How to Delegate (Without Losing Control)

Summary

In this video, the speaker shares insights on effective delegation without losing control, drawing from personal experiences of over- and under-delegating. They recount a significant mistake made during rapid company growth, leading to layoffs, and emphasize the importance of understanding one's delegation tendencies. The speaker introduces four levels of delegation: investigation, informed progress, informed results, and complete ownership, advocating for a balanced approach to empower teams and prevent over-involvement or neglect.

Takeaways

• 🔑 Effective delegation is crucial for growth and preventing burnout, but it's a skill that must be learned.
• 📈 There's a spectrum of delegation: from holding on too tight to delegating too much, both extremes can be detrimental.
• 🤔 Recognizing where you lean on the delegation spectrum is the first step towards improving your delegation skills.
• 🚀 Rapid growth can lead to over-delegation and hiring too soon, which can result in disengagement and inefficiency.
• 📉 Over-hiring can lead to layoffs, which is a painful but sometimes necessary lesson in delegation and oversight.
• 📚 Understanding the levels of delegation can help leaders maintain control while empowering their teams.
• 🔍 The four levels of delegation are: Investigation, Informed Progress, Informed Results, and Complete Ownership.
• 🔄 Progression through these levels helps in developing trust and autonomy in team members.
• 🛠️ Delegation is not an all-or-nothing approach; it's about finding the right balance and level of involvement for each task.
• 💡 Reflecting on past delegation experiences can provide valuable insights and improve future decision-making.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is about how to delegate tasks effectively without losing control over the process or outcomes.

What are the two extremes of delegation mentioned in the video?

The two extremes of delegation mentioned are holding on too tight and not delegating anything, which can lead to a small team and resentment, and the other extreme is delegating everything too soon without providing enough context or oversight.

What was the speaker's initial approach to delegation?

Initially, the speaker did not know how to delegate effectively, starting off by holding on too tight and then, due to rapid growth, letting go too much without proper oversight.

What was the significant mistake made during the launch of Prestige Labs that the speaker discusses?

The significant mistake was over-hiring for the customer service department, leading to a situation where many employees had no work to do, which eventually resulted in a layoff.

What was the impact of the over-hiring incident on the speaker's approach to delegation?

The over-hiring incident made the speaker determined to understand how to delegate without losing control and without suppressing the team, leading to a more careful and structured approach to delegation.

What are the four levels of delegation described in the video?

The four levels of delegation are: 1) Investigation, where tasks involve research and information retrieval; 2) Informed Progress, where tasks are carried out with regular updates to the leader; 3) Informed Results, where tasks are completed with the leader only seeing the final results; and 4) Complete Ownership, where tasks are fully handed over to the delegatee with minimal oversight.

How does the speaker use the concept of levels of delegation in their leadership?

The speaker uses the levels of delegation to determine the appropriate level of involvement and oversight needed when assigning tasks to team members, based on their experience and the company's growth stage.

What is the purpose of the 'Informed Results' level of delegation according to the video?

The 'Informed Results' level of delegation is used as a teaching tool to encourage team members to create support systems beyond their supervisor and to learn to complete tasks independently.

What is the significance of the 'Complete Ownership' level of delegation?

The 'Complete Ownership' level signifies a high level of trust and autonomy given to the delegatee, where they are expected to complete tasks without needing to report back until they are done, indicating a mature level of responsibility and competence.

How does the speaker's experience with delegation mistakes influence their current approach to leadership?

The speaker's experience with delegation mistakes, particularly the layoff incident, has led them to develop a more structured and thoughtful approach to delegation, focusing on understanding their own leadership tendencies and the appropriate levels of oversight needed for different tasks and team members.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Learning to Delegate Effectively

The speaker begins by sharing their journey in learning how to delegate without losing control. They admit to initially struggling with delegation, either holding on too tight or delegating too much. They emphasize the importance of recognizing one's natural tendency towards either extreme to improve delegation skills. The speaker recounts a personal story of rapid growth in their companies, where they promoted someone internally to lead a new venture. This decision led to over-hiring and inefficiency, highlighting the need for a balance in delegation and understanding the difference between managing in a stable versus a fast-paced, growing company.

