Delegation: The Lies We Tell & Semantics

Delegation is a consistent focal point for leaders who want to improve their effectiveness. It’s how things get done. Effective delegation requires leaders to first test their thinking and mental model for delegation before they test or develop their skills.

The Lies We Tell & Semantics
When it comes to delegation, most of us are liars. Not the diabolical kind, just the kind that lie to ourselves about why we can’t or shouldn’t delegate. Here are some lies we may need to push into the light and call them what they are:
• “In the time it takes me to explain this to the person, I could have done it three times.”(D)
• “I’m the only one who’s intimate enough with the (task/issues/process, etc.) to pull this off.” (I)
• “The other person is busy enough, I don’t want to burden them and it’s a simple enough thing for me to do.”(S)
• “If I want it done right, I have to do it myself.” (C)

Leaders also have to come to grips with the semantics of what “delegate” means to them. To delegate is of course a verb: to give a task or assignment to another person to carry out. Leaders, for the most part, are prone to action and tend to understand the verb meaning of delegate.

Delegate is also a noun. As such, delegation is a leadership decision to select or appoint someone who will act or decide on your behalf. This definition is less “action” focused and more “other” focused. In this way delegation assumes a high degree of performer maturity; someone who is both highly capable and psychologically willing. These are not the performers to give SLJ’s (simple little jobs) to. Delegation is for your “A” players, your emissaries, your delegates.

The figure below outlines the three essential elements required to achieve this type of empowered delegation. These are: Delegation of the TASK, Cultivation of Delegate OWNERSHIP and management of ENABLERS.



Typically leaders only really “see” and therefore attend to one or two of these elements. As a result, many leaders tend develop a delegation “blind-spot”.

For the article on delegation, complete with more typical failure modes as well as the strategies to overcome them, please click here: Delegation-LSSD.

The leadership transition marks the beginning of a critical time and is often associated with significant change. Organizations expend valuable resources to find, hire and relocate leaders. Concurrent with this, organizations often have high performance expectations and complex dynamics that new leaders must address. New leaders are often asked to either correct/improve performance, strategically grow the business and or address cultural and normative issues— a tall order!

If you are a new leader, or will become one soon, we suggest you use your "new leader status" to your advantage. Capitalize upon this unique window in time to review, understand and re-clarify; work unit mission, IPO's / organizational structure, project status, performance measures/trends & scorekeeping process, cultural / normative "rules" and the implications of future challenges on performance.

These can be great topics for you to inquire into and or have structured group discussions about. If you suspect more than minor changes in these areas then try to think first about a transparent / collaborative process for raising awareness, building and implementing the case for change. Making the above discoveries early should also position you to work proactively to request needed resources and negotiate expectations with your boss.

Your new leader status also legitimizes a refocus on relationships, teamwork / teambuilding, revisiting membership and leadership expectations and focus on employee performance and development.

Whenever you transition as a leader you know that from a change management perspective, everyone is EXPECTING some change. This is both the blessing and the curse of the first nine months.

What do you think is an essential step or issue new leaders must address? What other activities do we know need to occur and what are common challenges associated with the transition period?

Making the Most of Meetings: Meetings by Design

In our experience training leaders to conduct effective meetings we've found that most meetings are "dead on arrival". Many meetings are doomed to fail- by design.

In our one day "Making the Most of Meetings" training we focus not only on the key skills, style and tools of effective meeting facilitation, but on how to design meetings that make it easy for people / attendees to make productive contributions.

Our helpful article of Meetings by Design has been recently accepted and published at: Published Meetings by Design

You can also access a downloadable PDF at: Meetings by Design

I hope you take a nugget or two from the article and make a positive change to your meetings. People will notice.

Four Situational Leadership Approaches

In LSSD, to drive home the effective and dynamic practice of leadership, we leverage Situational Leadership pioneered by Hersey and Blanchard. This simple framework has proven to be an excellent way of conveying the most basic aspects of leadership as well subtle nuances. However, as it can be when working with simple tools, it is easy to focus on the “doing” of leadership and lose sight of “being” a leader. Your effectiveness as leader will in large part be determined by your attitude toward your company, your role, your work and your associates. You can “do” all the right things and your underlying sentiments will either compliment or contradict your efforts.

The previous module focused on the first of the elements of the Situational Leadership Framework. This module will address the second element.
• The ability to make helpful distinctions relative to what is going on with your followers.
• The ability to match what is going with ones followers with the most effective leadership process, or approach.

