Emily was already in the conference room when I arrived.

“So, what’s the purpose for delegation?” I asked.

“That’s easy,” Emily replied. “To save me time. I have a lot of stuff going on.”

“And if you are able to effectively delegate, what does the team member get out of it?”

Emily looked puzzled. “Well, I guess.” She stopped. “I guess, maybe, that they learn something new.”

“Good, learning is good. What else?” I probed.

“Well, new. Something new would be more interesting. Maybe learn a new skill. Maybe a sense of accomplishment, pride?”

“Good. Now tell me, Emily, do any of those things have anything to do with time?”

“Well, no.”

“So, what do they have to do with?”

Emily was tracing the conversation. “Learning, interest, new skill, accomplishment, pride. Sounds like learning and development,” she finally concluded.

“So one purpose for delegation is to save you time. Delegation is your most powerful time management tool, and it is also your most powerful learning and development tool.”

“I told them. I followed up with them. I reminded them. And they still didn’t do it,” Emily complained.

“So, these assignments, these delegations, where did the meetings take place?” I asked.

“What meetings?”

“The meetings, where you explained what you expected, you know, the parameters of the delegation?”

“Well, we didn’t have a meeting. I am really busy. I make these assignments on the fly, in the hallway, on the floor. I have a lot of things that I have to juggle,” Emily replied.

Emily was right. Even now, we were having this conversation in a large workspace next to some equipment that was making an awful racket.

“Emily, I know this is important to you and it is important to me, too. Is there a better place we can have this conversation? A place that is a little quieter?”

“Yeah, no one’s ever in the conference room. But I really don’t have time. Can’t we just talk about it here, now?”

“Emily, this is important. If it is important enough, we have to create the time and we have to create a proper place to talk about it. Meet me in the conference room tomorrow morning fifteen minutes before shift. We don’t need a lot of time, but we need the right kind of time.”

“I don’t know,” Julio replied. “I try to delegate as often as I can, but it always ends up, back in my lap.”

“Does it seem like you delegate things to your team on Monday and then your team delegates back to you on Wednesday?” I asked.

“I never thought about it that way, but you’re right. They get stuck with a problem, come to me for help, and before you know it, they are out the door with the project on my desk.”

“How does that happen?” I smiled.

Our next Subject Area in Working Leadership Online is Delegation, Leveraging Time Span Capability. and we still have some Introductory Memberships left. If you would like to reserve one of those slots, follow this link to Working Leadership Introductory Membership.

Here are some comments –

• You are absolutely dead-on regarding the importance of picking the right person for the right task.
• It is amazing to hear the stories of people who “light up” when given the opportunity. Many managers harbor some fear about challenging their team members, but in the end, the fear melts away.
• Your discussion about picking the right person for the right task got me thinking about the right task. It already has me rethinking the rest of my team and what delegations would give them the opportunity to develop themselves.
• You have discovered the power of asking questions to draw people into the task and the results of the task (for better or worse). You also stumbled on the importance of follow-up. Failing to follow-up will kill a project.

Working Leadership Online

“I know I need to delegate more often, and I try, but I gotta tell you, I am not happy with some of the results,” Julio explained. “It takes longer to delegate than to do it myself. And half the time, I have to come back in, take over the project and begin again. It’s frustrating.”

“And what else?” I asked.

“You want me to go on?” he replied.

I nodded.

“I don’t trust them. I have a great team, but they let me down too often. We have a mission critical project and I try to get some help and it’s always me having to save the day.”

“Why do you think that happens?”

“So, what has to change?” I asked again. The schedule was staring at Miguel. The blank squares were screaming to be filled with someone’s name.

“I know, as the manager, I should be doing other things. But I can’t get to them until I get this schedule done. And no one else can do this schedule,” Miguel fired back.

“And why can’t anyone else do this schedule?”

That was a barn stopper.

Miguel sat back again. “Because.” He stopped. “Because, I haven’t trusted anybody to do it.” He stopped again. “But, if I am going to have a life, and if I am going to run an 18 hour shift with double the headcount, I am going to have to trust someone.”