05:01

🔍 The Importance of Delegation Levels

The speaker delves into the concept of different levels of delegation, which they learned from a book and adapted into their own framework. They explain four levels: investigation, where tasks are delegated with the expectation of information retrieval; informed progress, where tasks are given with regular updates required; informed results, where tasks are completed with minimal oversight and only results are reported; and complete ownership, where tasks are entrusted with full autonomy. The speaker reflects on a past mistake of not properly identifying the right level of delegation for an employee, which led to a disagreement and ultimately a layoff. This experience taught them the importance of understanding delegation levels to avoid such missteps.

10:03

🚀 Implementing Delegation in Practice

The speaker concludes by discussing how they now apply the levels of delegation in their leadership. They give an example of transitioning the organization of quarterly meetings to their director of operations, starting with oversight and gradually moving towards complete ownership. This approach allows the director to gain autonomy while still having the support of the speaker. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding one's delegation style and adjusting it to avoid over-delegating or under-delegating, which can lead to mistakes like unnecessary layoffs. They encourage viewers to reflect on their delegation patterns and develop a process to improve their delegation skills.

Keywords

💡Delegation

Delegation refers to the act of entrusting tasks or authority to another person or group. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of effective delegation without losing control over the process or outcomes. This is a central theme as the speaker shares personal experiences and strategies for finding the right balance between micromanagement and over-delegation.

💡Control

Control, in this context, relates to the degree of authority and oversight a leader maintains over tasks delegated to others. The speaker discusses the challenges of letting go of control when delegating and the consequences of both under-delegating and over-delegating, highlighting the need for a balanced approach.

💡Overbearing

Being overbearing means being excessively controlling or domineering. The video script uses this term to describe a leadership style where a leader is too involved in every detail, which can lead to team dissatisfaction and high turnover. The speaker reflects on how not being able to delegate effectively can be overbearing and detrimental to team dynamics.

💡Rapid Growth

Rapid growth refers to a swift expansion in business size or operations. The speaker recounts a period of rapid growth in their company, which led to the need for effective delegation strategies to manage the increasing workload and maintain company culture. This growth phase serves as a backdrop for the challenges and lessons in delegation discussed in the video.

💡Blind Spots

Blind spots in leadership refer to areas where a leader may lack insight or awareness, often leading to mistakes. The video discusses how understanding one's tendencies in delegation can help identify and cover these blind spots, preventing missteps in managing teams and projects.

💡Accountability

Accountability is the expectation that individuals will be responsible for their actions and decisions. The speaker touches on the importance of holding oneself and team members accountable, especially when things go wrong due to poor delegation practices, as in the case of having to lay off staff.

💡Levels of Delegation

The speaker introduces a concept of four levels of delegation, which is a framework for determining the appropriate degree of involvement in delegated tasks. These levels range from simple research tasks to complete ownership of projects, providing a structured approach to delegation.

💡Investigation

Investigation, as a level of delegation, involves assigning the task of gathering information or researching a topic. The speaker uses this term to describe the initial level of delegation where the leader retains control over decision-making but relies on others to collect necessary data.

💡Informed Progress

Informed progress is a delegation level where the delegatee is expected to provide regular updates on task progress, allowing the leader to offer guidance when needed. The video script illustrates this concept with an example of launching a new product line, where the delegatee is expected to keep the leader informed of key milestones.

💡Informed Results

Informed results is a higher level of delegation where the delegatee is tasked with completing a project and reporting back only with the final outcome. This level requires a higher degree of trust and autonomy, as the leader is not involved in the day-to-day execution of the task.

💡Complete Ownership

Complete ownership is the highest level of delegation, where the delegatee is given full responsibility for a task or project from start to finish, without the need to report back until completion. The speaker discusses this as a level that is typically reserved for long-term, trusted team members who have proven their reliability and competence.

Highlights

The importance of effective delegation without losing control over the team or process.

The tendency to be on one end of the delegation spectrum or the other, either holding on too tight or delegating everything.

The negative impact of being overbearing on team morale and potential for high-performer turnover.

The consequences of hiring and delegating too soon without providing enough context.

The realization of needing to understand one's own delegation tendencies to cover blind spots.

The story of rapid growth at Gym Launch and Prestige Labs and the challenges it presented.

The mistake of over-hiring in the customer service department due to misjudging the growth trajectory.

The disengagement and quality issues that arose from improper delegation and oversight.

The difficult decision to conduct layoffs due to over-hiring and the emotional impact on the leader.

