Unleashing Potential through Smart Delegation

Welcome to the Quick Take podcast, the show where you get targeted advice and coaching for executives by executives. I'm Suzy Tominczuk.

And I'm James Capps. Give us 15 minutes and we'll give you three secrets to address the complex topic of issues that are challenging executives like you today.

Hey, quicksters, I can never do this well. Welcome to Quick Take. I'm Suzy, along with James, and I need to just stop doing the intro, because I never do it well.

I'll get better, I promise. Hey quicksters, welcome to Quick Take. Thanks for joining us today. I'm Suzy Tominczuk.

Let's just quick. Yeah, all right. So I want to tell you a story, a story time. Get your little book, let's get by the semi-circle. I was with a senior team a few weeks ago and it really struck me. I was talking about this whole idea of we were talking about delegation and feedback and high-stake situations, and so we were talking about internal influence and so we were going to chart out kind of what the team's influences around the organization by project, by team, like what they need to do and kind of map it out.

It was really interesting and what really struck me is the senior executive higher than a VP, higher than an SVP jumps up and grabs the marker to write on the whiteboard. And I had not worked with this team before so I didn't know some of the dynamics, but I'm like how interesting and all the questions. Everybody always looked at him and it was like he's a great leader. He really allows his team to do what they need to do. But it really struck me that delegation is really something that is not just I want you to do this task, I want you to show up.

this way, it's being aware of where you want the team to develop.

Right? I think that's exactly right. Delegation is a means to allow your team to fill those voids, to grow into certain areas and to safely try different things. And yeah, so many people, so many leaders simply just don't allow that to happen because of what their energy is and what they bring to the table While they think that they are growing their team. They're growing them up to a point because they're always there, and I think delegation is something that a lot of executives don't really crisply think about other than just as they're doing it, and I think there's right ways and wrong ways to do it.

Yeah, and I also think, and when you think about it and you're like okay, I need to delegate more, I need to give more responsibility, because it allows my team to build trust and build skills and give them exposure. So I'm going to look at my to-do list and I'm going to choose what's on my to-do list.

So it's like where do you go to find the things that I need to give to my team that you're not doing and be aware of? You know, when I talked to that senior executive he was like, oh interesting, I've never thought about that.

Yeah, yeah. Well, delegation I think you know that's clearly. My first thought about delegation is around making sure you're thinking about what you're trying to accomplish with delegation, Right. If you're simply just trying to get stuff off your plate, that's delegation, sure, but ultimately, your function and your thought should be around growing your people right and I'm ensuring that you, as a leader and as a team, are more effective. Delegation is part of that and I think that if you look at it from that mindset, you're going to avoid some of the traps that often come with delegation.

Don't you think there's like also, what do you optically need to take off your? What are you doing? That may not be good view of you, that you're continuing to do, or that really pushes you beyond, because sometimes we hold on to things that we feel bad giving away.

Sure, oh gosh, I've done that so many times, Like when, yeah, where it just is, and you hear it from from people all the time. You know it's just easier if I do it.

Yes, for sure, right yeah.

And it is. Of course it's easier if you do it, but it's easier if you do all the work, all of it, because it'll all get done your way. That just doesn't. That's not how the universe works. There's only so many hours and you're only so capable. But the reality is is a lot of times you see leaders get stinted by your point, which is that they keep doing stuff that they've done in the past and it doesn't allow them to elevate and it doesn't allow their folks to elevate with them.

Yeah, and I guess, and I don't even know what you're going to say, but I think it's delegation is hard and it is hard to think about what to delegate. It's difficult to have the conversation sometimes and in the heat of the moment when things are going really fast, to stick to it, because sometimes in the heat of the moment it's just easier or just automatic just to do it, I'll just take care of it Right, and I think that that's just.

You know, that's just the nature of the work that we're in and you have to be thoughtful of what you're trying to accomplish. In many cases, delegation for delegation's sake typically fails. So you know, again, it's about. It's about growing your leaders, and I think that you know. I think the first thing I want to comment and I think you brought it up really well is you know, the first key mistake people make when they're delegating is they're just dumping work, yeah, right.

So, I really kind of bristle about the idea of looking at my to-do list and giving these three things to my staff. That's just saying, look, I don't have time for this, I'm going to give you the garbage stuff, just do this. You know that's delegation in the sense that is doing having somebody else do your stuff, but that's not allowing them typically the opportunity to learn and grow, to fulfill your function perhaps and share some of your limelight. That's just dumping the garbage work. So if you're like I don't want to fill out this paperwork, I'll delegate that to somebody. Really, that's perhaps not providing you with the best possible growth opportunity by simply just dumping that work on other floors.

