The best productivity hack is delegation
Source: Published on LinkedIn by Frank Wu, Huff Post blogger, http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140121123851-13561052-productivity-hacks-the-alchemy-of-delegation?trk=prof-post, accessed 10th October 2010.
Everyone wants to do more by doing less. This notion is our modern-day alchemist's illusion. There are many means to improve incrementally. But there are few honest means to change significantly.
Giving work to other people has the greatest potential. That is the definition of delegation. Giving work to other people. It also is among the most difficult, exasperating, seemingly futile aspects of management.
Here are six tips for leaders who wish to delegate well. A prefatory note to my colleagues: I am self-aware enough to realize I, too, fail in every regard noted here. I have compiled these suggestions for myself as much as for others.
First, the point is ‘giving work to other people.’ It is not dumping YOUR work on OTHER people. It's giving them work that they come to own.
The people who report to you must see that you are putting in as much effort as you are asking of them. If you truly are that much more efficient than others are then you are obliged to set a higher expectation of productivity for yourself, for the sake of sustained goodwill and good morale.
Second, probably the most demanding aspect of delegating is in fact doing it. Successful people have achieved their supervisory roles by performing in a superlative manner, with a few exceptions that cannot last. That means they tend to believe, not utterly without reason, that they could execute a project better than the person to whom they might assign it. You cannot proceed further unless you disabuse yourself of this conceit — the more you believe it, the more likely you are wrong.
If you cannot accept outcomes that are different than what you would have achieved for yourself, including results that are minimally acceptable by your standards, you should not try this technique. You will set up a self-fulfilling prophecy with your temptation to interfere, frustrating everyone until you meet your own deserved demise as a supervisor.
Third, your instructions need to be clear. Almost all of us have this concept down, except backwards. It doesn't matter what you said. It matters what they heard. Even if your thoughts are set down in writing, it's your own fault if they are misunderstood. You have to see the world from someone else's perspective. A command creates resentment anywhere outside the military.
In the cult classic movie Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail, there is the scene in which the father of the groom gives orders to the guards to watch the reluctant young man before his nuptials. He is flummoxed by the dimwittedness of his servants, and there could be no better example of the normal course of affairs whether in English comedy or contemporary business. The extended series of misunderstandings is worth watching. It is not atypical.
Fourth, you have to hire well. I learn from my mistakes. My most serious errors have been about people, not ideas. People are, well, human. They are complex. Every member of your team needs to function at the highest level of competence. It is as clichéd as it is true.
Fifth, everything else depends on trust. As much as individuals are complex, groups of people are even more complex. Relationships are paramount. You are compelled to cultivate your teammates, which you should be doing anyway aside from any desire to delegate.
Sixth, know what cannot be delegated. The rule is this: Credit to them, blame to you. It is your name, your reputation and your career at stake, without pause. So it must be your judgment call, with all the risks associated with any decision. The content belongs to you, with the customary author's note about who owns the errors. Coordination and conflict resolution also must be taken care, from the top.
There you have it. Delegate, delegate, delegate.