Task vs Relationship Focus
To understand follower Readiness means understanding the interplay of a followers ability and motivation on any given task. To effectively match our Leadership Approach to the followers’ Readiness level means understanding the interplay and application of two distinct areas of focus; Task Focus & Relationship Focus. The bottom half of the slide below shows the differences between these areas of focus.



Situational Leadership helps leaders to understand when and how to apply these two areas of focus to bring out the best in followers. There are a few common traps we see leaders fall into when it comes to applying these areas of focus:
1. Leaders that do a little of both but not enough of either to really make an impact. It’s important that leaders learn how to demonstrate these areas of focus in different degrees of intensity. There times when followers and those around you will appreciate you sending strong, clear and focused signals.
2. Leaders that have a disposition toward one area of focus and or neglect the other. Think about the leader who was most frustrating to work for? Most likely this leader was overdone and overboard on one focus area while not quite balancing it out with the other. Being a leader often means doing things well, even though they may not be your preference or natural strong suite.

The term we use for the leadership approach that is primarily Task focused with little attention to Relationship focus is Directing. Directing is a very effective leadership response when working with followers on activities where they have low ability and are either insecure or unwilling—Readiness Level 1.

The term we use for the leadership approach that is primarily Task and equally Relationship focused is Coaching. Coaching is a very effective leadership response when working with followers on activities where they have low ability and are willing, eager and confident—Readiness Level II.



The term we use for the leadership approach that is primarily Relationship (supportive) focused with little attention to Task focus is Counseling. Counseling is a very effective leadership response when working with followers on activities where they have high ability and are either insecure or unwilling—Readiness Level III. Alternate terms for counseling are; partnering, advising,

The term we use for the leadership approach that is neither very Task focused or Relationship focused is Delegating. Delegating is a very effective leadership response when working with followers on activities where they have high ability and are highly confident, eager and willing—Readiness Level IV.

Follower Readiness.

Leadership as a Dynamic Set of
Practices.

During our Leadership Skill & Style Development (LSSD) program we challenge participants to acknowledge their assumptions and beliefs regarding effective leadership. One question we pose to participants is whether or not they believe effective leadership is a more dynamic or static process? Intuitively everyone acknowledges that effective leadership is a dynamic process that requires leaders to be alert and active in adapting their approach.

Everyone also seems to appreciate that “dynamic” does not mean messy, chaotic, unclear or without purpose.
In LSSD, to drive home the effective and dynamic practice of leadership, we leverage Situational Leadership pioneered by Hersey and Blanchard.

There are two elements to Situational Leadership that must be understand and applied together:
1. The ability to make helpful distinctions relative to what is going on with your followers.
2. The ability to match what is going with one's followers with the most effective leadership process.

The focus of this learning module is on point #1 from above; what is going on with your followers? Through Situational Leadership we learn that not only is leadership a dynamic process but understanding the different levels of Follower Readiness can bring purpose and clarity to the adaptation that leaders must make.

Ability x Motivation = Readiness.
Follower readiness is an assessment of the followers disposition toward each performance expectation they are required to meet. To make this Readiness assessment leaders need to make simple distinctions between the follower's ability and motivation to perform their duties.

Highly ABLE followers have the experience, skills, aptitude, background and knowledge to perform at or above expectations. Followers with low ability have little experience, knowledge, skills, background or demonstrated aptitude for the task(s) at hand.

Highly MOTIVATED followers are interested, eager, willing, confident and feel secure about performing at or above expectations. Followers with low motivation are hesitant, unsure, unwilling and or insecure / anxious about applying themselves to the task(s) at hand.



Leaders need to strengthen and fine tune their ability to make accurate observations of their followers ability and motivation combinations.
In LSSD we use assessment tools to understand and differentiate between the gradations of ability and motivation. No assessment tool can be as precise or useful as healthy two-way dialogue. Periodic discussions with followers about their roles, responsibilities and performance objectives should help you “zero-in” on what is going on with your follower in these two critical areas. Your performance management process should provide you with at least one opportunity to have these critical discussions.

Discerning Readiness requires a leader to be alert and vigilant. The colored sequence of blocks in the slide below depicts how these basic Ability & Motivation distinctions combine to help differentiate between four different Follower Readiness levels; R1, R2, R3, R4.



Each readiness level requires the leader to deliver a different leadership process or approach. This is one tangible reference to the dynamic nature or leadership.

Now, also please remember that each follower may have multiple performance expectations or duties. For each follower there may be several applicable Readiness levels. Multiply this by several followers and you can see why alertness, vigilance and the ability to make Readiness distinctions is so important to effective, dynamic leadership.