I guess it makes me think. What question could you ask yourself that could prompt you to kind of be able to disseminate or allow yourself to filter what is yours and what somebody else is, and not that you're dumping?

Well, I think what I like to think about is, when I give you know I delegate work, what is the outcome of this opportunity? A obviously the work gets accomplished. But B if by providing that they are learning or they're getting exposure or they're getting a safe place to fail. Those are the types of things you want to evaluate. If you're so value out of delegation is just getting the work done, then it's probably not going to provide really the multiplier effect that you're looking for.

Okay, that makes sense.

And I think that's really my second item is really just make sure when you do delegate, you provide the autonomy to do the work. I think it's a lot like you were describing with the executive that I can hear in his head that what he wants to do is get everybody in a room and we're going to kick this around as a team and we'll whiteboard the session. But then he grabs the white marker, he grabs the attention, he drives the narrative and that's not exactly what he really wanted to accomplish. So he failed to provide the autonomy to the team. So if you're going to delegate to somebody, you need to provide them the space, give them the independence, give them the opportunity to fail so they can actually do the work and guess what. It's probably not going to be done exactly like you wanted it and guess what. It's probably going to take a little longer. But that's because the end is not about executing the work.

It's about all the other things that go with it, yeah, and maybe it's as simple as when you walk into the room, instead of taking action, you just sit in the silence and the on the comfort Practicing silence.

Yeah, that's delegating the leadership of the room, that's delegating the setting the tone. I love to go into a meeting and just say I don't know why I'm here or hey, who's going to take the lead on this one? I can always take the lead on the conversation. I can always say well, I read the meeting title. I assume it means this, so let's talk about it this way. But that's not leadership, that's management, and those are two different things.

Yeah, it makes me think too, I guess and this isn't delegation, but I think the other is true, like I was thinking, in that silence, being ready to jump in and say I'm going to take this initiative and do it and not assume. I was just working with a team yesterday and they were having their boss call the meeting and she wanted them to present to her and we talked about framing up the conversation for her and they were like, but it's her meeting, it's her agenda.

And it's like no, she would like you frame it in the way that you asked us to do this. You asked us to have some slides available, and what we'd like to do is we're going to go through this and then we want to hear what your state at the state is, and she was thrilled.

You know I love that and I guess that's a really great segue to my third point about delegation. And while I don't think this, actually she did a good job there, but I do like what the team did Look. Key to successful delegation is setting the expectation. And so now, in this particular case, your leader said, hey, she delegated the way in which that they were briefed. She delegated, you know, just advocated that to that team to go forward. You know that wasn't but as much delegation as it could have been.

But the reality is is they did set the expectation Right. So, rather than just showing up and waiting for her, they said, hey, I'll set the expectation and makes that collaboration that much more productive. And I think it's so important when you bring people along, when you're going to give them, that the opportunity, that you're crisp in the delegation, crisp in the expectation. You know we talk all the time about going on vacation and saying people I'm going to delegate to my staff, but what does that mean? Does that mean that they can, basically they're empowered to tell everybody you're on vacation? Is that the soul of the delegation? Or can they sign and can they make decisions and can they do things? And you need to set that expectation and that because that is empowering. You know, you hear me say it all the time good fences make good neighbors, and when those folks know where the lines are drawn, they're going to make that much better decisions.

So if you're, going to delegate, you need to be clear what you're delegating and where you're not delegating, and making it crisp you'll have a much better outcome.

Yeah, it's like just handing them your phone. Yeah, I'm gonna be gone here here and just turn around.

Right walk away.

No password. Your face is not their face, anything whatever, whatever.

Yes, it's a great analogy and you would never do that so clearly. If you're going to delegate, you need to be clear on what you're accomplishing.

Yeah, I was just reading this article about how the 90% of our conversations happen in here.

Oh my gosh, I absolutely agree.

It's funny to think about that. We know the way we want things done we, because we live it. We think about it. We think about it even when we don't. We were actively understanding that we're thinking about it, but yet we're just so not very careful or thoughtful about how we communicate, that we think we give this piece, but we don't realize we're not giving them the context that lives up here.