The concept of levels of delegation and how they can be used to avoid micromanagement and over-delegation.

Level one of delegation: Investigation, where tasks are delegated for research and information gathering.

Level two of delegation: Informed Progress, where regular updates are required from the delegatee.

Level three of delegation: Informed Results, where the delegatee is expected to handle the task with minimal oversight until completion.

Level four of delegation: Complete Ownership, where the delegatee has full autonomy and is trusted to deliver results without direct supervision.

The evolution of delegation as seen in the transition of organizing quarterly meetings to the Director of Operations.

The importance of understanding one's delegation style to prevent mistakes and improve team efficiency.

The call to action for viewers to reflect on their delegation habits and consider the provided framework for improvement.

Transcripts

what is up in this video today what i

want to share with you is how i delegate

without losing control

so i'll start off with just a little

story which is i didn't always know how

to delegate um at least not effectively

and i think this is because typically we

tend to be on one end of the spectrum or

the other which is like either we hold

on really really tight and we delegate

nothing and a lot of times what that

does is it like keeps our team small we

tend to like burst at the seams at some

point and it kind of suppresses the team

and so some of your you know best people

might leave or become resentful of the

fact that you're just really overbearing

and doing their job a lot of the time

the complete other side of the spectrum

is that you delegate everything and you

probably hire too soon you delegate too

soon you don't give enough context to

people and you don't really know how to

do much like you don't understand how

the machine works of your department and

so you can't really make informed

decisions because you're kind of walking

blind right and so i think that the

first thing that you have to be able to

understand is which side you lean toward

right and if you know which side you

lean toward then you can that can make

you more aware of how to cover your

blind spots when you're trying to figure

out how to delegate

and so when i first started off i

actually didn't know which side i swung

to because i was inexperienced and so

it's like i'm just kind of going with

what's happening i don't even know if i

think i may have started out really

holding on tight and then because we had

such rapid growth i think what happened

was i just kind of was like i have to

let go right and unfortunately i didn't

have experience in a lot of the areas

that i had to like go and delegate to

for the people i was hiring and so a lot

of mistakes were made right and so one

of those mistakes was one that stuck

with me um for a long time it really

made me determined to understand how to

delegate without losing control but also

without suppressing your team by staying

too involved and so

i'll tell you the story which is when we

were growing gym launch and prestige lab

simultaneously um there was a year in

which we were launching prestige labs

and gym launch was also exploding and it

seemed like an impossible task but our

team worked really well together

and so it came kind of to the point

where we're like all right we need

somebody to lead the way for prestige

labs and to you know really take the

team off the ground and you know we kind

of promoted somebody internally who had

some experience but not

not experienced in like a fast growth

you know like crazy fast growth company

and i think that's where i lacked

experience was in understanding that

there's a very big difference between

you know leading sales or leading

customer service or leading marketing in

a

normal company versus like an explosive

company right it's very different and so

the experience doesn't always translate

and

um i put her in that department to take

that company to the level it needed to

because we knew that we had an existing

customer base so it was like okay it's

not just gonna be like a slow launch

it's like gonna be an explosion off the

bat and so we need to be prepared we

need to staff up etc etc and she did the

math um on what we were expecting in

terms of volume and so we hired like 23

people for essentially a customer

service department and i remember

thinking like that just sounds like a

lot but at the same time you know if the

company's doing multiple millions of

dollars a month like okay i can see how

that would work and so we launched

the you know product line and it all

really went well um it actually went

really well

but a couple weeks in i started noticing

like a lot of disengagement on that team

specifically and

i felt like the quality actually wasn't

up to par despite how many people were

there

and i was starting to get like a really

weird feeling about it

and before i could do anything about it

i actually had one of the new reps say

hey can i talk to you and i was like of

course so i got on a call with her and

she said listen i understand that i just

got a job here she's like but out of

respect to you i feel like you should

know that i'm not working

i was like what do you mean you're not

working she was like no like there's no

work for me and she's like i'm pretty

sure it's like me and like six or seven

others like literally have no work like

i answered like three chats all day and

i was like

oh

and so

i was like crap okay we over hired like

we didn't realize that very quickly

efficiency is gained and you get

processes and you get systems and all

that and so you don't need that many

people

and so i went to the woman who had hired

everyone and i said look like look

what's going on like we actually don't

need like oh more than half this team

like i think like 75

and she was like well what do you want

