3 Reasons Why Delegating is Your Responsibility

For some reason, delegating has gotten a bit of a bad reputation over the last few years (or maybe longer). I can understand why; the definition when I google is, "entrust (a task or responsibility) to another person, typically one who is less senior than oneself."

Let me pick this apart a little and explain why you cringe when you think about delegating. 

Let's start with entrusting, which most of us aren't great at - putting our trust and the responsibility on others. In the current times, perfectionism is a battle many of us are fighting (or stepping into) daily. The idea of passing work along to someone else seems like more work than not (imagine all of the fixing you will have to do!). 

From there, the definition jumps into the hierarchical aspect of work, which is sometimes real, and sometimes not. When you think of the word senior, it could be in title, tenure, or even simply in skill. Even with the seniority in question, the act of telling someone else what they need to do can seem a bit, well, bossy. As a woman in the corporate world, bossy isn't the word I'd like people to describe me as. 

Now that I've explained why we have so many hesitations around delegating in the workplace let me jump into the three reasons why delegating in the workplace is your responsibility. 

You can't do it all

That is right; the first one is elementary math. Most people see the function of too much work for the amount of time they have as a reason to expand their work hours. While this might seem to make sense, it isn't taking into account what impact it will have on your work and life. 

Working long hours isn't sustainable, and as hours increase, the likelihood of errors increases. The less time you spend outside of the office, the more likely you will burn yourself out and start seeing other symptoms of burnout. 

As a primary function of time, delegating allows you to move the work you can't do off your plate. Do not view it as "pawning off work" because it isn't. It's the right decision for you and the organization to make the most of the resources, and that includes moving out of the mentality that the more work you have, the more hours you log. 

Others want the work and experience

As I noted above, we often think of delegating as being "bossy," but I can tell you from experience, there are people who look up to you and want to help. People crave more work and more exposure in the organization, but there are limited ways for them to ask. 

Think of delegating to these folks as an offer, and reframe how you approach delegating. By asking some less senior team members, "can I ask you to help with x, y, z?" Or maybe saying more forward, "I could use an extra set of hands on a, b, c, what do you think?" You open the door to them. 

From there, you will figure out who is looking for more and give it to them. Of course, there might be people who say they can't help, and that either says something about them or their current workload. I'd invite you to dig into it with them and get an idea if they are someone you see moving forward in their career, etc. 

Mentoring/Coaching

Lastly, connecting in with the previous idea of giving people experience, but taking it a bit further. Do you know people always say that training a blank slate is better than someone with bad habits (or something of the likes)? It is accurate, and by delegating, you can work with that blank slate. 

Mentoring/coaching can set ease to the idea of giving up control and that entrusting that makes you so uneasy. What if delegating wasn't simply telling someone to do x, and figure out y on their own? What if, instead, it was spending the time with someone to show them how it should be done and precisely what you expect?

Mentoring/coaching is something that everyone wants. Just like you, the younger/newer staff want to know the next steps. Often in organizations, people unofficially start roles before they get the promotion, giving them training and exposure; give people this opportunity. And a bonus of taking some work off of your plate. 

I want to bring delegation back into the workplace because I know delegating is powerful for you, others, and the organization. 

Learning how to properly delegate so that you feel you have control and allow others to grow and learn will allow you to work on the items that cannot be moved off your schedule. 

What can you delegate today?