The Profitune Delegation Process – Leadership Skills For Business

Andrew Carnegie once said, “The secret of success is not in doing your own work but in recognizing the right man to do it.”  Rupert Murdoch would probably agree.

Gaining Committed and Correct Action Towards Your Goals

 Delegation is about entrusting another with the responsibility to act on your behalf.

 The following paradigm (way of looking at things) is intended to assist leaders in delegating to their team members, and team members in “delegating” to their clients and allies in order to achieve sales and product targets through them.

Abdication is a 1 step process.

Delegation is step 3 in a 5-step process.

80% – The Delegation Rule of Thumb

The Delegation Rule of Thumb is “80%”.  In other words, if someone else can do the job at least 80% as well as you can, then delegate the task to them.

Of course, your ego might take a bit of a beating if, after a short while your delegate starts doing the job 5% better than you can!

But don’t feel threatened; on the contrary, pat yourself on the back as you have just attained a rare achievement:  You have succeeded in employing people who are “smarter” than you are (at least, at that job).

Going back to Andrew Carnegie:  His tombstone is inscribed with the words:  “Here lies a man who knew how to employ people smarter than himself.”

 That skill made Carnegie one of richest men of his day.

Delegation in 5 Steps

From here on in, please adjust your thinking to see Delegation as merely step 3 in a 5-step process.

 That process is:

1. Select
2. Motivate
3. Delegate
4. Monitor
5. Feedback

1. Select – The Right Person for the Job

Ensure that you select someone with the will, ability and attributes such that they can either do the job at hand, or can learn to do it as a result of the precise skills training that you will provide.

Attempting to influence the wrong ally, or an ineffectual ally, is an enormous waste of time

If skill levels (eg, selling skills) are low, make a judgment as to whether it is prudent to invest time and resources in this person to raise their skill levels or to seek someone who already has those skills.

The 80/20 Rule says that you will gain 80% of your results working with 20% of your staff, allies or clients.

Become good at recognizing that 20% quickly, and focus on them.

2. Motivate

Create a clear win-win scenario for your delegate.  This will commonly take the form of a load-shedding opportunity for you (pass one of your tasks to your chosen delegate) matched by a reciprocal learning opportunity for your delegate as it presents them with the opportunity to acquire new skills, new responsibilities or both.

Don’t proceed beyond this point until you are sure that you have sold your chosen delegate on the value to them that the instance offers.

When you seek to work through others, if you assist and guide your delegate to succeed in an area in which they have previously felt challenged they will experience a sense of achievement, and are likely to attribute that to you, thus increasing our influence with them.

Look for a win-win and develop champions in this way.

3. Delegate

1. DER: Clearly define and convey the Desired End Result (DER) of the task at hand.  Focus on the result and leave some latitude for initiative in the how.

• i. Contextualize: Where appropriate, ensure that you explain how the task at hand fits with the overall Vision for the business and any broader plan or project of which it may form a part, and how its outcomes have to integrate with any other relevant project(s) or processes.
• ii. Timing: Clarify what has to happen by when, and if appropriate, provide some information about the consequences in the bigger picture, if the task is not completed on time.
• b. Responsibility: Create the circumstances in which the delegate can choose to take responsibility for the task. (Note: Responsibility can only be “taken” by the delegate; it cannot be “given” by the delegator.) On this score, watch closely your own and their body language to ensure that you get a true “taking” of the responsibility and not a false acquiescence to your pressure upon them.
• c. Authority: Transfer authority to the delegate, and define its limits. The delegate must be given authority to expend the organisation’s resources in pursuit of the desired end result or there can be no responsibility. (Note: Authority can only be “given” by the delegator; it cannot be “taken” by the delegate.) If you don’t define the limits of their authority, a good staff member will usually work well short of their guesstimate of the limit so as not to exceed their authority. That may result in underperformance, an outcome for which you will be ultimately responsible.
• d. Mistakes: Include “permission to make mistakes” in the authority transfer. The delegator must make it clear to the delegate that they have “permission” to make mistakes, and the understanding that honest mistakes are a part of the organisation’s investment in the delegate’s development. Clearly convey the instruction that any mistakes beyond the delegate’s ability to immediately correct, must be brought to the delegator for joint and immediate resolution so that damage can be minimized, and the learning expedited.
• a. eg: “If you make a mistake, I want you to let me know immediately so that we can work together to minimize the impact on the client and the company, and so that you can learn from the situation. I view such instances as a part of our investment in your development.“
• e. Priority: Take the time to examine your delegate’s existing task load before making clear the priority you place on the task at hand and negotiating its relative priority.

4. Monitoring

Monitoring entails you and your delegate agreeing on the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and standards against which their results will be measured, and the schedule on which measurement will occur.

In the early stage, mutually agree to monitor frequently (best if you encourage them to take responsibility for reporting to you, rather than your pursuing them, as the latter could be misinterpreted as a lack on trust on your part).

As the confidence of both parties grows, extend the period for monitoring to monthly, quarterly or annual performance reporting supported by ad hoc “exception reporting” – ie, we only confer when something goes wrong that needs joint discussion.

5. Feedback

Feedback consists of:

• a. Acknowledging and rewarding desirable results and revising (stretching) goals;
• b. Analyzing incorrect outcomes and identifying the step in the delegation process at which the failure took place, and correcting that step; or
• c. Penalizing willfully incorrect behaviour, reassigning the delegate, and re-examining your selection process.

Delegation Self Score

Step	Not Me	Me
If they were “the wrong person for the job”, who selected or accepted them?
If they were not adequately trained (either before or after you selected them), who is responsible?
If the delegate does not see an advantage to them in the delegation, who is responsible?
If there is an obvious lack of motivation on the part of the delegate who is responsible?
If it is now obvious that they did not understand the desired end result, who failed to convey that accurately, and test to see that it was understood?
If they did not understand how their task was to fit into the “bigger picture” or overall goals of the company, who failed here?
If the delegate has not taken responsibility for the task, who failed to ensure that true acceptance existed before proceeding?
If it appears the delegate has failed to exercise – or has overstepped – their authority, who failed to confer authority in clear terms, and to explain its limits?
The delegate made errors and hid them, who failed to create a safe environment for learning, and an agreement as to how to manage errors?
If the delegate did not recognize the relative priority of this task in the context of other tasks, who is responsible for failing to negotiate this?
If the delegate erred some time ago, and failed to notify you of the fact, who failed to ensure that the protocols for this type of instance were conveyed and understood?
If the delegate erred some time ago, and you failed to detect that fact, who failed to monitor at an interval appropriate to the circumstances?
If the delegate feels as though you lack faith in them, who failed to agree upon a monitoring schedule and process?
If the delegate failed, and you don’t know why, who failed to complete the previous 13 questions?
If the delegate has succeeded in delivering the result, but has not been recognized or rewarded – and is losing motivation and lowering performance – who is responsible for this?
If your delegation failed because of a lack of commitment or intent on the part of your delegate, who needs to revise the selection process?
If no one else but you can do the job, who has failed to understand everything in this process up to this point?

For a full rundown of our process, please email me.