical assistant to be able to then take care of that. And that's the top of their license. They do that work. And it's not good or bad, it's just how to divide out so that the primary care doc is able to do the things that is at the top of his or her license, the kinds of examination, the kinds of questions, the kinds of interventions and prescriptions that other people cannot do. And delegating is one of those things to help us all work at the top of our license, avoid this compression of levels so that a VP can do the things that only a VP can do. And a director can do the things that only a director could do, not because it's an ego trip, but because division of labor and the design of decision-making rights is clearly articulated. Otherwise, it's really compressed and people are doing each other's jobs, which is counter to anything we would want to have happen as well. I mean, this is one of the core fundamental messages of delegation. You have just articulated so well of working to the top of your license. When individuals are promoted and they advance within an organization, it's important to recognize what am I going to stop doing now that I'm in a new role? Because if I don't stop doing things, I'm not going to have the bandwidth to add on everything else I need to do in the new role. And I'm getting in the way of others developing and all the other things we've been talking about here for the first part of this episode. That is just such a powerful phrase, work to the top of your license. I love that. So let's jump back into these steps of delegation as we've spent some time talking about the why of delegation, of why we need to do it and the benefits from it. As we first try and ID the task, it's really, it's the what. What are those things to delegate and how we can figure that out and prioritize it. It can be whiteboarded, it can be, you know, have it on a spreadsheet, look at the job description. What a great exercise is, look back in one's calendar over the previous month to make a tally of all the things you're doing and then start to categorize those which are uniquely needed for you to accomplish.- Yep, and then of course, having a conversation with your boss to prioritize. And so this gets at a fantastic tool called the Eisenhower Matrix. And it's actually, some of the articles on our website, they're some of the most popular ones all around the Eisenhower Matrix.- From President Eisenhower.- Right, right. - That's where it's from.- Exactly, and it's a fairly simple approach, but it helps identify that first step, the task. So Peter, when something is high urgent, oh, I'll clarify. So it's a two by two grid and the two variables, urgency, high and low urgency, and importance, high and low importance. And then you see how these intersect and it provides guidance as to what you want to do or not do with delegation.- Okay, Peter, so when it's high urgent and high importance, what do you do? What's the guidance?- You do it now. Like you prioritize those things. Those are the big rocks that you've got to get done because it's high urgency, high importance. So that's actually one of the easiest ones to answer as you look at it. So...- Yeah, please keep going.- Then as we take it, but if you have high importance, but the urgency isn't quite as high, so it's lower urgency. What do we do with that one, Daniel?- So that is where we can kind of plan it out. We can schedule it. We can take a moment and sit back and say, yep, it's important. We got a little bit of time. Let's think through this. And what is so helpful about this is you can then be really planful. That's not a real word, but I like to use it. Planful and identify when and how you will delegate what tasks. What tasks will you do? How are you going to be following up? What's the mechanism by which we're going to be updating each other? We're going to be looking at deadlines. We're going to be looking to see what resources. Who else do we need to include? This is where you plan because it's not quite as urgent, but it is highly important. So this is where you plan. And then build in delegation throughout the process. Okay, so those are two, that's when it's highly important. What about if it is really urgent, but it's not that important?- Yeah, these are great opportunities, low-hanging fruit for delegation. It's an opportunity to empower others, to develop the skills in them as you're able to help train them how to do this,'cause it really is an urgent thing that has to get done, but because of the lower level of importance, if there are some mess ups, if there are some errors along the way, there is time to fix it. And it's not gonna crash the whole company as you're doing it. So that's a little hanging fruit for delegation.- Yeah, and even if there isn't necessarily as much time because it's urgent, it's kind of, I often think of decisions as a one-way door or a two-way door. The one-way door, you can't go back and fix it very easily. but a two-way door, you can go back quickly and fix it. And if it's not as important, usually the risk factor, or it's not as expensive of a decision, you can usually go back and adjust it, either in real time or the next time. You can then update it. So like, for example, reports. Doing a weekly or monthly report is a great example because there's urgency in terms of a timing when it's needed. The importance, it might be lower because it's one of many data points. And so people can then learn. And it's oftentimes the routinized, the routine aspects of a person's job can fit in this category. Because it's, yeah, I mean, there's some level of importance, but it's not super high. And the urgency though, is there with some level of timeliness. Okay, how do we delegate? How do we routinize some of this? And again, this is where I'll put a plug in for AI agents as well, you know, that you can then look to see who shall I delegate to? And we'll get to that in a second. But especially on your team, who can I leverage? Anyway, so that's an ideal place to delegate. And then the fourth area where it's not as urgent as much and it's not quite as important. What do you do with that, Peter?- Ask a question, why are we doing this?- That's absolutely correct, yes.- It's like, how can we stop this? And maybe it's a conversation to understand, is this truly more important than you might think it is? It's here for a reason, but you wanna make sure you're not just continuing an artifact or a legacy of a former system or tradition or management team.- Yeah.