Stewardship Delegation: It Really Is The Great Multiplier

Delegation, it’s been said, is the key to executive sanity.

But there’s more to it than that. Great leaders delegate effectively because they have a clear vision of two things: accomplishing the work and helping their people grow.

In observing someone who’s overloaded with work, most of us have heard (or even made) comments such as, “He should delegate more” or “Why doesn’t she learn to delegate?” The assumption seems to be that the trick to delegation is simply turning work over to someone else and suddenly being free of that responsibility.

But it’s a mistake to regard delegation as simply the ability to get someone else to do your job. When we treat delegation as no more than shifting responsibility, we communicate to the other person a dangerous message: “You’ll be doing me a big favor if you’ll complete this assignment.” Then your coworker feels free either to carry out the task or to leave it incomplete. Where there’s no sense of psychological ownership of a task, there’s little incentive to get it done.

As any good leader can attest, delegation won’t necessarily give you more time immediately. Especially at the start, delegation requires careful thought, communication, commitment, and focus. At the very beginning, delegation may require even more of your time than if you had done the delegated task yourself. In the long run, however, you should expect delegation to give you time for other matters. And, of course, in addition to facilitating the accomplishment of work, effective delegation develops others by giving them the opportunity to serve, to learn new skills, to stretch their wings, to build their confidence, and broaden their competence.

Delegation Implies Trust

With delegation comes stewardship. A stewardship is a job with a trust. When an assignment is delegated to us, we are entrusted with that assignment. With every delegated stewardship, certain authority, power, and trust are bestowed. When the principle of delegation is properly practiced, everyone benefits: the person who delegates the task or assignment, the person who receives the delegated stewardship, and the people who benefit from the service rendered.

Knowing When to “Let Go”

Why, then, do many leaders not delegate? Here are some of the most common excuses given:

• “I just can’t rely on my people to do the job the way I want it done.”
• “It’s easier and faster to do the job myself than to delegate it.”
• “It’s frustrating not to have something done the right way the first time.”

Three Important Questions

For the leader who’s determined to avoid being a one-person show and who wants to give others the opportunity to serve, at least three questions should be carefully addressed:

1. What is the task or assignment?

2. Who is available to fulfill it?

3. How do I train and inspire this individual to accept and carry out this stewardship with excellence?

You can’t effectively delegate a task or assignment until you understand at least the general parameters. Does the task require special skills or experience? What training is needed and available? What sort of time commitments must be made by the person accepting he assignment? What meetings ae involved?

Closely related to your careful assessment of the task or assignment itself is your appraisal of the people who might be available to fill it. Depending on your own role— whether you are offering counsel to the leader who must make the final selection decision or whether you are the leader making the final decision—some obvious questions must be considered.

For instance, who in your resource pool is now available or could be available for the assignment? Which of these people has the requisite skills or experience? Which of them is most likely to be reliable in fulfilling the stewardship?

The third question to be addressed— How do I train and inspire this individual to accept and carry out this stewardship with excellence?—is especially crucial. Why? Because, frankly, too often assignments are given with the false assumption that the task will somehow be done properly and promptly through the goodwill of the worker. In reality, the worker may have the very best of intentions but simply lack the competence and confidence to carry out the assignment.

That’s where clarity of expectations enters into the delegation formula.

An Agreement on Expectations

Effective delegation involves expectations—the expectations of the person doing the delegating as well as the expectations of the person who’s given the task or assignment. Giving an assignment is not a monologue. If done effectively, it requires a dialogue between both parties.

In fact, the entire process may be defined in this way: Effective stewardship delegation requires a clear, up-front, mutual understanding and commitment regarding expectations about:

• desired results or outcomes
• guidelines
• resources
• accountability, and
• linkages

Now let’s consider each part of that definition, because each is crucial.

The communication between the two parties must be clear. Without clarity, misunderstanding is inevitable. A community volunteer was in charge of a neighborhood cookout and enlisted the help of nearly two dozen other neighbors. To each of five of those neighbors, the volunteer gave a simple assignment: “Please bring a salad.” What the volunteer envisioned was a variety—perhaps a bean salad, a fruit salad, a spinach salad and so on. What she got, however, was five nearly identical gelatin salads. Why? Because she failed to specify what she had in mind. Those receiving the assignment were left to guess, and their arrival at the cookout with five gelatin salads provided a humorous lesson in the importance of clarity.

The communication between the two parties must be up-front. It’s frustrating to a person to receive an assignment without an exchange of expectations. But it’s even more frustrating to be well on your way toward accomplishing a task, only to be told that your leader had something altogether different in mind. The time to agree on the particulars of an assignment is at the beginning. Yes, this requires an investment of time and focus at a moment when both parties may feel rushed. But the investment now will pay rich dividends later.

The understanding and commitment regarding the assignment must be mutual. When delegating, the effective leader carefully listens to the feelings and hopes and expectations of the person receiving the assignment. The leader expresses his own vision of the assignment. When the two parties come to an agreement on all of the elements, they are well on their way to success.