me to do about it and i said

i mean i've and you have to understand i

was the kind of person who was like if i

ever i will never do a layoff i will

never let people go for any reason like

that like that's wrong that's you know

that's harmful it's all these things

right and so i was facing this the

question myself like what did we do

about this and you know i talked to a

couple mentors and i talked to a couple

people i really trusted and they were

like i think you know what you need to

do you just don't want to do it and i

was like i had you know identified with

being someone that would never do

something like that so for me it was

very hard to face and so then to even

bring it to her

was very painful for me um because i

felt very guilty i felt like it's all my

fault which it was but i also lacked

experience and that's just kind of what

happens um so i went to her and i was

like listen like i hate saying this but

like we need to do a layoff like we

don't have anywhere else for these

people to go we're not anticipating

growth like we just had like there's

nothing for them to do and she was like

i don't want to do that like i don't

believe that's right i think that's what

big corporations do i don't just i don't

agree with you et cetera et cetera

and she wanted to keep everyone she said

let me find work for them i'll find work

for them and i was like

you don't find work for people like that

that's something i know and so it ended

up that we were at odds and you know she

exited the company because we didn't

agree and i did a layoff

and it sucked i definitely beat myself

up over it for a long time for a lot of

reasons um probably too long for sure

and i let it kind of take a stab at my

confidence and how i felt as a leader

but more importantly it taught me a lot

of lessons that i realized later on

which is much more productive right to

recognize the lessons that you learned

rather than lol and self-hatred and so

what i realized it taught me was a

couple of things the first is that

there are levels of delegation right and

i did not properly identify this one and

i didn't identify that she was going to

need more oversight than she had because

she had experience but not in a rapid

fast growth company like this right

the second piece of that is um sometimes

when you are growing really fast you

know it's kind of like i could have done

it but it would have been done very

poorly and i would have not met

expectations and so when i was making

the decision to bring her in i don't

think it's the wrong decision to have

somebody else do it i think that the way

that i let go of too much oversight was

where the decision was wrong so it's not

all or nothing it's not delegate or

don't delegate it's delegate to what

extent

and so that's when i started reading a

lot about delegation i was like i never

want this to happen again i feel like

um

and so i just want to prevent this from

happening for myself and i want to be

able to teach people how to effectively

delegate without you know making a giant

mistake like this right

and so

i don't even remember what book this

came from but it basically talked about

the levels of delegation and it's really

stuck with me and i think i've kind of

come up with my own interpretation of it

um but i use it in my thinking when i'm

trying to understand how i should

delegate two people without losing

complete control like i feel like i did

in that situation all right

and so

there's four levels okay

the first level is investigation

investigation is where you essentially

just delegate research to somebody else

you explain to them what you're looking

for what you want and then you ask them

to go retrieve information for you and

then they bring it back to you and then

you take action on that information

right and so this could be like taking

customer surveys it could be like you

know finding if it's you know an

executive assistant can be like you know

researching different places of travel

it could be um

you know gathering articles on how to

hire a controller it could be all sorts

of things right and then that person

brings that information to you and then

you do with that information what you

will that is a very that's like the

first level of delegation right so i

would give that somebody who's like

brand new and has no idea about the

thing i am asking to retrieve

information on right

the second level is informed progress

now informed progress is where the

leader right so like myself would give

somebody a task and then it would be

with the understanding that they would

take on the task and give me regular

updates and i would help them when

they're getting stuck right so they're

informing me of their progress along the

way so it might be like sarah i need you

to go and launch this new product line

that we want to launch it's a new flavor

of x for our supplements

and i want you to figure out what the

sourcing the pricing and all that looks

like i want you to put me on the asana

project and then just like inform you

when you hit these milestones

and so that's what informed progress

looks like so that's basically in my

mind if somebody is competent and able

to figure things out themselves but may

not have experience in doing that exact

thing then i probably want to go with

informed progress which is like i want

you to keep me looped in the whole time

because i do have experience or at least

greater context than that person and so

i can help them when they get stuck or

if they're going to make a decision that

would be

less than desirable for the company and

then there's level three okay level

three is going to be informed results

and so what that means is i'm gonna give

someone a project i'm gonna say go start

this new product line you're going to

figure out the skus the pricing the

sourcing all that and then i don't want

to hear about any of it until you're

done and i want to see the results okay

