Hi, it's Pete Wilkinson with the Strategy Gap Podcast, and this is episode three, and all around more delegation. Just last week I did a session with some uh leaders, chief execs in a in a CEO group, and we were going through some of the questions, and I was asking around the things that they think that they would like to do more of, or the things that they think they should do more of. And one of the things that came up, and it often comes up, is delegation. So I always write the word delegation on the flip chart, and then I'll respectfully ask if I can challenge the person because what they say is normally it starts with more delegation, and I think most of us think that's the answer is like give me more time, and and and you know, I should be delegating more. And the question I asked the guy was I obviously asked first of all, can I challenge you on that? And I asked, is it more delegation? Is it better delegation, or is it both? You see, we often think that's about more delegation, but it might not be. Like if you're not very good at delegation and you do more of it, it's going to become a problem. Or if you are really good at delegation but you just don't do enough, then yes, do more of it. But it's worth thinking about. And I remember a while ago, um, I read a book. The you probably heard of it, it's the seven habits of of highly effective people, and I think it's a great book, right? Great, great book. Love the idea of it. Stephen Covey, some really good stuff. I mean, if you haven't read it, you really should you should read that if you're interested in all this growth and development and execution, anyway. So the book's The Seven Habits, and I love it, right? Really loved it. And then he brought out another book called The Eighth Habit. And I have to be honest, for a while I thought, come on, man, you've said it seven habits. That sounds great. Now you're bringing in an eighth habit. So out of um principle, I didn't read the book for a while, and I thought, come on, Pete, get over yourself, take a look. And I would go as far as say it's brilliant, okay? So I'll stand corrected. And the the eighth habit essentially is around with people, fast is slow and slow is fast. So that's with people, fast is slow and slow is fast. And that got me thinking about you know, in my early career when I was delegating to people, I once had a team about 300 people, I had 30 managers and I had senior managers and stuff, but a lot of the time I had to delegate things, couldn't get through everything myself. And it dawned on me that sometimes I was trying to make faster progress when I was actually making slow progress, and I think this is the same with delegation. I think sometimes when we delegate, we do it quite quickly, and we don't give someone the full information, or we don't delegate in a way that they would understand. We we often delegate in a way that we would understand, but not the way that they would understand. And if they're different to you, which big hint they will be, they may not get it. So, what sometimes happens with delegation is you've got somebody, and if you're a leader, a chief exec, MD, or a senior person, you're probably casting a fairly large shadow over the business, I would imagine. And what that means is that when you delegate to someone, sometimes they you know go, oh yeah, yeah, okay, Pete, yeah, I'll do that, and they don't fully understand. And that's because you know, I've rushed or you've rushed. So I think one of the things we should think about with delegation is, and don't get me wrong, absolutely it's a good, it's a good thing to do, but I do believe that we should be deciding whether we should delegate more or we should delegate better and and have a have a think about that. So one of the things that works really well for me is the concept of checkbacks. So when I delegate to a member of the team, I'll uh I'll delegate what I want to have done and clarify what the outcome is and when, etc., and delegate this particular thing. And then I'll just do what we call a checkback. I'll say, hey, Jill, just before you go off and do that thing, can you just let me know what you think I want you to do, when you think, when you think I want it done by, and what you think is success in that area. So by doing this, I have to slow things down. And yes, okay, it takes longer, and and sometimes you want to just crack on. And I understand all that, I've been through that as well. But I do think what happens is that when you get good at that, and checkbacks become something you do, like kind of you know, you become unconsciously competent with it, you just do it as part of what you're doing. What you will find is that the person will relate back, and initially they'll tell you what you think you've communicated really clearly, and what you get back is something completely different. So you just say, Look, okay, I'm sorry, my mistake. This is what I want you to do, this is what I'd like to done by, this is why I need to do it, and this is what the kind of you know result of what we're looking for is what success looks like with that thing. So, by slowing it down and doing these checkbacks, you're actually going to make a lot more progress. So, the thing to think about there is is checkback something you could do? When would you do it? Why would you do it? Does it make a difference? And of course, the answer is