What my First Boss taught me about Delegating (thanks John Reader)

By Olwyn Merritt & Alyse Ashton

One of the most frequent challenges Expert Leaders face is how to delegate. They are smart people with a tremendous track record in their area of expertise. Because they are so good at what they do as experts, they often struggle to trust other people to do things on their behalf. My first boss, John Reader was a highly effective delegator. How John tackled delegation many years ago may help you now, particularly when someone is new to the art of delegation. I call his approach the Trinity because it involves taking three particular steps when approaching anything which you wish to delegate.

Step One: Prepare and Be Patient:

First, set up a session with your colleague and prepare systematically what you intend to delegate. Then, take the time to patiently set out exactly what you expect - the goals, the timeframes, the constraints and the outcomes. John was exceptional at being patient at this stage. I have seen many fast paced leaders rush through this step and not allow enough discussion and dialogue with the colleague to ensure that they fully understand in what is expected of them and can approach the task with confidence. It is crucial that you offer support and are available to answer any questions as they perform this task for the first time. Once you’ve done this, they can start the task you’ve given them.

Step Two: Probe the Finer Points:

The next time your team member needs to do this (or a similar task), you review the work and take time to acknowledge (with specific examples) what your team member has done well and talk through anything that needs finessing for the next time. In my experience people remember their own words and prefer not to be told, so it’s really useful to ask them to talk through what they feel went well and what they found most challenging.

Step Three: Give them Space:

Once your team member has built both skills and confidence you can give more space. Explain that you will be available for exceptions because they are well able to carry out the tasks. They know they have your support and are left in no doubt that they are responsible for delivering. They only need to come back to you if something new or particularly difficult arises. Then you need to demonstrate your confidence in their ability and leave them to it – if you meddle, you undermine them and your own hard work will be undone.       

Reflection Questions for You:
How clear are you in your instructions and agreements with your people when delegating?
When do you under instruct? When do you meddle? What are you prepared to do about it?

 

A recipe to avoid delegation breakdowns

By Olwyn Merritt & Alyse Ashton

One of my clients voiced his frustration that one of his team members hadn’t delivered something he expected.  He sighed “Surely it’s basic management  and I should have it under control?” In my view delegation isn’t basic. It is fundamental to leading teams. Over the years I’ve noticed to two particular derailers.   Firstly, you think you both share the same understanding of what is required, but you don’t.  Secondly, you’re not clear if things are progressing well and you start meddling.

So how can you set your team members up to succeed?

One way of tackling it is to use ‘Closed Loop Delegation’.

There are 3 ingredients: Set clear expectations, build shared understanding and communicate progress and performance.

1. Set Clear Expectations

Take time to share & clarify your expectations. This is a two-way conversation where both of you:

·         Clarify what success looks like.  What do you want to achieve?  Why is it important?  Are there any constraints (or non-negotiable aspects) that you need to share?

·         Agree how much detail the person needs – if they are experienced, just share the outcome and give them freedom to tackle the task. Someone less experienced will need more detailed task direction (see our previous post Trinity Rule).

 
2. Build Shared Understanding

Test that you have shared understanding of the outcomes you want and encourage them to share their ideas and thoughts e.g. What is your understanding of the result we need to achieve? What are your thoughts about how we want to tackle this?

3. Communicate Progress and Performance

Create a clear deal so that you can give them space to act.  Without this, you may find yourself checking up on them – a sure way to leave them feeling micro managed and distrusted.

• Ask yourself: what do you need in order to feel confident to leave them to get on with it?
• Explore: How shall we keep in touch on progress? Experienced, confident team members will enjoy taking ownership for keeping you updated. Others may look to you to suggest regular check-ins. 
• Give clear, timely feedback: people like to know what they’ve done well and value specific feedback about what to improve.

It sounds simple and there’s one last tricky ingredient in the mix …. You and your assumptions. The voice that says  “It has to be done my way”, “No one can do it as well as I can”, “I can do it so much more quickly“.

Do you think that’s true? It’s probably true that you can do it faster and maybe better. But, if you don’t delegate, your team won’t grow and you won’t have space to tackle the things that only a leader can tackle?  So what’s stopping you now? Where and with whom will you begin?

