{"id":228,"date":"2018-04-30T22:39:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T22:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielvlopes238992071.wordpress.com\/2018\/04\/30\/delegate-outcomes-not-activities\/"},"modified":"2025-02-28T13:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T21:55:10","slug":"delegate-outcomes-not-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2018\/04\/30\/delegate-outcomes-not-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Delegate outcomes, not activities."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When it comes to delegating, invite your team into both the thinking and the doing.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Do you consider yourself \u201ca doer\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That person who enjoys doing the work, fine-tuning the details, meddling in the weeds of how it\u2019ll all work? Then you probably have trouble delegating as a leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For so many managers and leaders\u200a\u2014\u200aespecially those of us who are used to be the person doing<\/em> the work and are now handing<\/em> off the work to others\u200a\u2014\u200alearning to delegate is, well, tricky, if not painful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that we are by no means alone. I recently happened upon some helpful advice from leaders who similarly have a tough time delegating. And they were incredibly generous with their advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie Elliott, Director of Product at Shopify<\/a> and member, chose to be very honest with his struggle to delegate to others:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMy tendency can be to either take on work myself, or dive into the details and hand over a to do list \ud83e\udd26\u200d. Both don\u2019t scale, and both behaviours underutilize the incredible people on our\u00a0team.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

However, Charlie then shared this bit of gold that his coach had offered on delegating well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cInvite your team into both the thinking and the\u00a0doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That is, involve your team in co-creating what success looks like\u200a\u2014\u200ainstead of purely asking them to execute and get you there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us, like Charlie, have a habit of inviting the team into the doing after<\/em> we\u2019ve done the thinking. We want to know what we\u2019re asking people to step up to, before asking them to do so. Or we\u2019re so worried about the outcome, we don\u2019t trust others on our team enough to take part in the thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean Conner, another member and VP of Creative at Guerrero Howe<\/a>, related to this struggle. He admitted how he\u2019d recently experienced the power of Charlie\u2019s advice to \u201cinvite your team into both the thinking and the doing\u201d when a coach he was working with said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cDelegate outcomes, not activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This means to clear a path for a team member to achieve that outcome however she\u2019d like\u200a\u2014\u200abecause it\u2019s the outcome you truly care about after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, this is much harder to do in practice. It\u2019s hard to give up control and allow someone to approach an outcome, particularly when we see pitfalls in the approach. We think, \u201cOh boy, that\u2019s going to take a long time\u2026\u201d<\/em> or \u201cAh, they really shouldn\u2019t be doing it that way\u2026\u201d<\/em> But what Sean pointed out is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cDelegation is about letting your report learn, and if you believe their approach has a fair chance to get to the outcome, then you must get out of the\u00a0way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Keep that in mind. Not only is delegation a means to getting something done in the here and now\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s a means for helping your team get something even harder done the next<\/em> time around. You\u2019re giving your team the opportunity to take in what works and what doesn\u2019t, observe, stumble, fall\u2026 and then figure it out themselves. How else will they figure it out if you don\u2019t even give them the chance to try?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you delegate the outcomes and not the activities, you help employees not just execute for the task at hand, but equip them for every future task after that. You\u2019re giving true ownership to your team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you, Charlie and Sean. As I divvy up work here at Canopy today, I\u2019ll be keeping your advice in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u26a1\ufe0f\u00a0One way to support progress in your team is to make sure you\u2019re clearly *sharing* progress with everyone in the team.<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s where\u00a0Canopy<\/a>\u00a0comes in. Try us for free, today!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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