You ask: I run a successful project office and have been asked to replicate this in another part of the business. I know that I should feel flattered but all I feel is very anxious about the whole thing.
Having thought about it, I think my anxiety comes from having to give up some (if not all) of my authority; in my existing office, as I focus on setting up the new one, and in the new office once it is up and running.
As I write this down it all looks rather pathetic, but I am reluctant to delegate my responsibilities to others and I’m not sure how to go about addressing this.
Janet answers: It is always interesting to take notice of how we react to ‘opportunities’ that are presented to us. I would like to congratulate you on being open and honest to how you feel about this ‘opportunity’. It’s a lesson that we can all learn from; just because you think something is a great idea does not mean that it will be received that way. So giving yourself some space to observe how your audience reacts to your ‘great idea’ will always pay dividends.
Curbing your impatience and making time to listen and acknowledge concerns is a small price to pay to get everyone onside. Contrast this to the alternative of having to manage everything yourself and it’s a no-brainer really. Shame that we don’t always avoid this pitfall!
Now what about this anxiety you feel? You admit that it may come from ‘having to give up some’ authority. This is interesting because you recognise that you are not being asked to give up ‘all’ of your authority, just ‘some’ of it.
Many managers don’t make this distinction when faced with delegating tasks. They confuse ‘some’ with ‘all’ and in so doing feel that they are loosing control. Your language suggests that you have made this distinction but perhaps the tasks you believe you must ‘give up’ are those you feel most attached to. Might this be true?
If you feel that you are being asked to give up the tasks you most enjoy then I would check that this is in fact true. It seems to me that you have been asked to ‘replicate’ your project office. How you do this appears to be up to you; after all you are the expert. In this case you are in control of how and what tasks you ‘give up’. Aren’t you?
How have you divided up the overall task of ‘replication’? I would suggest that however you have done this it could be the source of your anxiety. Is it not possible to restructure the tasks so that you do not have to ‘give them away’ but instead share them out? An analogy would be that you own a boating lake and although you rent out boats you have created a safe environment for people to enjoy rowing on the lake. From your view point you can see if anyone gets into difficulty and help them avoid any danger. When their time is up they always come back to the jetty.
If the way you have divided up the ‘replication’ tasks is not the cause of your anxiety then perhaps you had a bad experience of delegating in the past. Your tried it and it didn’t work.
If this makes more sense to you then one bad experience does not mean that you cannot delegate successfully. In fact think back to a time when you did delegate successfully (no matter how trivial it might appear). It does not have to be a work related example.
Go back to that time and review what you did in that situation, taking notice of what you did, what you said and how you felt. Remember who else was involved and how they came to be there.
Contrast this positive experience with the bad experience that is causing you to feel anxious now. What made the difference between the positive and the bad experience? Try looking at each situation from the perspective of the other people involved. What have you learnt from this comparison exercise? Be honest with yourself but also be tolerant of any mistakes that, in hindsight, you believe you made. How can you use this knowledge to underpin success in the future?
What other options do you have to improve your delegation skills? Is there someone in your organisation who you consider to be a good at delegation? Why not approach them and ask them how they do it? Maybe some formal training would be better. If there is no suitable in-house course then look outside the organisation.
Delegation is not something that comes naturally to everyone. So why is it that so many companies leave this key management skill to chance? But you don’t have to. It’s in your hands.
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