How to Delegate (Without Losing Control)
Summary
TLDRIn 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
📚 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.
🔍 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.
🚀 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Delegation
💡Control
💡Overbearing
💡Rapid Growth
💡Blind Spots
💡Accountability
💡Levels of Delegation
💡Investigation
💡Informed Progress
💡Informed Results
💡Complete Ownership
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
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