The careerist: delegating efficiently
Jul 17th
Climbing the corporate ladder requires you to hand over day-to-day tasks to others. It’s a key leadership skill, but many leaders find it very difficult to do – or do it in a way that leaves everyone feeling unhappy and demotivated.
By Rhymer Rigby, The Financial Times
Climbing the corporate ladder requires you to hand over day-to-day tasks to others. But many people find this very difficult to do – or do it in a way that leaves everyone feeling unhappy and demotivated.
What are the most commonest problems?
Dodgy delegators fall into two camps,” says Geraldine Gallacher of the Executive Coaching consultancy. “The ‘no-one-does-it-as-well-as-I-can’ brigade and the abdicators who hand over a task and forget to follow up unless there’s a problem.”
How do you overcome a fear of letting go?
“Once people experiment with delegating and find that disasters don’t happen they get more confident and do more of it and it can be a virtuous circle,” says Ms Gallacher.
This process does not necessarily need to stem from work. She notes that women returning to work after having children often seem to have developed abilities in this area as “there is no greater test of your appetite for delegation than handing your baby over to someone else”…
This article is filed under: leadership, transformational leadership