You can't delegate everything.

If you knew you could get away with it, what would you delegate?

No one’s job is perfect, there will always be something you have to do that you don’t enjoy. No surprises there, right? That being said there may be some things you could delegate. Yet there will always be work that is attached to your role whether that’s because of, for example, your level of authority or regulations.

This Andertoon’s cartoon sums it all up ...

Interpretation:

It’s abdicating not delegating
It’s irresponsible
It creates undue stress on those being left to handle the situation
It doesn’t set anyone up for success
The manager’s reputation plummets: trust, reliability and integrity take a hit.

In the deep end without a life guard:

In delegation workshops, I’m often asked (read: challenged), that “throwing people into the deep end” is a good way to find out who can handle the pressure. My response to that is:

Providing challenge while remaining available for support is essential. Steps 5 (Agreed Support) and 6 (Agreed Tracking) of the 9 steps to delegating are what make the difference between a challenge working because the delegate feels confident to proceed and is supported without micromanaging or the manager constantly hovering.

The impact of abdicating or dumping tasks on others who are not the right choice for the task, will negatively impact productivity: they will most likely be ill-equipped to handle the task, they’ll be looking for an authority to make decisions. This means bottlenecking and progress thwarted. Alternatively, they may work on the task and because they are without authority may make decisions that end out being costly or even dangerous.

At the start of a short-term internship project in 1999, the manager handed over a thick report and said, “Read this, then let’s talk about how you will fix it.”

That moment, I later realised, was a tipping point for me as an employee, project manager, and future leader; and how empowering the skill of delegating can be for manager and employee both, when it’s done well. The manager set me up for success in the project, not an easy project by any means, but she knew what she was doing even if I didn’t yet. She stated that she trusted me, that she wasn’t going to micromanage or hover so if I had questions by all means ask but it was me who had the authority to achieve the desired outcome. She stepped in when I asked and she facilitated, rather than directed. When I needed her level of authority, which was really only a signature here or a nod there, I wasn’t kept waiting. We scheduled milestones and meetings so that she could be kept up to date and provide whatever support I needed.