I let some silence pass. “Look,” I finally said, “I know you have to do the schedule today. Over time, you have painted yourself into a corner. But two weeks from now, someone else needs to be doing that schedule. Who, on your team are you going to trust?”

Miguel sat back in his chair. “If you’re not going to hire another manager to take over the additional chores, to make sure this place runs the way it’s supposed to, then I have to change some things around here.”

“Miguel, if you had a heart attack (which is the way you are headed, by the way), and the doctor said you could only work two hours per day, and only from your hospital bed, how would you keep this place up and running?”

Miguel almost snorted, stifling a laugh. “There’s no way,” he chided, shaking his head from side to side.

“I know. But if there was a way, how would you do it?”

“Well, first of all, I would have to have eyes and ears in here, watching and monitoring. I would have to get the daily production numbers, to make sure things were okay.” Miguel stopped. He knew this was impossible, but he had started to think.

“And if you had spent your two hours for the day, and your doctor shut off the phone, and there was a problem on the plant floor, what would have to happen?”

“Well, someone would have to make a decision, and the team would have to be trained to handle the most likely problems.”

“So, Miguel. Look down at your desk. What are you working on? Are you working on a person, to help them learn to make decisions? Are you figuring out how to get your team trained to handle a little chaos?”

Miguel looked down at the ballpoint pen, laying across an unfinished work schedule. He looked sad. “No, I can’t get to stuff like that until I get this schedule done.”

Miguel was stunned. At some point, he thought I was a nice guy, but now he was not so sure. He was already running a 10 hour staggered shift. We were about to expand to an 18 hour swing shift and expected Miguel to run the whole thing. Welcome to management.

“But I am already working as hard as I can,” Miguel protested. “How can you possibly expect more?”

“I expect more, because you are capable of more,” I replied. Miguel’s face turned blank. He was tired of fighting. He was tired of fighting both shifts, he was tired of fighting me, but mostly he was tired of fighting his own thinking.

“I can’t work this way any longer,” he resigned. “Something has to give. I am already in trouble with my wife. I hardly get to play with my kids. My golf clubs have rust on them.”

“And I want you to manage a longer work process with about double the headcount you have now. What are you going to change?”

Miguel looked at me, then back to the schedule on his desk. He put the pen down and let out a sigh.

“But, it’s my responsibility. I feel guilty if I’m not here and something goes wrong.”

“Miguel, you are in charge of this work area, running two shifts on staggered schedules. What if I told you, we were planning to ramp up production in two months, to add another shift to run 18 hours per day? What would you do, then?” Miguel’s eyes got wide. I raised my eyebrows in response. “What are you going to do then?” I repeated.

“Well, I don’t know, you would have to get a different manager for the other shift.”

“Miguel, you are the manager for this work area. Everything that happens here is your responsibility. I will not have another manager so you can blame each other for things going wrong. I want one person to be responsible for the area. That’s you.” I stopped to gauge his reaction.

“Well, how am I going to do that?” Miguel responded.

“That’s what I want to know, how are you going to do that?”

It was 6:30p when I stopped by Miguel’s office. “What’s up?” I asked.

Miguel picked his eyes up, off the paper, holding his place on the schedule with a ballpoint pen. “Just going over tomorrow. It’s going to be another big day. Three special orders to get out the door.”

“Where is everyone, why are you still here?”

“Oh, we shut down at 4:30p. My crew is up with the chickens, tomorrow we start at 6:30a. I run a staggered shift. The first guys get the day started, then we’re full strength by 7:30a. The first wave is off by 3:30p, while the second wave picks up the pieces for the day.”

“Why are you still here?” I repeated.

“Well, there is just a bunch of little things that have to be done each day. We are sort of out of control, huh? This won’t last forever. My schedule is getting better.”

“How long have you felt out of control?”

“Gosh, ever since I became the supervisor, I guess. But it’s going to get better, soon.” Miguel looked optimistic.

I didn’t believe him.