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The Art Of Delegatingby Kathleen Brady
Delegating is an often overlooked, yet essential skill to master as you advance in your career. Whether you are a first year associate delegating to paralegals and secretaries, or a partner delegating to hordes of associates, the sooner you learn how to delegate, the faster you will be able to gain leverage, streamline your efforts and restore some sanity to your life. The purpose of delegating is to enable you to dispose of simpler tasks to free you up to perform tasks which are of greater value to your organization. The time it takes up front to orchestrate a plan of action, explain the desired outcome, and monitor the progress of each subordinate ultimately requires less time than it would take to execute the entire action plan yourself. That is, if it is done correctly. Understand that there is a difference between assigning a task and delegating one. If there are multiple directives, required check-ins and a significant amount of supervision time, you have merely assigned the task. This method will cause you to become a choke point and slow down the work process. Nothing will render you expendable or non-essential faster than being seen as the bottleneck, responsible for missed deadlines and an underutilized team. The truth is you probably can do most tasks better and faster. But if you hold on to the belief that there is a correlation between the amount of control you exert over a project and the quality of the results, you will always want to micromanage everything. As you move up in the associate ranks, additional responsibilities will require your attention. With the same amount of hours in each day and multiplying responsibilities, you simply won’t have time to micromanage every thing. You must learn to use every available resource to get all the work done. Accept the fact that occasionally, it will take more time to explain to someone else how to do an assignment than it would take to do it yourself. Delegate it anyway. The next time, it will take less time to explain. More importantly, you will be developing your team for the future and, thus ultimately gain the desired leverage and control you are seeking. Consider the following scenario: you assign a research topic to a junior associate which you estimate would take 90 minutes to complete if you did it yourself. It takes you 30 minutes to brief the junior associate and an additional hour to review the work. Because you aren’t saving any time by delegating the assignment, you consider doing it yourself. However, the next time you need a similar research project from the associate it will only take you 10 minutes to explain and 30 minutes to review. Over the course of the two assignments you actually saved 50 minutes by assigning it rather than doing it yourself both times. If you take the long view, it becomes clear how much time you can save through delegation. People rise or fall to the level of expectation. Delegate tasks and hold people accountable. The better your team does under your leadership, the more value you will bring to your organization. To become a more effective delegator, use the four step process outlined below. STEP 1: THINK IT THROUGH. Every successful project/deal/case needs defined and approved goals, a committed team and a viable plan of action that can effectively accommodate change. Invest the time at the beginning to think through the project. This will enable you to clearly define the goals and objectives, assign the tasks and assess the progress to ensure you get the end result you want, which will ultimately save time. Consider:
STEP 2: ASSEMBLE THE TEAM Identify the person(s) who can get the job done. (Granted, sometimes you have no choice of team members. In that instance, the next steps are even more critical!) Be sure to get a commitment from each team member that they:
STEP 3: COMMUNICATE! COMMUNICATE! COMMUNICATE! Always operate under the principal that you can never be too clear. It is important to communicate exactly what needs to be done in an unambiguous effective manner. Indicate specifically what you want the associate to do and be sure to confirm that the associate is clear about the assignment. As the delegator, it is your responsibility to ensure your subordinates know:
After you have explained the details, you may want to clarify understanding by asking, “Will you walk me through how you will proceed so I know that I have explained the assignment properly.” Avoid barking out orders while rushed. You need to provide associates with an opportunity to absorb the information and ask questions. Also, avoid thinking out loud when giving instructions. It causes confusion. Finally, try not to over explain or talk down to people. It will lead them to believe that you think they are too dumb to get it right the first time; remember, people rise or fall to the level of expectation. STEP 4: IMPLEMENT THE ACTION PLAN Once you know who is on the team and have a sense of their strengths and weaknesses, you will want to decide which of the six levels of delegation is appropriate for their skill level and your comfort level. You are ultimately accountable and your professional reputation may be at risk, so it is important to be clear about the delegation level at which your subordinate is expected to operate. Delegation Levels
As you work more and more with people and trust develops, you will get more comfortable delegating at higher levels. Treat delegating as a chance to build rapport. Chat with subordinates about what needs to get done, how they intend to do it and why it is important. Investing 10 minutes in the process takes extra effort up front, but there is sure to be a payoff. REBOUNDING FROM A DELEGATION ERROR People make mistakes and misunderstandings occur every day in practice. There is always a chance that you provided vague instructions, offered unclear explanations or provided ambiguous answers to important question. It is also possible that the junior associate didn’t listen carefully or simply pretended to understand the assignment. Rather than use such sporadic disasters to justify micromanaging your staff, accept that such things are going to happen from time to time, learn from them and move on. When an error does occur avoid the visceral response of immediately assigning blame. Focus on developing solutions to get the job done first. There will be time to assign blame later if necessary. Consider whether there is time to allow the associate to fix the problem directly. If it is possible to seize such a ‘teachable moment’ use the IDIOT Problem Solving Model to help the associate maintain a forward-looking view and offer solutions as to how the situation can be fixed. IDIOT PROBLEM SOLVING MODEL Identify the problem. Explain to the associate what specific actions lead to the error. “You screwed up,” is not useful. Try instead, “You researched issue X when I asked you to focus on issue Y.” Delve into the issues. It is important to calmly ask questions to uncover why the associate did what he did. Maybe he was just careless, but maybe there is some other reason which would be helpful to know. Investigate possible solutions. Give the associate the opportunity to figure out alternative ways to correct the problem. Opt for the Best Alternative Guide the associate to select the best approach to correct the mistake. Take Action Determine who will complete the necessary tasks to implement the revised action plan. In the real world, with client demands and tight deadlines, it isn’t always possible to capitalize on those teachable moments. In those instances, you may want to jump in and fix the situation yourself. However, a few days later (when you are less stressed and less angry) bring the associate in to debrief. Walk through the IDIOT Problem Solving Model process. Your goal is to avoid a similar situation in the future. Whether you address the problem at the moment or a few days later, try to connect past behaviors with forward looking remedies of how the person can perform better. How you implement the IDIOT Problem Solving Model is important. Negative reactions to criticism usually have less to do with what you say than the manner and attitude you display as you say it. Your communication style should be UNIFORM: Unemotional, calm demeanor Neutral body language Inquisitive Focused on observerable actions/not attitudes Open-minded Realistic Maintain control Delegating is not just a way to reduce your workload and complete projects. It is a way to develop employees and strengthen the workforce. Once you learn to mobilize forces around you, you will maximize your leverage, free yourself up to perform tasks of greater value to your organization and maybe even find a little spare time to enjoy your life. Reprinted with Permission from Brady & Associates Career Planners, LLC.
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