How could someone stating that he wants the best for his team may have such a blunt statement?
Business reality: Time is the essence of success,
- Time to market; shorter is the best.
- Right timing: Too early, and no one is ready to take it; too late, and the competition is there, and you will miss the opportunity.
- Time is money. In fact, time is the only thing we cannot buy; when you have spent your time, it’s over.
What we declare has the polar start for a leader: leverage Collective Intelligence.
- Together, we are smarter.
- Together, we know more.
- Together, we balance each other.
- Together, we will achieve more.
But reality comes, and I am the one deciding everything.
And who is the bottleneck with such an approach? You, if all the decisions have to come from you. You review, discuss, and advise, and you take time, which is contradictory with Time being the essence of success. When you do so, you disengage your team and disempower them by denying Collective intelligence inputs.
For decades, the traditional approach was that everyone, from HR to the coach, told you to delegate to your team. You agreed with them and thought about it. You organized several workshops with them, and you started specifying what you were to delegate. Sometimes, you added a RASCI* approach to be more precise. After a long time of work and effort, you have delegated what you thought was important.
By the way, Business and the world are dynamic, so if you don’t start maintaining this delegation scheme now, it will be almost obsolete three years from now.
I was doing so; I made several attempts to build this delegation scheme with different groups at different times. An average outcome was the result of this considerable time investment. My former employees will tell you that I can improve in delegating. Even though my team was achieving great results, I remained involved in too many topics, helping everyone and spreading myself. So yes, collectively, we delivered, but at which price: my team was toping to 80% engagement rate and 70% satisfied with my leadership style. I was having very long weeks and no time to develop myself or explore new territory, such as coaching or blog writing.
And almost 4 years ago, I was exposed to this video, an eye-opener for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqmdLcyES_Q
Great news, the book is also available: turn the ship around by David Marquet.
What I learned:
Be lazy! Instead of trying to specify everything, you want them to take care of by delegating. Specify the few things you want to have either control over or view on, and with your team, work only on these items and make sure that they clearly understand the “why” you would keep it. There has to be a limited number of items.
By doing so, you empower your team and hold them accountable for delivering their work. If the world or business dynamics change, your team will come to you with proposals instead of expecting you to warn and redirect them. With this empowerment, you leverage your team’s full potential, maximize collective intelligence, distribute effort equally, and focus your impact on the topics you define as the ones you have to control and decide.
This transformation is progressive and will not materialize in the blink of an eye. It will take time. You and your team have to mature; for some of your employees, this way of working will be a stretch, and for others, it will be too stressful.
During this transformation, help your employees prepare for or reposition themselves in your organization. Your goal is to have your direct reports fully engaged in this journey and willing to accept, or even better, expect this autonomy.
In a potential second stage, they will execute the same transformation in their team. When all these successive transformations are completed, the decision-making will be transferred to the operational level, where the knowledge resides. At your level, you will have kept the few key decisions that are too impactful or major, and you will have to carry their weight.
When this transformation is completed, you will no longer be willing to delegate broadly. You will empower your team and, to support the growth of a few individuals, you will start with delegation.
Do not delegate, get your team autonomous !
Question : What is your way to empower you team?
Reading : Any book you would recommend ?
*Responsible, Accountable, Support, Consulted, Informed