The Importance of Delegation

Most managers don't delegate enough, even though they have full plates and feel swamped with responsibility.

Beliefs that cause managers to under-delegate include:

• "It'll be higher quality if I do it"
• "I can do it faster; I don't have the time to train someone else"
• "I need to protect them from failure"
• "I really like doing it"
• "My team members are already so swamped; I don't want to trouble them"
• "What if they do it better than me?"
• "I'm good at this; what value do I bring if I'm not doing this?"

As your team grows, doing it all yourself isn't possible or sustainable. The consequences of under-delegating are immense: burnout, lacking time and energy for your management responsibilities, inability to focus on up-leveling yourself as a leader, and depriving others of potential learning opportunities.

Eisenhower Matrix

Let's start with the question of what to delegate.

Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower used a simple framework to decide what he should focus on. He split his tasks into two axes: urgency (will there be negative consequences if I don't do this now?) and importance (how much impact could I have by doing this?).

When a task is:

• Urgent and important (Quadrant 1)— Do them first. These tasks might include a time-sensitive email from your top client, managing a medical emergency, or taking something out of a burning oven. Maintain a high bar for what you put in this category.
• Important but not urgent (Quadrant 2)— Schedule these on your calendar; block off and protect the time. These tasks are aligned with your long-term goals, and this is where you want to invest the majority of your time. While these tasks are easy to put off, continuously doing so is unwise. It's often these tasks that will solve a systemic problem and give you more leverage in the future.
• Neither urgent or important (Quadrant 3)— Eliminate these from your to-do list. By removing these from your plate, you will free up much-needed time to invest in higher impact activities.
• Urgent but not important (Quadrant 4)— Delegate them. Ask yourself: Is it important that I myself do this task? If the answer is no, see if you can delegate it to another team member. If your company is scaling quickly, you may need to open a new role to handle a collection of responsibilities.

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Task Relevant Maturity

Now that we've covered what to delegate, let's examine how to delegate.  Task Relevant Maturity (TRM) was coined by Andy Grove in his book High Output Management.

This framework acknowledges that one-size-fits-all management is a recipe for failure. Instead, a manager needs to tailor their approach to each person and situation.

TRM looks at a person's competency and commitment for a particular task.

• Competency is about someone's ability to do a task. When someone has high competence, they have the past experience, specific knowledge, skills, problem-solving acumen, and prioritization ability to do a good job.
• Commitment is about someone's motivation to it. When someone has high commitment, they want to take responsibility, are determined to drive the task to completion, desire autonomy, show initiative, and are willing to meet commitments.

When evaluating competency and commitment, separate the person from the task. Most managers get this wrong. Once they develop trust in someone's abilities, they believe they can throw anything at them and be completely hands off. But not providing enough support for new tasks will often lead to failure, even if the person is a high performer.

Using Task Relevant Maturity, managers can determine where someone is for a particular task or project: Self-Reliant Achiever, Capable but Cautious Contributor, Disillusioned Learner, or Enthusiastic Beginner.

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Situational Management

How can we best manage someone in each of these situations?

As managers, we employ two types of behaviors when guiding direct reports:

• Directive behaviors focus on how to do a task. Examples include telling and showing people what to do, providing frequent feedback, and allowing someone to shadow a project or task. Directive behaviors are key to developing competence in others.
• Supportive behaviors focus on developing people's motivation and on their attitudes and feelings toward the task. Examples include providing reinforcement feedback, listening, encouraging, and involving others in problem-solving and decision making.

We adapt our management style depending on someone's task relevant maturity for a particular task:

• With Self-Reliant Achievers (high competency and commitment), we use a Delegating style. We give them responsibility and ownership and take a more hands-off approach.
• With Capable but Cautious Contributors (high competency and low commitment), we use a Motivating style. We build their confidence and align the task with their personal goals.
• With Disillusioned Learners (low competency and commitment), we use a Mentoring style. We need to use both directive and supportive behaviors to help them ramp up and provide encouragement.
• With Enthusiastic Beginners (low competency and high commitment), we use a Teaching style. We provide directive instruction to help them learn the ropes.

Mismatched Management Styles

There are two types of mismatch when it comes to management styles:

• ‍Micro-management - When managers are too hands-on with someone who has the competence to get it done, they are likely to feel demotivated. They know what to do, but they're not getting the space to do it.‍
• Hands-off - Have you encountered a manager who takes pride in being hands off? They might say "I don't want to micro-manage; I give my people their space." But when a direct report is taking on a challenge at the edges of their skill level, not having enough support and instruction can be debilitating. They aren't set up for success and lack the clarity and guidance to do a good job.