Arrow Leadership International Ministries

Arrow in the News

More Quotes

Delegation Done Well, by Dr. Steve Brown

Delegation Done Well

The story may be old and familiar but the wisdom is still fresh and applicable. In Exodus 18:13-26, Moses’ father-in-law Jethro provides a foundational leadership lesson on the merits of delegation. After watching his son-in-law working alone from morning to evening as judge for the people, Jethro determined, “What you are doing is not good.”

The reasons behind Jethro’s assessment could be summed up in two words – protection and provision. Moses’ leadership was on an unhealthy path and he had created a bottleneck in the administration of justice. By suggesting the delegation of responsibility, Jethro was seeking to protect Moses from wearing himself and the people out. He was also seeking to provide a more sustainable life for Moses as a leader as well as better service for the people.

There are common concerns (i.e ‘what if the job’s not done as well as I could do it?’), fears (i.e. ‘what if someone else does this better than me?’) and excuses (i.e. ‘it’s faster for me to do this myself’) surrounding delegation, but Jethro’s wise counsel can still bring protection and provision for leaders and organizations today. Listed below are some helps to growing in the area of delegation:

1. The 80% Rule – Long-time Arrow faculty member and leadership consultant Bobb Biehl states, When you are doing something that someone else on your staff could do 80% as well, you are probably wasting your time.” Instead, you should be focusing on the things that only you can do and working to appropriately delegate everything else.

1. Know Your Default, Know Your Options – In their work on Situational Leadership, Hersey and Blanchard outline four common leadership styles – telling, selling, participating and delegating. Many leaders may default to one of these styles when different situations may require one of the other styles. For example, a leader who defaults toward a participating style will develop a context where the team processes most decisions as a group. Though there are clear benefits from engaging input from the team, it isn’t wise to only use the participating style. Sometimes the task at hand or the readiness (their experience, expertise, motivation, potential) of the individuals may require another style. Know your default and know your options – sometimes you should be choosing a delegating style.

1. Six Keys for Doing Delegation Well –

1. Clarify What You Are Delegating – Are you delegating a task (i.e make food arrangements for the team meeting), or a project (i.e. organize the team meeting) or a function (i.e. provide leadership for the team)? Clearly, you need to have greater levels of confidence moving from delegating tasks to project to function. This confidence can be earned as those to whom you delegate demonstrate good leadership.
2. Clarify Outcomes – Communicate clearly about the specific deliverables or outcomes that you expect. Leave room for the individual to determine their own process or chart their own course - but make the target of success crystal clear.
3. Outline Limits – Establish limits and boundaries upfront. In Fierce Conversations, Susan Scott shares a powerful illustration using four parts of a tree to help delineate limits based on the implications and impact of decisions. In the illustration, ‘leaf’ decisions have fewer implications and lower overall impact on the organization. The leader can simply take action. Implications and impact are greater with ‘branch’ decisions, so the leader can take action but needs to report on what action was taken. ‘Trunk’ decisions can potentially impact the entire tree so these decisions require the leader to make the decision but to report before action is taken. Finally, the most sensitive decisions are ‘root’ decisions which require the leader to make the decision jointly before action is taken. Helping your leader apply this illustration to the delegation scenario can give appropriate freedom, limits and boundaries.
4. Carefully Select ‘Ready’ Leaders – Jethro gave Moses some strong criteria for selecting the men to whom he could delegate the significant responsibility of administering justice. Jesus invested significant time in prayerful contemplation. Seek to determine the requirements for your delegation scenarios with similar care. What type of background or personality, depth of character, mix of competencies or available capacity are required for the leader to be ‘ready’? For more complex delegation assignments make three criteria lists – essential, important and helpful. Then rate leaders against the lists to determine readiness. Sometimes it will still come down to ‘gut’ but at you will be more confidence having done due diligence.
5. Provide Appropriate Resources, Availability and Coaching – Delegation shouldn’t be code for ‘dumping’ work on others and abandoning subordinates. Ensure access to resources and appropriate levels of coaching are established to ensure a high probability of success and a positive experience all around. The lower the leader’s readiness, the greater the complexity or when there are higher stakes, then more resources, greater availability and more coaching is required.
6. Reflection, Learning and Celebration – Close the loop through an intentional debrief of the delegation experience. Take time appropriate to the leader’s experience and the complexity of what was delegated to reflect, learn and hopefully, celebrate.

4. Remember Leaders Develop Others and Delegation is a Key Tool - The development and empowerment of others is a core leadership responsibility and delegation is a key development and empowerment tool. Following Christ’s example, we need to intentionally grow the capacity of our organization or mission by intentionally growing and investing in the capacity of the people around us. As Susan Scott points out, “Trying to build leaders by regularly exposing them to your brilliance guarantees a lack of development. You will not have allowed anyone around you to show up with solutions outside the reach of your own personal headlights. If your employees believe their job is to do what you tell them, you’re sunk.” Fierce Conversations, p. 121.

Recommended Resources

• Article - “Delegation: Gaining Time For Yourself”, Harvard Business Review, www.hbr.org, May 3, 2005, 6006BC-PDF-ENG
• Fierce Conversations, Susan Scott, Berkley Publishing Group, 2004.