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Effective leadership is more challenging than it appears. Climbing the executive ladder is tough. Once you reach the top, you’ll need a kitbag of tools to ensure you stay there.
One of the most useful devices for helping you excel in leadership is delegation. By passing responsibility to other senior professionals, you’ll have time to focus on strategy and ensure the business is meeting its long-term goals.
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However, effective delegation means you’ll need a cadre of people who can step up when you step back. Five business leaders tell us how to delegate responsibilities successfully.
1. Trust and go
Dave Roberts, VP of environment health safety at The Heico Companies, had a crystal-clear message: “I always look to delegate tasks as soon as I can.”
In his role at the conglomerate, which specializes in engineering, steel, construction, and industrial services, Roberts is responsible for minimizing workplace risks and serious incidents.
He told ZDNET he uses technology to proactively manage potential issues, such as implementing PSI AI Advisor from Benchmark Gensuite, which uses natural language processing and AI to automatically extract and summarize details from incident reports and safety observations.
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Delegating responsibilities means Roberts has more time to explore pioneering technologies. He said effective delegation involves a two-stage process: building comfort and letting go.
“You’ve got to feel comfortable that whoever you’re delegating the task to is capable of taking on the responsibility,” he said.
“Once you feel that the person receiving that responsibility is set up to be successful, you’ve got to trust and go.”
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2. Pick up issues later
Sacha Vaughan, chief supply chain officer at homeware manufacturer Joseph Joseph, said the most effective managers look for every opportunity to push responsibilities to their staff.
“It’s always the right time to delegate tasks,” she said. “Delegate first and then pick up issues later. I’m very much an outcomes-based executive — give someone the outcome and let them get there. Obviously, if they can’t get there, let’s help them with the steps to get there.”
Of course, delegating responsibility means more time for Vaughan. So what does she do with her extra time? The answer, she told ZDNET, is setting the vision.
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Vaughan has worked in a range of areas during her career, including demand, supply, and production planning.
She described herself as “a bit of a generalist” and someone who can help lead the business in the right direction.
“I know a little bit of everything, so I can dive in if needed. But ultimately, my role is about saying where we’re going, and this is what the supply chain needs to do to support that effort,” she said.
“Let’s have a team of super-talented people all driving in the same direction toward that goal. It’s about painting the vision, showing them the picture, and we’ll drive in the same direction.”
3. Build expert resources internally
Fausto Fleites, vice president of data intelligence at gardening specialist ScottsMiracle-Gro, said he’s busy engaging with senior colleagues on strategy to ensure the implementation of technology satisfies the use cases defined by the rest of the business.
Fleites told ZDNET that delegating to staff ensures he focuses on the right areas and the enterprise gets the outcomes it demands from its digital and data initiatives.
“The right time to delegate is when you have a person who already knows the technology and the potential of it,” he said.
“So, in that case, I find delegation quite easy, and I engage them in the conversation with the business from the beginning.”
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Fleites said one crucial success factor for delegating leadership is building expert resources within your team whom you trust to execute the strategy correctly.
“And I think we’ve been lucky to find those resources here at Scotts and maturing them as they move along their career journey,” he said.
“So, to me, the key question around delegation is, ‘Do you know what you need to know to execute the strategy without my supervision?’ If they do, great, I can delegate. Otherwise, we need to work on it.”
4. Look beyond your function
Gro Kamfjord, head of data at paint manufacturer Jotun, said she’s delegated some tasks because they lie outside her competence area. “I entered the company at the manager level, so I had to start doing that right away. And then it’s all about building trust.”
As leaders bed into their management roles, she said successful leaders will see their influence increase, and they will need to identify people who can pick up some of the slack.
“When your role grows, you don’t really have the time to think anymore,” she told ZDNET. “Then, hopefully, before you get to that point, you’ve had time to search your pool of people to identify those who could be given the chance to grow in their role to get more responsibility.”
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Kamfjord said her preferred way of delegating tasks involves the business taking more responsibility, and she gave an example of how that approach plays out.
“When we started our work on data, we were doing all the Power BI reports,” she said. “We don’t do Power BI reports anymore. That effort is delegated to the business, and they are doing this work a lot better than we are. So my approach is about looking for opportunities, both in people and in functions.”
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5. Keep your lieutenants close
Kenny Scott, a data governance consultant who works with energy specialist EDF Power Solutions, said a good time for leaders to delegate is when they’ve got too much to do. Like other business leaders, he suggested there’s no time like the present for delegation.
“Basically, it’s always the right time to delegate tasks,” he said. “If you’re a leader, and borrowing the sentiments of Richard Branson, you should employ people who are more intelligent than you to do the work.”
Scott told ZDNET that delegating tasks gives him time to focus on other areas, such as defining strategy, predicting trends, and being on the leading edge of technological changes.
He also said delegation isn’t about hands-off management. Effective leaders ensure their trusted lieutenants are well rewarded and mentally and physically safe.
“You want these people to be working for you for many years. Now, I know that’s a concept that’s alien in many organizations these days, but it doesn’t stop you, as a business leader, from aspiring to that aim,” he said.
“I have one-to-ones with the people I work with, so I understand when they’ve got a sickly relative, a medical condition that they’re concerned about, they’re getting married, or their daughter is about to give birth. You need to know people, and that’s where the time is invested – on the people who work for you.”
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Source: Robotics - zdnet.com