How To Win Friends and Influence People

Much of peoples’ success is determined by how well they can influence other people – either winning them over to their opinions or shaping the way other people think about things. In our professional lives, we are faced with this challenge daily.

My clients often ask out of a sense of frustration how they can win people around to their way of thinking. One suggestion I make is to acutely observe a politician such as Barack Obama in action or to listen to and watch someone they admire tackle an issue. Make some notes about how Obama presents himself. Is his physical presence calm and steadfast or is it pacey like Hilary Clinton’s? How does he answer the question he is being asked? Directly - or skirting the main issue? What impression does he leave with you?

Watch and see if he uses the language of the interviewer with a steady pace, respectful tone, measured yet fluid movement. Notice when he quickens his pace and adds momentum to the dialogue; when he begins to add human or personal touches and language or images that we can all relate to. Notice if his physical movement matches his tone, his pace, his approach to the other person and see if any of it doesn’t feel or look quite right.

How does he make you feel watching him? Have a look here

Now, the next time you need to influence someone critical to you, how do you want to make them feel and what are you prepared to do to make it work this time? I find it helpful to remind myself that:

• People will not remember what you said,


• People will not remember what you did,


• But they will remember how you made them feel.

Takeaway Juice: What one action can you take today to influence how people feel about you?

What Does It Say On Your Tin?

Listening to Stephen Fry talk about the impact of Mandela the other evening, I was struck Fry's comment that there is a piece of Mandela in all of us, and that piece takes courage to show to others. Many of my clients ask me how they can be more inspirational as leaders. And something in Fry’s words clicked with me - leaders in business also have to show courage in their actions, and that they must be human beings first and foremost before they can invite people to follow them.

Mandela’s own leadership evolved when he moved from being a man of arms to a man of peace. That peace started from inside – from being more at peace with himself and accepting his long incarceration in jail with dignity – to showing other people how to reconcile themselves to their fellow South Africans.

Mandela’s tin shows courage in the face of adversity, a wicked sense of humour, an enduring presence and a voice which speaks up when others are afraid to. Africa and the world still listen to this frail ninety year old man.

Takeaway Juice: What does it say on your tin? What would you like your tin to say when you reach 90?

If you want to build a stronger, clearer personal brand, have a look at Career Distinction by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson.

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Are Leaders Born or Made?

As a coach and leader for over twenty years, I have met many leaders who find themselves leading teams, having never envisaged that would be what they would end up doing when they started. Were they born leaders, or did they develop those skills?

Are they born?

Research shows there are characteristics that determine whether someone is cut out to be a leader. Usually, they would be evident by the time we are in our mid to late teens. The grit, the determination, the quickness of intellect are often visible by that point. There are other characteristics associated with great leadership that may not yet be apparent – the ability to inspire others; the ability to enjoying playing and collaborating with people; the maturity to appreciate the differences between yourself and other people.

Are they made?

Many illustrious leaders such as Jack Welch, Nelson Mandela and Anita Roddick would argue that it was in the face of adversity that strengthened their character. However, I believe the finest leaders are made. They are often made as a result of their particular experiences and the opportunities that life passes their way. But that isn’t quite the full story. The finest leaders also take a conscious decision to step into those leadership positions.

Sometimes, leaders have to learn the hard lesson that they need other people to help them achieve what is needed to get the job done. Often the more introverted leader finds this difficult. They want to be able to do it all themselves.

The leader who is very socially gregarious has to suffer the slings of rejection and to learn to accept the loneliness of being the one at the top.

One thing is sure from the body of evidence available, no matter how talented or how natural leaders are, there will always be areas where that they can hone their leadership skills if they are to continue to excel in their capacity as leaders.

Like true apprentices, leaders learn about 80 percent of their craft on the job. They learn by watching other leaders and integrating some of what they have observed into their own behaviour. They watch for highly effective role models and they seek out mentors. They are open enough to ask other leaders about how they handle situations.

Leaders learn by inviting feedback and learning from it. They modify their behaviour so that they get better results. They are not afraid to try things out and examine their own performance. Effective leaders keep themselves accountable for their own development. Effective leaders look for training programs that will help them develop specific skills that they can use on the job. Then, when they return to their work, they devote specific and deliberate effort to mastering in real life what they learned in the training room.

