It’s well-known that most of us believe we’re above average drivers… So, I expected that we’d also have inflated views of our own management & leadership skills. But, I didn’t expect the gap to be as big as our polls indicate! 

Sadly some managers have never had training on what great management looks like, instead attempting to learn by observing their own managers, perhaps combined with some trial-and-error. So sorry if you were one of the guinea-pigs who experienced failed experiments! Combine that possible lack of training with our inherent self-belief as ambitious people, and no wonder we’re not as good as we think we are! 

A leader recently told me that part of his role as a line manager is to be a 'Career Logistics Officer' for those in his team, and I agree. A fundamental element of managing or leading others is developing them and their careers – and, is a key part of what we help with at Protagion. 

So, it seemed natural to ask our followers on LinkedIn to hear their thoughts on this topic. We ran two polls. The first was aimed at leaders and managers, both those relatively new to managing others, and those more seasoned at it. It asked them to rate themselves on their skills in developing the careers of their team members. The second was aimed at employees looking to give their managers some anonymous collective feedback, and we asked ‘How good is your direct manager at helping you develop your career?’. In both polls, the options were:
    • A+ (or A* to our UK readers)
    • A
    • C
    • F (or U to our UK readers)

The Results
Around 70% of managers/leaders rated themselves as A+ or A i.e. exceptional or very good at developing the careers of their people. This was about 30% more than the proportion of employees who assessed their manager/leader at the same level – in fact, the gap at ‘fail’ level between their perspectives was also about 30%, implying that 3 in 10 employees have managers who they believe fail at developing their careers, while the managers themselves think they’re great. WOW! 

And, yes, these results aren’t scientifically rigorous. There are definitely selection effects at play i.e. who chose to respond, and perhaps, just perhaps, all the self-identified failing managers have bigger teams?!… But, they do offer interesting food for thought. 

So, what can you as a manager/leader do to improve your people’s experience of your skills? 

Tips & further resources for you
If you want to become a better leader or manager, three tips for you:
1) Talk with your team members, understand what’s important to them, and ask them how you can help them to bring their best to the team
2) Work with a leadership coach (such as those available at Protagion) – they’re trained to support you to build your leadership skills
3) Practice different styles and techniques in real settings to assess whether they feel authentic to you, and what their impact on others is, keeping those that work for you and them 

And, for those of you interested in reading further about this topic, we have lots of resources for you at Protagion, like these:

• Advice for Aspiring Leaders
• Managing Others: Concepts from Sports, and Enhancing your Skills
• Conversations of a 'Brilliant Manager': Advice for New or Aspiring Managers
• Encouraging Career Development as a Manager: a ‘Brilliant Manager’ Conversation
• The Micromanagement Menace: Causes and Tips for Employees and Managers 
• Real-life example: talented superstars vs bureaucracy & lacklustre colleagues 
• Persuasion vs Manipulation and their role in encouraging change
• Celebrating our Humanness (on managing change)
• Leading in a Collaborative World
• How can leaders ignite the best thinking in others?

Remember too that management & leadership skills are not only about reading the material or attending the training course. You must put them into regular practice in order to improve: action is fundamental! 

“How do I, as a manager, develop my people for the long-term?” That’s the question I explore in this article. As a leader and manager, over my career so far, this has been one of the most important aspects, if not the most important. Indeed, it is why Protagion exists today – to multiply that positive impact of professional growth and evolution across organisations and countries as much as possible, and inspire more professionals to actively manage their careers.

This is the third article in the series prompted by The Six Conversations of a Brilliant Manager* by Alan J Sears. The first article covered my thoughts on the book overall and four of the six conversations: coaching, taking responsibility, addressing performance/behaviour, and performance appraisals. The second article focused on delegation as a manager, and applied that conversation framework to the employee perspective too. Read more for the rest of the third article.

Delegation is a phenomenal technique at your disposal as a manager – it can multiply your impact as you can get so much more done through others than carrying everything on your own shoulders. However, it can be a struggle for some managers. I explore this struggle further in this article, in addition to sharing a structure for a conversation to delegate a task, project or responsibility to someone else. The article also covers tips on how you can get your manager to effectively delegate to you i.e. where you are the one being delegated to.

