The most successful people—the Big Picture Thinkers—don’t try to do everything. Instead, they hand things off. It’s better for them, better for their boss, and it’s better for their company too because it allows younger talent to flourish.
As the boss of her own communications company, Christine Heenan had to learn the art of delegation. For her it has meant a deliberate process of keeping her perfectionist tendencies in check. She hated to let go of anything, because she knew just how she wanted it done, and after all, can’t the boss always do it best? But if she wanted time with her two boys as well then there simply wasn’t enough of her to go around.
“I think successful delegating means empowering people other than you to do something maybe not exactly as you would do it, but to do it instead of you,” she explains. “I might say, ‘This press release is not written the way I would have written it.’ But it’s gone out, and I see an e-mail back from the client saying it sounds fine, and I’ve just got to leave it at that.”
She faces the same issues at home. “Say my sitter has allowed my son Colin to do his homework over at his friend Ben’s house,” Christine says. “I think he should do his homework at home before he goes to Ben’s, but she’s there and she’s in charge and once you know no one is hurt and no one is in trouble, then you just have to let it go.”
Delegating also sends a cunning reminder to your bosses, babysitters, and husband that you are too busy to do everything. It can be another form of saying “no” that leaves everyone better off.
Remember Lauren Tyler, our private equity banker in New York, who balances three children and two stepchildren with a determination to maintain work-life control in a world where there usually isn’t any? She says delegating is the key to her ability to stay in a job she loves and have time for the family she also loves. “It solves three problems for me—it leaves me in the clear to get my job done, gives someone below me an opportunity to shine, and it builds loyalty. It all comes back to help me and the organization. But you do have to let go!”
That is often easier said than done. Accepting that some delegated tasks may not be done precisely to your exacting standards can cause stress. How do successful women manage this tricky terrain?
Here are some delegating tips:
1. If you are overstretched, but a delegating novice, choose one task to delegate and then delegate it right away, before you have second thoughts. As you grow more comfortable, use the 80-20 Rule to figure out which tasks can be handed off.
2. Ask who is right for the job. It does not always have to be the team star. Someone new and keen may be perfect for some tasks. Someone with more experience may be better for others.
3. Once you’ve chosen the person, explain the task, the time frame, and the review process. Make yourself available for specific questions but don’t check up on their progress every ten minutes. Remember you have delegated to win time—not to spend it checking up on the delegatee!
4. Ask yourself: is there something here for me to learn in doing this task? Will it provide me with new skills and competence that will be useful in the future, or is it a routine task that I could do quickly—but that won’t necessarily add to my value as an employee? And could it present a learning opportunity for one of my junior staffers? What’s routine for you may be a learning opportunity for others. Those are the perfect tasks to delegate.
5. Enlist your executive assistant, if you’re lucky enough to have one, in the cause. Anybody who can help you by fielding phone calls, deciding what decisions can be postponed if it’s your day off, or even cunningly pulling you out of meetings that you didn’t want to sit through until the bitter end, is an invaluable asset. Treat assistants well and with respect, it goes without saying, but don’t hesitate to ask them to work for you. Your assistant is not your friend. She, or, yes, even he, is your bodyguard.
Miriam Decker, a top Wall Street investor, asked us to change her name because of the cutthroat nature of her business. “I just heard one male partner here remarking that anybody on the 6:30 p. m. train home doesn’t deserve to be at the firm,” she says, laughing and grimacing at the same time. “You can’t even risk putting an ‘out-of-the-office’ automatic e-mail reply on your e-mail account,” she continues, “Bad form.” Miriam says an assistant is one of the keys to keeping her life livable, and somewhat under wraps. “With a good assistant,” she explains, “I can make my life work. They know the kids, the schools, when to interrupt a meeting for a phone call, how to mention I’m at ‘a breakfast’ when I’m in late. I learned from my partner’s assistant. One day I asked where he was. ‘At breakfast,’ she told me. Then two hours later when he came in I went into his office to talk and he said, ‘I just had the best workout!’ I laughed to myself and was reminded that this is nothing new. Men have been doing it for years.”