This is the second post in a series, defining my personal leadership model, “The Leadership Tetrahedron“. I chose the Tetrahedron because it always lands “correctly” and as Newham stated in 2005, “a tetrahedron has the unique qualities that each corner is connected to every other corner by an edge and that each face is connected to every other face, also by an edge.” Connections–meaningful connections–are critical to hardy organizational growth, and delegation done the right way strengthens connections.
Finding, selecting, developing and keeping top-level talent is and endless task with which managers and organizations are faced. It is virtually impossible to always hire the best individual, but we do our best to get the best individual available at the time/place. Zhuge Liang, a famous Chinese strategist (ironically one of the worst delegators of all time in practice) did have considerable insights on the subject of delegation, whether or not he practiced what he preached. As General Zhuge stated: “One of the eight evils is inability to delegate authority to the wise and the good in times of order.” Perhaps that is why most of his military campaigns failed miserably? Two other quotes attributed to Zhuge resonate with me: “The Sixth way of knowing people is to give them tasks to do within a specific time, to see how trustworthy they are.” and “Therefore the Way (Dao) of leadership puts education and direction before punishment. To send people to war without education is tantamount to throwing them away.” Delegation is one of the best teaching tools, and one of the best trust-builders for an organization.
I wasn’t always convinced of delegation’s effectiveness. Once of my better learning moments was in conversation with a supervisor. She had delegated a (two-year) project to me, and we were exceeding expectations after the first six-month evaluation. Her concerns were, however, that I was doing too much. She looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Vince, this cannot be about you. What will happen at the end of two years, after you leave? This has to be sustainable. You have to make it sustainable.” I had always been described as a charismatic, transformational leader. I was able to motivate people to do more than they had done. WHY on earth was she concerned? I began reflecting however, and she was right. Sure, the people were working hard and we were achieving, but were they learning? Did I have a succession-plan in place? To whom would I hand the torch? I brought this up in our next project-team meeting, and one member suggested that we begin operating on the ‘meteor-principle’–that was, what if one of us were hit by a meteor tomorrow? It was a difficult revelation for me that I wanted to hold onto the torch.
There are three essentials to which we must adhere when delegating. First, I must assess my tolerance for mistakes. I shouldn’t have to double-check everything. If there are capable people working with me, I should coach those people. I must allow them to undertake and develop higher levels of responsibility. Second, I have to be able to identify the training needs among my reports and discern between two types of needs: developmental potentials and critical flaws. If I can facilitate the development, great; if a person isn’t a fit for that particular task or project, reassign. Third, the organization’s values, my values, and the values held by the protégé must be compatible–not exactly the same–but compatible.
Delegation is one of the most important leadership qualities that will strengthen the organization. Conversely, refusing to delegate is one of the quickest ways to move an organization from ‘functional’ to ‘dysfunctional’ by eroding and eventually destroying trust within the organization. When we learn and practice this business tactic, we improve our organization’s ability to grow and survive. The beauty of delegation is that by showcasing the individual and collective qualities of my team, I earn their loyalty and support–but most importantly I cultivate two-way trust. Think of it this way, an organization of tetrahedral leaders, connected together by strands of trust, is a hardy entity indeed!