They don't live up here with you in Crisseyville, there's so much conversation, so much prep work, so much pressure testing, so much sacros behind it, and then we give them the final bit Exactly right. And so we owe it to folks that we delegate to to give them the clarity of the full story, to give them the completeness of the thought. Oh, I've been thinking about delegating this to you for a while now. Here I delegated it to you. Well, there was a tremendous amount of pre-thought that went into that, and wouldn't it be better if they had that? There were those expectations at least, so they would be successful. I love that statistic because it certainly supports the problem with a lot of the way that we think about delegation.

Yeah, I think it's a really important trait. I got to share a quick story Back in the day, when you and I worked together, there was a network and a distribution partner that were not getting along and they were at odds and so we had to quickly switch from one satellite to the other.

All these people around the country is a big deal, and I think actually you may have been in the room there was a senior staff meeting going on and I ran into the room and I said hey. I said to senior leader, we got to do this, we got to move this from here because you know, and I literally used it was Seinfeld days. I said because it's like blah, blah, blah these affiliates here and blah, blah, blah these affiliates here.

And he goes. He got really mad at me. He goes. I understand what blah, blah blah means and you understand what blah, blah blah means, but everybody else in this room. So slow down and explain blah, blah, blah, and he literally said that, but it was just like we do believe, especially in the heat that was a heat of the moment time.

Yeah, yeah.

When we have emotions involved and we're not able to think and we just want to go.

Yeah, yeah.

So take a breath and think about. What am I trying to communicate to this person and how do you make sure they understand?

Yeah, I think that's a great, great, great point. And, yeah, those heated moments and oftentimes when you're delegating something, you may not have the time to have that conversation as crisp as you'd like, but if you want them to be successful in it, you need to do that.

Yeah, so good. So what are the three again?

Yeah. So I think it's so important that, first and foremost, that you allow autonomy in their work, give them the space, give them the ecosystem where they can be successful and allow them to really understand what they need. Secondly, you want to be clear in the expectations of that delegation, right? You want them to. You want to say, look, I'm going to give you this opportunity, here's the space, here's what I'm expecting out of this, and allows them the opportunity to be successful because you clearly know what you're doing. And then the third one, which I think is just a general good rule of thumb, is just avoid dumping more right. Delegation is simply not taking the garbage and giving it to the person next to you. If you truly want a positive experience for an up and coming leader, you want to afford them the opportunity to grow. Just simply dumping your half of your to-do list on them is not delegation. That's just not a good way to manage.

Bad management. I would go as far as to say that's just bad, bad. Well, this was great. Thank you, james. That was very thoughtful. And tell us what kind of feedback. What are some of the quicksters saying to you? You ran into a few today.

Yeah, I was super excited. In the last couple of days I've had some events here in Denver and I just a shout out to the handful of folks that ran up to me and said that they were quicksters, which is always exciting had some great feedback on some of our episodes, some folks that really put it to work, and we love hearing from you guys. It's just humbling that we have so many people out there listening to us and it's just so much fun to engage with everybody and get your feedback. So keep it coming. It's been great.

Yes, and we appreciate you. Every single one of the quicksters, even the ones that aren't self labeled yet they will be.

That's right, they will be. They will be, yeah, coming around You'll come around.

Well, feel free. James and I are both on LinkedIn. Feel free to follow us, connect with us, ask us your question. We love to hear what's on your mind or what can we kind of talk about. That would be a benefit. So we appreciate you. If you think there's somebody that could benefit from this, that needs to delegate more, it's a catalyst to help them become better, so share it with everyone, anyone you know. So with that, we'll let you go and just know that we appreciate you. Hey, here we are. This is Q2, quickster questions. So we're gonna surprise each other with questions that come in that are just random, that people wanna know. So the question goes to James today Are you ready?

James.

Very exciting and it's very funny that you seem ready and I'm gonna say you'll know why when I say this. So the question is do you really need glasses? And you took them off so you don't have them on.

Do I really need glasses? I do. These are prescription glasses, but that's a good question. That's a good question. I do feel taken aback by that. I do need glasses to read on occasion. I will say they are maybe 20% necessary and 80% part of the ensemble. So yes, I'm more interested in how they look versus how they work.

That's fair. That's fair, so I'm brand new. All right, that was it. That was the question.

Thank you, Quiksters. Maybe saw a little blush on the show. That's a good one to start with Questions and.

Quiksters are on the minds of Quiksters everywhere.

All right until next time.

Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Quick Take, where we talk about the questions that are on the minds of executives everywhere. Connect with us and share what's on your mind.

You can find us on LinkedIn, youtube or whatever nerdy place on the internet If you find your podcasts. All the links you really did are in the show notes.