Most of us occasionally fall into a tender trap: only we can do something because nobody is as good as us. This is a bad space for team managers to be in when they could be out in the field with their teams. This article is about empowering others to help with our management workload to focus on things that matter.

Separating Out and Understanding What Management Is

The four management tasks are planning, organising, leading, and controlling. French mining engineer Henri Fayol realised that a century ago. Many have tried to improve or embellish them, but for now, let’s keep to the four.

Effective managers spend time scanning their environment and devising proactive strategic responses. However, many of us devote a large proportion of our hours reactively organising, leading, and controlling.

Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy wrote a book, ‘Who, Not How’ that has stood the test of time. They say managers are tied by detail because they don’t empower their people by entrusting them with their tasks. This begs the question of which tasks these are.  Planning seems the most obvious.

Setting Out the Six Main Stages in Strategic Planning

Once again, there are many interpretations of these phases. However, if we keep life simple, the following are sufficient for our purpose:

1. Set a goal we wish to achieve.
2. Gather the data surrounding this.
3. Analyse this data for relevance.
4. Devise a plan to achieve the goal.
5. Implement the plan with deadlines.
6. Monitor progress to achievement.

A cursory look suggests steps 2, 3 and 6 are routine activities at the operational level. Business management theory holds managers could delegate these tasks. But how can we do this when the strategic goal is so close to our hearts?

We Can Achieve It by Focusing on the ‘Who’ Not the ‘How’

Nobody said a truer word than that when they wrote about the wood and the trees. Ask any overworked manager how their strategic plan is going, and we may get one of these responses:

• I don’t know how I will find the time I need.
• I don’t know how I will lay my hands on the data.
• I don’t know where I will find time to analyse it.

Did you notice they are overlooking the possibility of roping in some assistance? This article provides tips on how to do just that.

Overcoming Resistance to Delegation by Making It a Positive

Our first response to the idea of needing help in any situation can be a sense of inadequacy. After all, we are a manager, and the company chose us for our talent. Indeed, asking a subordinate for assistance is a recognition of failure, we ask? Then we remember management and delegation go hand-in-hand.

After all, when we have a leaky water pipe, we call a plumber instead of making it worse with our imaginary skills. Success comes when we focus on essential tasks in which we excel, and where we are confident, we will succeed.

Therefore, we should seek help from people we trust to support us in our operational endeavours. This will claw back time to concentrate on our strategic responsibility. This is to chart the way forward for our organization.

We may find these people just down the corridor when we see our team with fresh eyes. They are likely to be ambitious and welcome the opportunity to think at a more senior level. It does not make sense to ignore this resource and over-burden ourselves instead.

Let’s hark back to Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy to draw the threads together of this section. They suggest managers focus on the outcomes they achieve and not the personal sweat they invest. The goal is a successful result, not late hours at work!

Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them

Paul Hawken, Environmental Activist

Strategically Delegate the ‘How’ and Then Empower

Delegation means empowerment through trust. Of course, we must define the task and the criteria for success. Delegating an operational task can inspire a promising employee to grow.

However, saying ‘I was actually thinking of something else’ when they hand in their report is a failure on our part and a disservice to that person. Successful delegation leading to empowerment avoids this by remembering these steps:

1. Define a task that is beyond our capacity in terms of time available, but that we can delegate.
2. Identify a team member with the talent and time to complete it for us and grow in the process.
3. Define the ‘what’ of the project and the desired outcome. Stay away from the ‘how’ unless they ask.
4. Provide the necessary support by sharing available information, and how we propose to use their output.

Now grant them the freedom that truly empowers. Allow them to grow raw potential that opens new vistas in their career.

Your job is to set the vision. Follow Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy’s advice. Use the concept of ‘impact filter’ to describe (a) why the assignment is essential, (b) what success will look like, (c) what is at stake, and (d) any challenges the delegate might encounter.

You have to enable and empower people to make decisions independent of you. As I've learned, each person on a team is an extension of your leadership; if they feel empowered by you, they will magnify your power to lead.

Tom Ridge, American Senator

The Freedom That Comes with Empowered Delegation

Management is a drudge for many business leaders every morning.  No wonder some fall prey to chronic disease. Talented people have only two career choices if they work in organisations:

• They could remain a topic specialist and achieve their goals through personal effort.
• They could move up into a management position and learn to overcome the challenges.

Leadership is overcoming those challenges by empowering others through trust. It allows managers to create space to reach these plateaus of personal freedom.

• Time on their hands to socialise with key customers, suppliers, and colleagues.
• Time to create income streams that more than cover the cost of empowerment.
• The rich reward of helping people grow, and springboard their careers to success.

Time management is a contradiction in itself. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.

John C. Maxwell, Author, Speaker and Pastor