yes. And I think so. So the first thing I want to kind of get across is that when you think of delegation, don't just think I want to do more delegation. Think, do I want to do more delegation? Do I want to do better delegation? Or you know, or is it or is it both? You see, the question we then come to once we understand that concept is why aren't we delegating? Let's say we're good at it, and why aren't we? And sometimes we're keeping hold of things too long, putting our arm around the business, and we think that you know we know how to do everything, that's a factor. Sometimes it could be lack of trust in the team, you know, you don't you don't feel that the team you can trust the team to do what you do. Sometimes it's think you think that although you do trust your team generally, they won't be as competent as you, and you do it really well, and you kind of nail it every time, and they might not. And you've got to kind of think about that. So once you understand the concept of delegation, you then have to think about why aren't you delegating? And is it because of that? Is it because of trust? Is it because of training or whatever it might be? But of course, if you do something really well and you've got like four or five direct reports, and you can get four or five things done by those team members, it's 80% of what you do. Can you imagine how much more progress you're gonna make as a team or a company as opposed to you trying to fit in another five, six, seven things when the level you want to do 80%, but you you're trying to do like you so you want to do like 100% or 95%, and and you're kind of like, Oh, I'm gonna just keep hold of this thing, and you end up being overloaded. So I think once you understand whether it's more delegation or better delegation or both, then it is worth really looking at kind of like why aren't you delegating and and and why you're keeping hold of things longer than you should. Maybe you like doing them, and I totally get that. You know, there's things that that I don't really need should do anymore. I like doing them, but I really shouldn't be doing them, so maybe it's that, but it's just worth exploring this because all we're trying to do, you know, the whole concept of this podcast is the strategy execution gap, a strategy gap, right? And and sometimes we we keep hold of things longer than we should, and and that's maybe you, you know. And one of the things to think about, like if we go through a kind of process, the last thing then is, of course, you know, what is the benefit to delegating to our people? And one of the big things I see that's missing when we don't delegate or when people don't delegate, is we're robbing the person of the learning. And of course, we're looking for ways, or you should be looking at ways to keep your team engaged, keep them aligned, keep everyone growing, you know, wanting to stay at the business to grow and develop. And of course, for that to be for that to happen, they need to take on more responsibility, they need to learn new things, they need to become more central in the business. And of course, if you're keeping hold of things, then you're essentially robbing them of that learning. So giving this kind of the whole topic some thought, it is yes, I write on the board delegation nearly every strategy session I do. I hear someone say delegation more, and I'm like, is it more, is it better? Do you need to learn how to do it? And they haven't thought about that. And then, of course, once they're gonna get the head around that, it's like, why aren't you delegating? And then once you get the hang around that, you think what's the value of delegating, which is this piece around, you know, not robbing people of the learning of making that decision. And I think through all of this, one of the big things that I'd like you to take away is um something that I still talk about all the time is the meaning of communication is the response you get. So I let that sink in. The meaning of communication, the response you get. So when you somebody, when you say to somebody you didn't do what I asked you, that's not what I wanted, you have to take responsibility for that. So we're kind of coming around through a big full circle of slowing down, being more precise. You know, we often talk about are you being implicit or are you being explicit? And there's a huge difference between the two of those on when you're communicating. So if the meaning of communication is the response you get, and if someone doesn't do something what you ask, could you take more responsibility in thinking, well, actually, that was my fault. I didn't communicate that well. I communicated the way I would need to hear it, but they're not me, so I could slow it down. So the action from this podcast, episode three on delegation is just have a little think about whether you need to do more delegation or whether you need to get better at it, and then if you kind of agree in your own mind which it is, then just give a little bit of thought as to what's stopping you or preventing you from delegating and what has to happen to give it a go, do do more of it and do it better to not only give yourself some space but to help your team grow, take on more responsibility, keep them engaged, and make more progress. And this is all around trying to get that strategy gap nailed. Thanks, it's Pete. Take care, bye for now.