#49 - Delegation Is Not an Excuse for Disconnection
A point of view + stories + tactics to help you stay connected to the work happening around you.
Tl;dr - regardless of your title or specific role scope, there’s a good chance you will have to delegate something to a colleague or team. Take care to remember that delegating something to someone else doesn’t mean disconnecting or forgetting about it. After the article, there is a list of other letters I’ve debated writing recently. Would love your feedback on any topics you’d like to see covered!
“Feedback is a gift” is a statement I love, but I think too many people assume feedback has to come from others. You can give yourself the gift of feedback at any time.
A couple of months ago, as I did a review of everything on my plate at work, I realized that I had been delegating some things and not staying connected enough. I knew there was a problem the moment I couldn’t tell a concise, nuanced story about how two projects had evolved over time. How did this happen?
Simply by following the advice of this methodology — OKRs — and business school of thought that espouses Radical Focus (one of my favorite books btw). Here’s exactly what has happened over time:
First off, I think autonomy is addicting for high-performing people
I try to always hire/onboard/recruit high performers. These people are growing quickly in their careers and need less and less oversight over time
When working in teams of high performing people, you will invariably give responsibility to these people who, over time, develop a track record of getting things done
In letter #35 “So you want to get promoted” there’s a whole section on how trends, not dots are what allow people to take on more scope at work. Taking on more work and executing well is how people prove themselves
As people prove themselves, it’s easy to continue to hand them work, knowing that it’ll be done well. Yay!
Over time, you can take for granted that “they have it covered”, and use that freed-up bandwidth to go focus radically on other things
I started leaning in super heavily to two key initiatives at my company, and getting high-level updates from my team members once per week
Let’s pause here. This… This is the type of moment where the problems of disconnection can begin. It is at this point where you hit a tipping point in confidence that you might think: “Hey, team has this.” This is dangerous.
What happens when we mistake delegation for disconnection
Things go wrong, and when they do you need to scramble to get caught up to speed. This does not feel good
Your lack of presence undermines your ability to provide quality feedback
Quality does NOT mean overly-general statements. It means specific observations followed by specific suggestions built upon a deep understand of a situation and a person’s role in said situation
You may focus so much on one bucket of threads that you no longer have the time to check in on the ones you’ve delegated
You can begin to under-appreciate the evolutions in the machine you’re operating within, because each project you’re involved in is giving you signals — information — as to what has happened, is happening, and might happen soon
Your colleagues can feel isolated, and like they aren’t getting the support they need
You might not feel as connected to your work…because you literally are not as connected to what is happening
This can feel awful. Don’t get me wrong: work comes third for me — My family and friends come first and second, respectfully (although “friend family” is a common term uttered in this house)… But we spend far too much time at work for it to not be enjoyable.
It was either Plato or Aristotle (hazy at the moment) who said something along the lines of, it’s not enough to live life. One must live life well.
….Welllll, work is a part of life, and we spend a lot of time doing it. I’d like to feel energized by it, ideally. That is far easier when you’re leaned into the work, and pursuing excellence in what you do for no other reason beyond excellence itself (see this Psychology Today write-up on this topic)
(insert the many other points you might have by clicking the button below)
(Real image of what it’s like to work in any organization. Even if you’re at a 2-person startup, the only way to grow is to connect to the ecosystem around you. If you’re at one of the largest companies on earth (**COUGHS LOUDLY**) then this is a reflection of what tracking the machine can feel like… And though it’s impossible to track everything, you can — and should — strive to understand the “happenins”… the news in your part of the world)
I am not suggesting that one should not delegate, but rather that you should do it thoughtfully and plan to stay “close” where you can
At a bare minimum, I think anyone who is delegating something should be aware of how it’s progressing on a very regular basis and should take the time to go deeper into the nuances on a semi-regular basis. Let me be more specific with an example:
Let’s say you are managing 10 projects (this is usually the load of projects I’m simultaneously balancing). They cover things like:
Net new customer experience design
Feedback dynamics around existing customer experience
Sales motion execution
Product positioning adjustments
Medium-to-long range strategy development
Capability assessment
New feature X design
New feature Y design
Something relating to culture of our organization
Something relating to data management
Something related to a vendor / consulting firm
Something related to a new marketing platform we’re standing up
Etc. etc., yada yada: you get the point
What should one do?
For each of these projects, there should:
be a weekly or bi-weekly check-in at a bare minimum
Some regular point where you get a longer period of time to get into the weeds of a project
Weekly or bi-weekly time with the key or multiple key stakeholders from each project (gotta be reasonable here…lest your calendar get absolutely out of control. I think many of us have been there, and/or may be there)
Monthly steering check-ins that have a more collaborative tenor to them, because it totally sucks when you spend two weeks preparing for a meeting instead of 8-9 days actually making progress, and then one day creating the story and materials to communicate it all + tee up questions to leverage the brains of your steering committee
Reminder for later: need to write about how to run kickass board meetings. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a decent amount of time in them, although I am definitely still learning a lot here!
And at all times, you should know how all of these efforts fit together, and what result(s) they are driving.
Which leads me to the final point: you are responsible for understanding what is happening around you, and driving the connections between various parties/actors around you to make shit happen! Do you need to follow the above playbook? Absolutely not. But if you find yourself unable to concisely tell the story of work you are accountable for… Unable to share experiences from the team… Unable to accurately recite the next steps…and Unable to consistently find ways to add real value to said projects, then you have a problem… And the best place to start in solving this problem?
To connect to the problem. To immerse yourself within it. To understand it.
It’s from this base of deeper, nuanced (god, I love the word “nuance”) understanding that you can start to be a force multiplier for the people around you.
MD
Personal notes:
I almost wrote about a couple of other topics this week. But for the first time since I started Exonomist, I actually just could not finish writing multiple letters. I think it was the fear that the topics were a bit too personal. If you’re reading this and you think it would be helpful for me to write about slightly more personal topics related to the psychology or emotions we feel as humans, please do let me know.
The letters I was thinking about / starting to write included:
“What to do when you are stuck in a funk”
“Dealing with Setbacks”
“How to Be Aggressive (Enough) at Work”
“Moments that have me say Wow during startup pitches”
“Wherever you go, there you are — viewing situations objectively to find nuggets of wisdom”
“The dangers of prioritizing ownership over outcomes (#politics)”
“What I’m Reading (and learning) Right Now”
“Finding joy in the pursuit of micro-level greatness (greatness in your every day tasks)
Finally, I’m re-sharing another letter — “The Super Stretch Assignment (short form)” — because it continues to resonate with me, and I have really enjoyed creating opportunities for people to super stretch recently!