According to research by The Strategic Thinking Institute, 96% of leaders struggle with finding enough time for strategic work in their roles. They find themselves doing the daily tasks of the job, instead of thinking strategically about the business and taking the actions needed to execute on that strategy.
One answer to this issue is delegation. By entrusting other employees with important day-to-day tasks, leaders can be free to focus on strategy.
Of course, the managers beneath the leaders also need to be focused on strategy – and thus delegation – as good leaders push the strategy down the ranks so that managers are executing it through their teams.
Unfortunately, we most often see managers also caught up in the day-to-day management of tasks and performance of their team – without their employers offering any real training on managing people. So, managers aren’t great at delegating either. In fact only 30% of managers believe they can delegate well.
Time to execute on strategy isn’t the only benefit of delegation. It allows managers to provide growth opportunities for subordinates and themselves.
Subordinates can be assigned stretch goals, for example; meanwhile managers develop their skills in communication, mentoring and coaching, motivating, and building a trusting relationship with their team.
In turn, the organization is more productive and efficient. Everyone is thriving as they feel empowered, satisfied, and engaged. With delegation being so important, I’m sharing this neat video from one of our partners, Consilio, who are experts in helping managers develop skills like delegation.
Watch this video to see ways to level up your delegation skills.
You can follow along with the job aid here at this link.
If you’re interested in more topics like this one on delegation you can check out Consilio’s Leadership Labs program, which is designed to help take leaders and managers to the next level.
Sincerely,
Rebecca & The Civility Partners Team
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