4 Unexpected Reasons Why Leaders Should Delegate

A Tale of Two Cooks in One Kitchen

My soon-to-be-husband and I cook most of our meals at home. We have a pretty good system, too–one person prepares and cooks the meal, the other is on clean-up duty.

One evening, I was preparing our dinner: grilled steaks and a Caesar salad. As my partner walked into the kitchen, I could see him assessing the way I was prepping the steaks.

“Ya know, I like to give them a quick sear in the cast iron first. Locks in all the flavor.”

I continued seasoning the steaks, hoping if I ignored his comment, I wouldn’t have to add the extra step of searing.

Next, Chef Talks-a-lot leaned over my shoulder. “What seasoning are you using? Oh, that one? This one here is really the best for steaks,” he said as he handed me a different jar of seasoning from the cupboard.

Once the steaks were on the grill, I started mixing the salad. Mr. Kitchen Supervisor piped up again. “If you leave a little bit of the lettuce in the bag, but still use all the dressing, it makes the salad extra delicious.”

I swiftly grabbed a crouton and tried to shove it up his nose before he could run away.

Just like this story from my kitchen, leaders who do not delegate properly take the joy out of the work and frustrate their teams in the process.

AND...

What if I told you your lack of delegation is preventing your own career advancement and causing you to miss out on top talent?

4 Unexpected Reasons to Delegate

1. Delegation opens up opportunities for your own career advancement. When you insist on doing tasks you were capable of doing in your last role (or two), you’re not using your time and energy wisely. You’re missing out on opportunities to be challenged and to build new skills that will eventually lead to your career advancement.

2. Delegation supplies your team with satisfying work. Think about some of your proudest professional accomplishments. You were challenged, maybe a little (okay, a lot) stressed, you didn’t know how to get it done, but you pushed through, and you felt immense satisfaction when you reached your goal. You have those proud, satisfying memories because someone trusted you to do a hard thing you’d never done before. Don’t rob your team members of the same experiences.

3. Delegation promotes innovation and continuous improvement. Sure, you can teach everyone to do it your way, but guess what? They’ll all do it your way. Whomp, whomp. On top of that, your ambitious, high-performing team members will be bored out of their minds, which reminds me…

4. Delegation helps you attract top talent. The type of team members you want on your team love to create, improve, puzzle, struggle, innovate, and wrestle. They’re resilient and adaptable. And if you let them, they’ll figure out how to do it better than you did. Win. Win.

Delegate, don’t relegate

You’re inspired to delegate? Woohoo! Here are some do’s and don'ts to guide the way:

DON’T hand off all the projects you hate doing. We’re not going to dump and ditch.

DO delegate projects that will give someone a chance to stretch and leverage their strengths.

DON’T delegate to test them. We aren’t dropping them in the woods with a bottle of water and a compass and letting them find their way out.

DO provide context, support, and let them ask questions before they get started.

DON’T abdicate your responsibilities as a leader by delegating work that needs the care and expertise of a leader.

DO allow an aspiring leader to work alongside you, to observe, learn, and support the work under your guidance.