This is my second article based on the book The Six Conversations of a Brilliant Manager* by Alan J Sears. The first article covered my thoughts on the book overall plus some discussion on other (related) approaches, and delved into the specifics of four of the six conversations. They were coaching, taking responsibility, addressing performance/behaviour, and performance appraisals. 

Alan argues that “many organisations are systematically under-delegated, with everyone doing tasks they really should have briefed others to do”. In my view, this means everyone is operating below their potential, under-developed because they are stuck doing things that are routine for them, but would have offered growth opportunities for others if they had been briefed properly and supported while learning.

Delegation is one of my professional strengths according to a previous manager of mine. For me, it’s about empowering and trusting your reports to do their best and what’s right for the business. And, yes, it may push you and them outside of your respective comfort zones, but that’s how we learn and grow.

Difficulties for managers
Some of the difficulties include managers:

• being unable or unwilling to let go
• lacking faith in the other person’s abilities
• having insufficient self-confidence to delegate properly

Thoughts like ‘it’s quicker to do it myself’ or ‘if you want something done properly, do it yourself’ are insidious, and often conceal a need to feel indispensable at work. Arrogance might be a part of it too, such as believing that ‘only I can do this’ or ‘no-one could ever do this as well as me’.

There may be an unstated suspicion that if you delegate well, you’ll have nothing left to do! If your team is a ‘well-oiled machine’ and stretched (in a good way), dealing with delegated opportunities with aplomb, the risk of redundancy or downsizing for the manager is sadly a legitimate concern in some organisations… Even developing potential successors such that your team is sustainable can be dangerous in those organisations i.e. if you actively work to reduce their reliance on you, you increase your risk of redundancy. Nevertheless, I still feel you should delegate as it’s what affords you the capacity and time to take on broader responsibilities across your business, like volunteering for strategic projects.

It’s important to learn how to delegate properly, else you won’t get back what you’re wanting. You’ll then be under pressure to go back to doing it all yourself, stressing yourself out, and demotivating your team as they feel they can’t meet your standards. 

Delegation Conversation as a Manager
The steps in a delegation conversation are:
1) Set the scene, including the reason(s) why you want it to be done, what the overall aim is, and why you are asking them to do it.
2) Describe the task, being clear about what needs to be done. Cover both the general outline and sufficient detail so they can be clear on the result required.
3) Set the timeline: when it needs to be done by.
4) Talk through who else might be involved, and perhaps where it will be done, and be clear on the limits of authority (what they can and can’t do).
5) Check the other person’s understanding of the four key points (why, what, when, who/where/limits) by asking them to run your request back past you, plus tell them when you want updates on progress from them.

Note though that you should not cover how they should get it done – that will be up to whoever you are delegating to. It is key to remember that anything you delegate will not be done exactly the way you would have done it. This is not a different quality standard (if you’re sufficiently clear on the quality expected), but just a different approach taken. Other pitfalls to avoid are flitting between why and what (as this can be confusing) and insufficient clarity on timelines. 

In more complex situations, you may need to cover:

• phases of delivery, or intermediate milestones, 
• what resources are or can be made available, and 
• administrative aspects or issues around working with other departments. 

And, limits of authority can include: 

• who else they can involve and ​what help they can get, 
• whether they can delegate it to one of their own team, 
• budget, and
• things they’re not allowed to do (such as saying “my manager told me to”).

You should also cover what they should do if they need help from you e.g. raising what they might need from you as part of their regular progress updates.

Delegation as a direct report
As a direct report, you could use these elements of the delegation conversation too, when you’re being delegated to. In other words, ask your boss specific questions when she delegates to you to:

• pin the task down specifically i.e. what
• make sure of the timescale i.e. when
• check your limits
• recap exactly what you’re going to do and by when, plus when you’ll provide progress updates

If she agrees with your plan, there is a much higher chance that you will later deliver exactly what she wants on time, meeting her requirements and motivating yourself to take on bigger challenges in future.

What have your experiences of delegation been? Have techniques like the ones above helped you, either as a delegating manager, or as the person being delegated to?

* PROTAGION is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk. The links with * participate in this programme. ​