The Reluctant Delegator

James had been promoted and was now in a ‘Head Of’ role. James had a team of approximately 100 people all managed by six direct reports. This was the dream job James had been working towards and he had a reputation of being an incredibly reliable performer and someone who always got things done. There were some observations that James seemed to have his finger in every pie and sometimes he would overcommit in his desire to do a good job. James was now leading leaders, and he was starting to notice that he didn’t have the capacity or the bandwidth to be involved to the same degree he had been in the past. Something had to change. James had become aware that the way he was playing his inner game needed an adjustment. At a logical level, he realised he needed to delegate more and when he thought about this, he was instantly concerned with how things would be done and whether the quality he was associated with would be lost. This then made him question whether the ‘higher ups’ would see this as some form of a drop in performance, so he wasn’t sure how to move forward. This was how James and I started to work together.

Do any of these statements describe you or someone you know?

If I do this task, it will be done the way I want it
I know I should delegate this but honestly, it will be quicker if I do it myself
I’m really picky about the quality of output, so it’s just better if I do this myself
If this thing isn’t done perfectly, it might reflect negatively on my performance and impact

The degree to which we entertain delegating is part of how we play our inner game of leadership. At the extremes on the delegation continuum, we can have people who want to be in control and are very particular about the details and how things get done. The other end of the continuum are those individuals who are more flexible in their approach, less concerned with the details so are happy for others to take care of those pesky details.

Sometimes when we are under pressure, we may have an orientation to become very dutiful which is all about things being right and perfect. In these moments we can become even more concerned with controlling things or be accused of being a micromanager!

Not delegating is a real issue for many leaders but we need to be able to work effectively with our teams, get ourselves out of the ‘weeds’ and achieve results. Also, if you are interested in climbing the career ladder to senior leadership positions, you need to be able to delegate effectively. The measure of success often shifts from your ‘technical trade’ to how you influence and lead your teams.

So how can we delegate and still feel like we are maintaining control of what is being done?

The Tight-Loose-Tight Principle

The Tight–Loose–Tight Principle is embraced in the Agile world and can equally be useful for leaders who don’t feel they have a framework to help them delegate more effectively.

Here’s how it works:

Tight on the Outcome or Goal

The first step is to work with your team member or team and be really clear (tight) on the outcome or the goal you are trying to achieve. When things don’t go to plan it can often come back to how that outcome or goal was communicated in the first instance. So, take the time to be clear on how you will communicate the outcome or the goal you would like your people to achieve.

Loose on How the Goal is Achieved

Knowing you have done such an awesome job at communicating the outcome you want to be achieved, now is the time to be flexible (loose) around how your team member(s) will complete the task. If there are no regulatory or safety protocols that require things to be done a specific way, let your people carry out the task in a way that makes sense to them. They may have a different way of completing the task to you, you just have to ask yourself ‘does it matter if this gets done a different way to how I would do it?’ If the answer is no, then let them get on with it. Now, I get that might sound like a radical thing to do and some of you might be experiencing shortness of breath and a tightness in your chest at this point, so let’s move on to the next stage so you can see you will still have ‘control' over what is being achieved.

Tight on Reviewing Progress against the Goal

The final step is important. We need to make sure we schedule regular reviews to ensure the goal is on track and progress is being made. This might be where you uncover that the way your team member approached something didn’t work that well. This is a great teachable moment. Now you can share some alternative ideas around how they could approach the task next time. Remember, we want to encourage our people to default to action and learn from things that didn’t go quite as well as we expected. It’s important for leaders who like to maintain control to remember these review catch-ups are not only a way for you to know how things are progressing, but also provide a coaching opportunity for your team members so they can either have their strengths reinforced or an opportunity to learn a different way or different perspective.

The Tight-Loose-Tight Principle allows leaders to keep abreast of how things are tracking and what progress is being made without defaulting to micro-managing techniques that often disengage our people.

So how can this approach help a leader who prefers to delegate?

If you are a leader who hangs out at the other end of the Delegation Continuum – the more ‘flexible’ end, then this Principle is important for you too. Often leaders at this end of the scale don’t always include enough detail in the outcome they want to achieve, or they are a bit remiss at closing the loops in the review meetings. This approach can be a great framework to help you get some more discipline into your delegation leadership and provide your people with the guidance they may be seeking.

Need some help?

All great leaders have a clear understanding of how they are doing their leadership from the inside out – you can have that too. If you are interested in learning more about how you are playing your inner game and how to achieve more results through delegating effectively, we should chat. Feel free to send me an email or give me a call.

The Reluctant Delegator