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It is fascinating to talk about leadership and the number of elements which can make an impactful leader. Today’s point of focus is on delegation as a leadership skill.

Quite often, management books talk about the positive impact of delegation in a business. It is perhaps one of the most important factors in building a sustainable organisation. We have moved on a long way from a factory mindset to building organisations that can last.

You cannot build an organisation to last unless you have leaders at every stage of a business. And to this effect, I don’t mean leaders as people with a position or authority alone. Leadership is about building a sense of ownership in individual elements of the organisation.

To that effect, I must ask this question – do you actively practice leadership as a delegation skill?

Delegation as a Leadership Skill

As much as people have made a management case for delegation in leadership, it is not always easy. Every delegation for that matter starts from a single point of trust between two parties.

In this case, if we are assuming a manager as the leader, then the trust between manager and employee needs to be nurtured. If you want a high-performing team, you better look at them as partners rather than people working for you.

It is not an easy distinction for many, particularly if you are used to an older style of management. But, if you are thinking of creating organisations where people would love to work for you, then it is time to embody a change to make this happen. To that effect, I would consider delegation as a leadership skill because not many are good at it.

Delegation Vs Micro Management

There can be plenty of other good reasons for this which we can build up for a case not to delegate. But that’s not the point, is it?

As a leader, if you are not making sure your team has the necessary arsenal or training, the answer is in providing them with it. This cannot be an excuse to prevent passing on ownership or responsibility.

There might be a sense of comfort in micromanagement or to an extent – even insecurity. When was the last time you heard of growth as a solitary effort? Isn’t leadership about growing together, collaborating and actively creating an environment for everyone to flourish?

What to Delegate and What Not to Delegate?

This is often a question that comes up when we talk about delegation as a leadership skill. If you are a team manager, naturally you will be responsible for a few things personally. It probably won’t be possible to delegate everything.

It is not an easy choice, but you ought to make up that list of things you are responsible for.

• Which ones in this list are you personally liable for?
• Do you have people in the team who can handle some of the items in this list better?
• What is the risk level for these items if you delegate?
• Is there a mid-way between you delegating parts of it?

None of these is easy, right? I mean leadership is not easy, but it is a brilliant aspiration to adhere to with an ability to make some stunning impacts.

Break down your responsibilities and ownership. Actively find out what items in your list can be passed on as an owner. One very important thing though – delegation without authority is rather meaningless.

If you are at all delegating, make sure that the people have the right arsenal to be able to deal with it or else you are setting them up to fail. Some additional reading material about how to delegate effectively

How to Practice Active Delegation as a Leadership Skill?

Now, for the question – do you actively practice delegation as a leadership skill? If delegation doesn’t come naturally to you, the probable answer is no.

Well, this is an opportunity to make that happen and hone that leadership skill. Some ways to positively reinforce this skill are:

1. Quality: If you are afraid that someone will not do a good quality job – groom them into being a leader. If they have not done it before, cut them some slack. They are bound to go wrong. Instead of doing it for them, coach them into succeeding. You can still perform the final sign-off, but provide an opportunity for them to prove their quality and ability to take on new things
2. Insecurity: If you are worried that it will give you fewer things to do – then ask this question. Are you working on the business or in the business? The key distinction is in the amount of time you spend on strategy vs operations. If the latter is taking too much of your time, you are stunting your own growth and embracing a myth of self-importance which is detrimental to your own growth
3. Mistakes: Freedom, authority and delegation are nothing if there is no freedom to do mistakes. This is the only way growth can occur. If you are trying to prevent all mistakes now – there will be bigger ones later. You will leave the business incapable of fending for itself because there is an awful lot of dependency on you. This beats the very idea of a sustainable business.
4. Control: You ought to get good at ceding control. If you want to grow as a leader, you cannot be worrying about the finer details. That doesn’t mean you give up on what you believe for the company. It only means that you are growing out of your constraints into different ones. If you are not making way for others via delegation, you are not making way for yourself to grow.

End of the day, delegation is a leadership skill. It is something which needs nurture, grooming and development. Unless it is actively performed, it can easily dwindle on its own. So, I leave you with this question: Do you actively practice leadership as a delegation skill?

If not, why not?