Eric combines cutting-edge knowledge about leadership with practical lessons and anecdotes.
Delegation vs. Abdication
A friend of mine recently told me about her experience serving dinner to 50 teenagers in a summer camp. She was impressed by the cook’s ability to make a great meal for a large group using only volunteer help.
The cook planned, prepared and served a meal, while also delegating jobs to the various helping hands. Every once and a while the head cook would look up and say to her assistants, “How’s everybody doing?” Within a few hours the meal was cooked, served, cleaned up—a job far beyond the efforts of one person.
The entire evening was a great example of good management. No one person carried the brunt of all of the work and the volunteers had enough direction and freedom to get their jobs done. The head cook knew how to delegate responsibility for work without abdicating ownership of the overall project. This ability to be neither under-involved nor over-involved is critical for effectively leading a team.
Performance principle: Good managers delegate work without abdicating responsibility. Some managers want to do all the work alone, knowing they can do it better and faster. This works until managers become so overwhelmed that they “throw it over the cubicle wall” blindly hoping that the person to whom they have assigned the project gets everything done. Both extremes of over-involvement (do it yourself) and abdication (pray someone else gets it done) are unproductive. The best delegators stay aware of what their team members are doing while allowing people the freedom to get their work done.
Questions to Consider:
- As you think about your upcoming week, do you have a picture in mind for what each person on your team should be accomplishing?
- Are you checking in with people and essentially asking, “How’s everyone doing?”
- Have you taken time to make sure that you and your team are on the same page regarding goals, timelines, and deadlines?