• So, what leadership talents were you blessed with?


• What leadership capabilities have you cultivated as a leader over the last year?


• Do you know what leadership competencies you are assessed on?


• Which ones are you valued for?


• What leadership skill or behaviour are you actively working on right now?


• What difference will it make to your ultimate success?

Pure Potential help develop leadership skills for individuals as wella s leadership within teams and organisations. If you would like to try a leadership skills assessment on your leadership capability or need support in honing your leadership skillset, why not give Olwyn a call on 01428 713 399 or email Olwyn@pure-potential.co.uk

For the full article please visit my Web Site Resources Page

Managing The Young Guns: How To Handle The Millenial Generation

As another birthday approaches, I began to think about how we manage those that are of a different generation to ourselves. You will be aware of the generation group known as the Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1965. Now meet The Millenials, those born roughly between 1980 and 1995. They are also known as Generation Y and are the biggest section of the European workforce since the Baby Boomers.

Why are the Millenials important to leaders?

This generation is creating a cultural shift within companies and requires a more flexible management style. Many of these workers in their late twenties and early thirties are not intimidated by their bosses and expect to be free to think for themselves. They also demand more individualised mentoring and coaching than previous generations. Their approach to hierarchy is to assume that it is flat. They are not necessarily going to sit and wait for the next promotion either. They are often well connected outside their companies because they are technologically savvy and use all the new communication channels to network with likeminded people. Whether you see these attitudes as a problem or not, they are definitely a condition of the global marketplace.

How can leaders manage Millenials?

Leaders need to bring a more flexible mindset to this generation of worker. You as a leader need not feel threatened by the willingness of the Millenials to challenge your methods of doing things. Their energy can be channelled very usefully into offering new ways of doing certain things that may well need refreshing, such as how you recruit talent, how you conduct meetings and the types of training that you offer employees. Microsoft has its learning zones, Google gives their bright hopefuls access to its company co-founders and Eduserve expect their software developers to spend one day a week experimenting rather than working on assignments.

The Millenials are your future so if you want to attract the best and brightest talent from this group, you need to appreciate that they want a certain amount of freedom to act. They want room to develop their particular skillset and many of them, like any new generation, bring a vital energy, an irrepressible optimism and a determination just like we had a generation ago – but this time they won’t take no for an answer.

Seeing the Wood for the Trees

A2002 Harvard Business Review article, “Beware the Busy Manager” suggests that only 10% of us have the right combination of focus and energy that stops us wasting our time with “busy work” and keeps us focused on the real work that matters.

So how do you deal with this?

Invest time in thinking through how your work relates to your main priorities or indeed the key strategic goals of your organisation.

Write yourself a Future letter. Things should seem a whole lot clearer to you when you do.

Paint a powerful image in your own mind of what you want to achieve and find a few simple ways to remind yourself daily of that top-down perspective. This is why regiments have emblems, football teams have jerseys and special logos and countries have anthems and flags.

Ask your team: What are the three most important things we can be doing to help get us to this vision? Agree how you are all going to keep yourselves focused on that specific vision without getting distracted by the “small stuff”.

"Regular Pruning of the Hedges". One of the hardest tasks of all is the actual pruning process. In order to prune, we have to be prepared to take out the clippers and get rid of the unnecessary. Otherwise, the roses will be stifled and not blossom as nature intended them to. You can’t be everything to everyone. In fact, to be effective you’ve got to start making some choices about what you’ll be to whom. So stop the doing for a moment. And turn your attention to the interacting.

Action:

• Who are the three internal people who matter most?
• What do they want? What does that tell you?
• Who are the three external people (or groups of people) who matter most? What do they want? What does that tell you?

Once you are clear in your mind what work matters, start saying no to the superfluous. What are you choosing to say Yes to today?

Don’t take my word for it –

Arthur Schopenhauer (German philosopher): "Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world."

Samuel Johnson: "Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye."

Albert Einstein: "In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity."

Mao Tse Tung: “We think too small, like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view.”

You can read the full article on my web site