It was a big difference in Nathan’s meeting. Instead of barking out the quota numbers for daily production, he had assigned that task to Rachel. The team had responded.
“What else could you delegate during the meeting?” I asked.
“Well, when Rachel announced the quota number, the first questions were about raw materials and machine setups. So, I was thinking about asking Edward to get with Rachel before the meeting so he could report on the status of raw materials. And I was thinking about Billy, he is our line mechanic, to get with Rachel to plan the machine setups for the day. So he could report those in the meeting.”
“Sounds like an agenda is coming together for this daily meeting and you are having other people become responsible for each line item?”
Nathan laughed. “You know, I thought, as the manager, that I had to do all the talking in the meeting. I am beginning to think, maybe, I should just call the meeting to order and sit at the back of the room.”
This has been an excellent series of blogs. I agree with this 100%. Team participation is the fast track to successful meetings, with the right moderator/facilitator, aka “Manager”. Good stuff.
I think that managers often conflate delegation with a loss of power. Doing all of the talking during the meeting, micromanaging aspects of the job, these are things we do to give ourselves the illusion for control. Control means more power right? No. It is when we delegate and give up control, that our power increases. Now instead of managing our people, we are leading our people. Our power is now multiplied by empowering others to take part in the process – exactly how Nathan empowered Rachel through delegating responsibility to her.
I appreciate the blog post about Nathan and his growth as a manager. I think the post illustrates how positive delegation can be.