Time to Let Go

Posted October 23, 2018

In Life Management, Managing Priorities, Time Management

In my last blog, Are You Suffering from Do-Everything-Myself Syndrome?, I reviewed the dangers of adopting the flawed belief that you can do it all yourself. If you relate to this, it’s time to let go of some things by learning how to say no and delegate to others.

I know someone who used to bring work home every night. After he had dinner with his family, he’d disappear for several hours. One night his six-year-old daughter asked her mother, “Why does Daddy always go into the den every night after dinner?” The mother explained that Daddy had a lot of work to do that he wasn’t able to finish during the day. The daughter replied, “Then why don’t they put Daddy in a slower class?”

When his wife told him what their daughter had said, it jolted him into reality. He decided from that point on that he would no longer bring work home so he could spend that precious evening time with his family.

The only way he could get all the work done was to delegate some tasks to others. As he learned to ask for help, he dramatically improved his management skills and was eventually promoted to president of the company.

Is delegation difficult for you?

Take this quiz to find out. Be honest with yourself as you answer YES or NO to these questions:

Most nights and weekends you take your work home.
It always seems that you have more work to do than your subordinates.
You don’t have time to do much planning.
You frequently end up doing your subordinates’ work for them.
You seldom meet deadlines.
You pride yourself on doing everything perfectly.
You wish you had more time for family, recreation, and vacations, but your work doesn’t allow for that.
You cannot immediately name your top three work goals.
You rarely elicit the opinions of your subordinates.
You issue orders frequently.
You have difficulty trusting your subordinates to do things right.
It’s hard for you to accept ideas offered by someone else.

If you answered YES to several questions above, I guarantee you’ll discover huge benefits as you improve your delegation skills.

Why Delegation Makes a Difference

The most fundamental of all management skills is delegation — getting things done through others.

If you are committed to living a satisfying and fulfilling life — both personally and professionally — delegation is essential. By delegating some things to others, you will free up the physical and emotional energy to pursue the things that matter most to you.

Effective Delegation Multiplies Your Achievements

Several years ago, one of my clients (I’ll call him Mike) took on a huge professional responsibility. He was nominated by his peers to preside over a powerful and influential non-profit professional group for his profession. This was an “opportunity of a lifetime,” although it would require a lot of extra work over the next four years — the length of the term of office for this prestigious volunteer position. He came to a coaching call wondering how he would manage it all, given his already-full plate.

I asked Mike to look at all of his current responsibilities and see what he could delegate, inviting him to do these things to assist in this process:

Identify everything that you are responsible for at work and at home.
Of those responsibilities, identify what you are most passionate about and what you are best at doing.
For all the things that remain on the list after completing step two, identify what you will say no to and what you will delegate to others.

Over the next several coaching sessions, Mike discovered that even if he could do some things really well, he could leverage his time better by handing some things off to others. He learned that just because he was capable of or even really good at doing something, that didn’t mean that he needed to be the one to do it!

Mike was surprised at how much this three-step identification process helped in identifying what to delegate.

The actual delegation was a little more challenging. At first, he struggled with the typical reasons that people give for not delegating:

It would be quicker to do it myself — the short-term view.
I can do it better myself — the perfectionist’s view.
I don’t have anyone I can trust to delegate this to — requires an investment of time to hire or train others.

Once Mike took the leap and began delegating, he was amazed at how those around him rose to the occasion and eagerly took on the new challenges. Mike discovered another great benefit to delegating. By being willing to let others take charge and by trusting others with important responsibilities, he generated some incredible opportunities for team-building. His staff felt more important and needed, and over time this cut down on staff turnover and sick days. Others around him felt more valued.

At home, Mike chose to hire out for help with yard work and household maintenance chores – something that he had never enjoyed doing anyway! This freed up more time for family activities. Mike discovered that, despite the fact that his leadership position required some out-of-town travel, he was able to spend more time with his family than he ever had before.

Success in delegation is not measured by how you go about delegating, to whom you delegate, or how often you delegate. Your success will be judged by the results you achieve through delegation. Effective delegation does not just add to your achievements … it multiplies them. In most cases, the absence of effective delegation will slow down your progress faster than anything else.

If you want to leverage your time, delegation is essential.

Delegation is more than just assigning work. It means making others accountable for the results. It means giving someone else the latitude to make decisions about how to go about reaching those results. It means letting go.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog, which will include the Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Delegation.

If you’d like help gaining clarity about your priorities, let’s schedule a no-cost discovery call. I’ll help you get clear, get perspective, and get support.

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