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Why Is Delegation
So Difficult?
Eli Broad is quoted as saying
“
The inability to delegate is
one of the biggest problems
I see with managers at all
levels.” I see that as well.
There are two major reasons
why managers avoid delegation:
they don’t want to lose control
and
they believe no one can
do the task as well as they
can
. Do you relate to either of
these?
I recently had a phone
conversation with a client who
hadbothof these issues. He runs
a printing and mailing operation
that is in a lot of chaos. We were
discussing how he delegates to
his employees and he shared
this recent example.
“The two people in the
production area decided to
organize the inventory. We
needed this to be done, he said,
but they weren’t doing it the way
I thought they should. I was on
them every day to do it better;
to do it my way, not their way.
They were slow; they didn’t have
a process to follow, and in fact,
it seemed like they didn’t know
what they were doing.”
I asked him how they reacted
to his input and he said it built
resistance in them. I shared
with him the steps to delegate
properly,
1)
have an agreed upon
deadline,
2)
have an agreed upon
reporting
system
on
progress, and
3)
have agreed upon results.
When I asked if he had used
this process – well, you know
the answer, right? No, he didn’t,
which left his employees feeling
micromanaged and belittled.
I suggested he put aside his
belief that no one could do it
By Michael Kaplan
SOAR TO SUCCESS
/
N
ovember
2016
/
Business Acceleration Strategies