Do you have challenges prioritizing your work? Do you know when to hand something off or when to retain it? What about the things in the middle? As a leader, one of the most important skills to learn is how to accomplish more through others. I constantly see talented people get overwhelmed with minutia or handling tasks that should be given to others.
Take a look at the grid below. A while back, I put this together for one of my clients and now I want to share it with you. Two factors must be considered in order to know what to hand off and what to keep: 1) how competent is the employee you are delegating work to? and 2) how significant is the outcome or how great is the risk or reward for you, your boss, or your company?
Delegating responsibly can often be a challenge. But knowing what to delegate is the secret to prioritizing your workload and accomplishing more through others! If the employee you work with is highly competent, give them more of your work and let them handle the project as much as the “significance of it” allows. However, remember even a talented, highly competent employee may have their limits for some of your work. If the significance of the task, project or assignment is HUGE, then you should consider retaining it yourself or doing a very detailed, complete review of the employee’s (or team’s) work product. Conversely, when working with a less talented employee or someone without the skills or education for a task, you should take a different approach. Retain work of great consequence with high risk or reward. When the task or project is of nominal risk or reward, only then consider allowing time for a cursory or limited review.
The “extremes” of each axis on the chart is easy to comprehend; only experience and judgment will help you understand when to do a more in-depth review. Until then, proceed cautiously until your employee or team has proven to be competent. As confidence in them builds, shift more work to them, leaving time for you to take on work of strategic value. Maybe you will even find the time to be proactive!
I hope this helps! Remember, in leadership everything is accomplished through others. If don’t learn to delegate well, you will surely flounder, work inordinate hours…or fail.