so i want you to inform me of the

results of you doing this thing

and so with that it would be like giving

that person that project and then saying

i don't want you to ask me anything

along the way

i look at

doing informed results as a teaching

tool right so if somebody has been

primarily doing projects in a way that

is more of informed progress when i'm

looped in on everything i'm trying to

get them to take the next step i'm going

to tell them to not tell me and to use

other people on the team right to help

them throughout the way and then bring

me the final end result and so what i

see that doing for people is when you're

when you're delegating at that level

it's teaching people to create a

different support system besides their

own supervisor right so i'm saying like

i want you to go work with the team and

work with them to then produce a result

that is you know they're going to want

to feel more certain about because

you're not helping them find it right

and so i look at that as probably the

the area of the most teaching is the gap

between the boss being involved in every

step of the way and then the boss not

being involved to the very end

now once someone's done that multiple

times and been very productive with it

then i would go to level four which is

complete ownership right and so complete

ownership is it's literally just like

set it and forget it and that is

something that i wouldn't do with

somebody until they've been in a role

and been in a company for a couple of

years most likely and sometimes if

you're growing extremely fast and it is

a role that um

anything that they would do would not be

detrimental to the company you may do

this at times but with a lot of roles

you're still going to want to at least

be informed of the result

until they've been on your team and you

know you know how they work and there's

a lot more predictability and

consistency in what you see come from

them and so for this it would be i'm

going to give this to you i'm going to

give this task project etc i'm going to

give you the result that as desired and

then you're going to figure out how to

do it you're going to do it yourself

you're going to use other resources and

you don't even need to tell me when it's

done

right and so a lot of the times this

would be how you would work with

probably an executive assistant or like

a director of operations who's doing

things on your behalf

right and that's just when you've

developed a level of trust that you've

been able to go through all the other

levels of delegation and now you're at

the point where like i know they're

going to get it done and i know that 90

of the time they're gonna do it the way

that i would like it to be done and if

they don't do the way that i would like

it to be done they're gonna know why it

didn't go well and it's like they will

be able to tell themselves all the

reasons that didn't go well i don't need

to tell them for them because i know how

intelligent this person is

and so when i'm thinking now about like

hiring someone bringing someone new and

delegating something i'm going through

in my mind how involved i want to be in

that thing

and so i'll give you an example of

something that i just started doing

which was a couple of quarters ago i

started passing off the organization of

our quarterly meetings to my director of

operations and so what i basically said

was you know you she's been looped in on

how i planned these out for the last

couple quarters so it's like first i was

looping her in right like i was almost

informing her of progress and then now

i'm like okay now i want you to do it

and then loop me in at these points

right and all it is for this is like i'm

on an asana project and i see when

certain things are done and i can just

like comment on there if there's

anything that we want to change and i'm

doing that because i want to make sure

that she can be successful in her own

right to get it done and that she also

has autonomy right because i'm saying

like he you can do things differently

you can do things your way and then you

can just check with me if you want me to

tell you like do i think that's going to

work well or not

and it's new for her and it's obviously

a big event for the company so i want to

make sure that she has my support but in

probably

two to three quarters she'll do it all

on her own and i won't be involved at

all i'm not going to be involved in

approving anything i'm not going to be

involved looking at things ahead of time

i'm just going to probably show up and

it's all completely done i want you to

even be on the asana task and so i look

at that as the evolution of how to

delegate to someone

and like i said in the beginning um

everyone messes up in how they delegate

and a lot of people it's just not

understanding you know or being aware of

what kind of leader you are if you're

someone who really holds on tight or if

you're someone who delegates too quickly

and if you can think about that you know

for a few minutes just look at your

patterns then you can decide okay then

how does that affect the lens in which i

see how i should delegate to other

people and then hopefully you can avoid

mistakes like i've made like you know

having to lay off i think like 23 people

which sucked and it was terrible um and

that is why i feel like this video is

very important because if you can just

create this process for yourself that

you can think through when you're giving

things to people then you will be a lot

better off and in the end the more

people in the beginning with if everyone

lacks experience then you probably want

more eyes on things right and so you are

probably in the beginning if you are an

experienced people on your team are

inexperienced do you probably want to be

checking in qa more than not

so if you found that video useful go

ahead hit subscribe and i will see you

on the next one