Key Reasons Delegating Is SO Difficult and What To Do About It

As men and women alike climb the ladder of success, they too often suffer from the inability to delegate well.

Isn’t one of the payoffs expected from achieving leadership status the freedom to no longer have to do the "daily grind" work, the "menial" work, the "frustrating calendaring and tedious phone call" work?

Of course the answer is "yes!" Yet most people have such a difficult time weaning themselves from doing those tasks themselves. How about you? Is it because:

--- You’re good at it. You don’t even have to think about how to do it. You’ve been doing it for years. And now you have to train someone to do it the way you want. Grrrrrr.

--- You’re going to have to learn to be dependent on whomever you are delegating to, something you may have avoided your entire life until now. Dependency? Yuck!

--- It’s easier to do than the strategic planning or core curriculum development, or whatever else your new position requires that seems difficult to dig into and get going on the new learning curve. Anxious just thinking about it?

There are any number of other reasons why delegating is so challenging. It’s not so simple when you’re identity is caught up in it. And it is.

SO, what to do?

--- First, recognize that your reputation and future career depend on your ability to delegate and do it well.

--- Second, understand that if you can’t surrender the work that should no longer be on your plate, you’ll be seen as a control-freak and micro-manager by those who work for you, whether or not you ever hear a word about it.

--- Third, you can never achieve the level of managerial and/or professional competence you aspire to without developing a clearer re-definition of your identity—as someone who can easily and wisely delegate to those who can and should provide the support work that your position requires.

What’s necessary?

--- You have to grow beyond your current identity.

--- You have to develop inspirational leadership skills that will allow you to train and trust those you delegate to.

--- You’ll have to replace or fire those who cannot provide the type of help you require.

When you’re clear about the power of appropriate delegation, then you can grow that new identity as you build and develop an effective team behind you that you can trust to take over when circumstances demand.

So, as you read this last part, who do you have to become in order to step into an identity of someone who is really good at delegating?

(Photo: Team NTU at CIMS 2007 Kelvin Quee/Flickr)

Judith Sherven, PhD and her husband Jim Sniechowski, PhD http://JudithandJim.com have developed a penetrating perspective on people’s resistance to success, which they call The Fear of Being Fabulous. Recognizing the power of unconscious programming to always outweigh conscious desires, they assert that no one is ever failing. They are always succeeding. The question is, at what?

Currently working as consultants on retainer to LinkedIn providing executive coaching, leadership training and consulting as well as working with private clients around the world, they continually prove that when unconscious beliefs are brought to the surface, the barriers to greater success and leadership presence begin to fade away. They call it Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous http://OvercomingtheFearofBeingFabulous.com

 

Guy Tetreault

Founder and President of Spiritual Adventure.net | Entrepreneur, writer, speaker and online teacher

8y

Hard to face truths

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Arkadiusz Dawid

Pricing Manager at Capgemini Engineering

9y

Great article Judith Sherven, PhD! There is one more aspect in delegating which is often overseen: organisational barriers to delegate. If there is a "do it yourself" culture in the organisation (ex. due to regulatory restraints taken too literally) or in-built technological obstacles (like my colleague's emails are 80% encrypted and she cannot forward nor delegate it to anybody, no matter how low she perceives the importance of the message) that may create overload and make managers "shrink" into specialists instead grow into leaders. A manager needs to spot and address these obstacles. Having said that, I agree with the tone of your article. One needs to re-create a new identity as to transform from a specialist to the leader.

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Wesley Etheridge Sr.

Author / Principal Consultant and "Leading Authority on Military Veterans and Anger Management"

10y

Interesting article, from one man's perspective delegation is the very essence of efficiency, confidence, vision and the perpetual development of that winning formula which results in team success. Just take a candid look at the office dynamics within your workplace. I would make a safe bet that if you are unhappy it's because you are miserable not only because of a lack of delegation, but also trust, the lack of being acknowledged and listened too, along with unfair compensation. On the other hand if one's opinion is valued, he or she is allowed to share and or infuse progressive ideas in the development of new or old projects one's Emotional Competence and Self-efficacy is enhanced which facilitates a office dynamic of high energy and prosperity, thus most likely results in a more positive outcome. DCAMF

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VILLA CARE

REALTOR at VILLA CARE KENYA LTD

10y

you gain control when you give some up....wise words.

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Dr.Sunder Srinivasan

Lokah: samasthah: sukhino bhavantu

10y

Yes, I asked you, have you learnt from the way You functions? If you knew it, then all these will become redundant. First, your senses see/perceive the impulses, and take them to the brain. From the Brain it is sent to the non physical aspect, known as the mind. This mind of yours is only the data collection, and forwarding instrument. All the input is collected, and sent up to the Intellect for assessment, evaluation, and judgement, and finally sent back to the mind, to be transmitted back as reactions. The Intellect of yours is the You. The lower you (subordinates) are the sub-conscious mind where all Instincts ( habits) tyke place. As you become more proficient, you now delegate the responsibility and most of the responses are answered by your instinctive mind. It is only when there is a serious problem/ idea consultation that the Intellect is called . So, the Intellect after delegating the work, is now more relaxed and is able to attend to other creative work. Like wise the management fundas are the same.

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