- Is it still relevant now? And if it truly is low importance, low urgency, then let's get rid of it.- Totally, it's challenging ourselves to pause it, to stop it, to put it aside. And it might be something that we really like, but it is not as important and as urgent as so many other things. Okay, so now as we kind of understand the what, this next step of the who. And we talked about looking at our teams, looking at their strengths, their opportunities, their interests, their career aspirations, and being very strategic about who to ask to do what with. However, Peter, what if you have a team that you do not have confidence in? Maybe they're newer. Maybe their performance has been inconsistent. How do you manage that? What do you do when somebody's like,"I wanna delegate, but my team's not ready." Yeah. I think this is where the prioritization step that we just went through is really important. And you're gonna give them those tasks that are the two-way doors, where there's room for some development, there's room for some mistakes, there's room for some failure, but you gotta give them the opportunity to grow. And this is where I'll actually pull in a little bit of the situational leadership mindset of which the two axes there, you're looking at how much you're directing and how much you're supporting others. And it's going to require a high level of direction. It's getting down very detailed so that then they can build that muscle to be able to know how to do that task or to perform it. And a lot of leaders don't like that because it feels like micromanaging. It feels like it takes a lot of extra time to train them how to do it. But it's taking that long, you know, second horizon perspective of, okay, if I invest the extra hour or two or day or three here, it's going to pay dividends down the road because then they can do it more on their own.- Yeah, for sure. And the other perspective I might add is if they fundamentally do not trust their team to then be able to delegate to them, then I might suggest delegation is not what you focus on.- Right.- What you wanna focus on is it's now time to build your team and elevate expectations so that you can delegate, because that is critical for you to be a successful leader and for the organization to grow. Okay, so then the two other steps, assigning the task and then following up. This assigning idea, the challenges around this, too often it's done quickly, it's done unilaterally, it's done through an email, without being able to hear what the other person understood. And thus, you then get surprises later on. And you're like, you viewed it that way? Huh? Instead of sitting down, understanding, it could be a virtual, it could be a Teams call, whatever it is, making sure they understand, and they are able to then have the resources and be able to have the skill sets, and you can explain the why behind it. And one of the great tools I love to introduce is the So That tool. It's, can you please create this report every Tuesday so that I am informed when I go into the weekly leadership team meetings, and we can all be able to then have a more informed decision around as a team.- Yep.- Thank you. Oh, it helps you as well as our own team. Got it. And we sometimes forget to say the why. So that tool, the two words, so that forces us, very helpful.- Oh, it's a powerful tool. And I think really these last two parts of delegating really kind of blur into each other because you can't clearly communicate without building in those support steps, those stages. It's not only establishing what they're trying to get done, it's the why, but then when are the benchmarks for reporting? What are the expectations for follow-up? When are the clear deadlines? When are those touch points for you to check in or them to come to you so that you're knowing what that level of support is required for them? That way, it's clear expectations. They're not frustrated by you checking in every day. You've laid that out, saying, I'm gonna follow up every day on this one, or wait a minute, I haven't heard from you in three weeks. Did you still want me to do this? I mean, those are extreme examples, but as you're communicating, it's also communicating that plan to reinforce the support behind.- Yeah. And you're getting at that fourth point so well, that follow-up. And I'll often just ask that big question, which is, what's the date? When are you following up, either when it's finished or more likely as a check-in point. And have you set the expectations so that they follow up with you? So you can say, "Yep, in our next one-on-one in two days, please, I'd like to hear your initial plan and thoughts around what you'd like to do." Boom. Date and specific action. There is always a need to then say, "What's the next step?" To put a date and a follow-up and it's not just all on you. It is shared. Yes, but put it increasingly more on their shoulders Yeah to come to you with challenges with updates and for you to be clear about the dates that they need to abide by. It's so important. Well, this has been great to dive into delegating We've been looking forward to doing this for a while because it's so needed So as we wrap this up Daniel, Lightning Round.[upbeat music] What is the one thing you would tell a leader who is reluctant to delegate? I would say make a list of the things you need to do each day and pick one item to delegate. One. Start with one, make clear as to why it's important. Create a follow-up as you assign it to somebody on the team. Just start pick one thing and do it so that you can then free up your time to do the things that you uniquely can do within your role. But you gotta pick something and just do it. Peter, it's been fantastic. Another great episode. Listeners, thank you for joining us. And as always, please, if you have suggestions or comments, future topics, please email us at podcast@stewartleadership.com. Please like and subscribe and join us for future episodes. All the best on your leadership journey. Take care, everyone.[upbeat music] If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend or colleague, or better yet,[upbeat music] leave a review to help other listeners find our show.[upbeat music][upbeat music] And remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode.[upbeat music][upbeat music] For more great content,[upbeat music] or to learn more about how Stewart Leadership can help you grow[upbeat music] your ability to lead effectively, please visit stewartleadership.com.[upbeat music]