As every leader knows, delegating to other leaders can often be more frustrating than doing the task itself! In the beginning, delegation is harder in than simply doing on your own. Too often, people don’t do what we’ve wanted. Or they don’t do it the way we wanted. Sometimes the mess we have to clean up from irresponsible workers is bigger than the original task. All of that is enough to convince us that it’s best to just do it ourselves! But through meaningful and effective delegation, we can in time multiply our efforts far beyond what we could ever individually accomplish.
The frustration of mishandled responsibilities may be easier to solve than we realize. So much of the problem lies in assumptions, and those assumptions usually take place on the part of the leader. We would all love to simply explain something one time, and know that from that time forward it will always be done according to that directive. But as we all know, that never happens in real life. In fact, that very frustration may reveal the assumption that needs to be corrected on our part.
In order to effectively delegate, both you and your team need to understand what you are really asking! Sometimes there is a huge gap between what you are asking for and what your team perceives as being asked! Every person hears differently. Everyone is influenced by background and previous work experience. Surprisingly, your team is often acting based on how you wanted something done the last time you asked. For a variety of reasons, we all perceive instructions differently. Read Entire Article
