Can You be an Effective Leader if you Can’t Delegate?

February 2021

Of all the insightful things I learned in the hours and hours of leadership development training I received during my career in the Fortune 100, the art of delegating was not one of them.

Think about it. Shouldn’t all leaders know how to delegate effectively? Is it even possible to become a great CEO, or a successful general officer in the military, or a beloved leader of any team if one lacks the ability to effectively delegate tasks and decision making to others?

Based on my own experience and observation, the art of delegation is usually not an inborn skill. It can be learned on the job, through trial and error, but I think it helps to have some coaching or mentoring or training on the subject. For sure, those who master it can inspire and energize others by delegating ever increasing responsibility to them.

I must admit, I had a big blind spot in this area for quite a while. My thinking was, “Why would I delegate anything that was easy for me to do so efficiently and so well?”

As I look back, what caused me to think that way may have stemmed from my grade school days. If my report card did not reflect an “A” grade in every single subject at the end of each semester, my parents would express their concern that I was not doing the best job possible. Their loving advice was usually, “You should try harder next semester.”

By the time I entered high school, I did whatever it took to get an “A” in every subject. I became so obsessive about my grades that I ultimately graduated at the top of my class in high school, college, and graduate school.

Early in my career, as an individual contributor, I became just as obsessive about my job performance. I routinely received commendations for being the savior of projects that would have otherwise failed on someone else’s watch. As a result, I was promoted ahead of those more tenured in the department.

But perfectionism does not a good team leader make. If one is reluctant to delegate and develop others on the team, you can quickly burn yourself out, not to mention discourage those reporting to you.

I will never forget the day, early in my management career, when my favorite mentor said to me, “Deb, you know you can delegate the things that you don’t like to do to the people on your team.”

That advice caught me by surprise. I replied, “But the job description for my position says that X, Y, and Z are my responsibilities. I can’t delegate those things.”

My mentor gently said to me, “Deb, that job description simply outlines the areas you are responsible for. It does not say that you must do each of those things yourself. You can assign those tasks to other people on your team, especially if there is someone who might enjoy taking such things on.”

Not getting it, I pushed back. “But, that particular item is not fun at all. I would never ask someone else to do my drudge work for me. They might get fed-up and quit.”

My mentor chuckled and said, “It may surprise you, Deb, but there are people who actually enjoy such tasks. Someone might be delighted to take their skills to a higher level. Just figure out who enjoys doing such work and delegate to them. You can then focus on the things that only you can do, like inspiring and developing all your team members to be the best they can be. Remember, leadership is a team sport.”

That idea blew me away. What a blind spot I had. Of course, now, it all seems so obvious, but back then, I was clueless.

As I interviewed the executives highlighted in my first two leadership books, The WOW Factor Workplace: How to Create a Best Place to Work Culture and Heartfelt Leadership: How to Capture the Top Spot and Keep on Soaring, I was somewhat relieved to discover that I was not the only one challenged to learn the art of effective delegation on the job.

Hospitality executive, Donald Stamets, responded this way when I asked him, “Before you figured out what worked for you as a heartfelt leader, what kind of mistakes did you experience?”

In the beginning, before I allowed myself to trust anyone else, I had to do everything myself. So, I was working like ninety hours a week. But I had total control. I was good.

But I was immature in that position, at the time. As you grow and you learn and you think, “Oh well, let me just give this one thing to Sally and this one thing to Johnny, and this one thing to Alfredo,” oh, gosh!

Now this makes it easier for me and you are making them happy because you are trusting individuals to do the work … allowing them to have that autonomy and that excitement to do the work. That made them feel good and it was much easier on me.

Once I learned that, I realized maybe I needed to learn to delegate a little bit more. So, each year as I matured, I learned to delegate.

If you are like me, perhaps you can relate to that. The good news is, every day that we live, we have yet another chance to learn and grow. I am still mastering this art, but I am getting better at it, if only by taking baby steps, one step at a time.

I hope you will join me on this journey. I would love to hear what you are learning along the way.