Manager Tools Delegation Model - Updated

Summary

Podcast Summary: Manager Tools Delegation Model – Updated

Manager Tools Podcast | Hosts: Sarah & Mike | July 22, 2024

---

Main Theme

This episode provides a practical, actionable walkthrough of the updated Manager Tools Delegation Model. Sarah and Mike explore why effective delegation is essential for individual managers and organizational growth, confront common objections, and lay out a step-by-step process for delegating tasks that both builds team capacity and maintains results.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Delegation is Critical for Growth

• Delegation as the Solution: The hosts emphasize that delegation is not just a managerial nicety but a requirement for organizational growth. Without it, managers get overloaded, limiting both their own capacity and that of the organization.

  "There are management theorists who believe that a lack of delegation is the single biggest internal roadblock to organizational growth." — Sarah [03:15]

• Juggling Koan Analogy:
  The recurring metaphor is a box of 20 balls of two sizes (large = 5 hours, small = 1 hour) representing total weekly work (40 hours). When a new, major responsibility arrives (the "big orange ball"), the only way to fit it in is to delegate or drop something else.

  "If we don't delegate... that already overextended workday we have... becomes an effort in working more hours, which is a problem." — Sarah [04:31]

• Delegation Cascade:
  Delegation is a cascade—when the CEO takes on more, she pushes work down, and everyone must do the same, ensuring capacity is always created.

  “The immediate correct response to being delegated to causing your workload to increase... is to delegate to some of your directs... that's how it works in organizations. We call it the delegation cascade.” — Sarah [14:14]

2. What Not to Delegate

• Don’t Delegate Big Balls: If you give a high-complexity responsibility to a direct, the effort required for them balloons (“small balls become big balls as they move down the org chart”). Delegating your core priorities or new, misunderstood tasks creates chaos and resentment.

  "Can you imagine delegating one of your big balls to your drex? It gets larger as it goes down. It's going to crush them." — Mike [17:19]

• Don’t Split Big Tasks: Trying to chop a significant responsibility into pieces for several directs only creates more work for you in terms of coordination and rarely works in practice.

• Don’t Delegate What You Don’t Understand: You need to at least be able to provide direction on a new, unfamiliar responsibility before you delegate it.

  "If you don't know how to do it, how are you going to help your direct understand it?" — Sarah [20:20]

3. Delegate Small Balls to Create Capacity

• The Right Approach:
  The effective solution is to delegate several smaller tasks (“small balls”) to make space for new, major responsibilities. Best to assign each to different directs—easier for them and increases receptiveness to delegation over time.

  “Five small balls to five different directs.” — Sarah [22:22]

• “Delegate to the Floor”:
  When it comes to the individual contributor with no one to delegate to, the only solution is to stop doing less valuable work (“delegate to the floor”—eliminate obsolete, low-impact activities).

  "The individual contributor doesn't have people... They just stop doing something." — Sarah [23:35]

  Memorable Story:
  Mike shares a tale about axing a monthly report that no one read, liberating capacity to focus on value-adding work.

  "I had four or five people who did nothing but produce this report... nobody read it ... So guess what I did. We stopped doing it." — Mike [25:01]

---

The Manager Tools Delegation Model

(Practical "How-To" Steps)

1. State Your Desire for Help [27:53]

• Simply start:

  "I'd like your help on something." — Sarah [28:01]

  • Use their name to increase willingness.
  • Avoid language like "Can you do me a favor?" (it's not a personal favor, it's work).

2. Tell Them Why You're Asking Them [29:42]

• Explain your reasoning—e.g., “You’re one of the best meeting managers on the team.”

  "It's us making a statement about why we've chosen them." — Sarah [30:05]

  • Shows thoughtfulness, links to their interests or development.

  "People love that. One of the reasons people don't love to be delegated things... it just feels like their manager is delegating because work needs doing... not a compelling reason." — Sarah [30:25]

3. Ask for Specific Acceptance [31:43]

• Phrase an explicit, actionable ask:

  "Would you please take responsibility for the monthly project meeting?" — Sarah [32:01]

  • Ask before giving full details; data shows 81% of people say yes at this stage.
  • Early objections reveal real concerns, which you can address up front.

  "If they don't say yes, they're likely to say something like, 'Well, I could, but I'm worried about my workload...' When we ask the question, we get some insight into what their objection is." — Sarah [32:24]

4. Describe the Task/Project in Detail [35:41]

• Break down the work, timeline, and expectations—but only after acceptance.
  • Emphasize: There will be a quality dip at first, but that’s acceptable.

  “Your direct doesn't have to do it as well as you're doing it now. They only have to do it as well as you did it the first time you did it yourself.” — Sarah [37:05]

5. Go Over Deadline and Quality Standards [37:02]

• Specify due dates and measurable criteria.

6. Nail Down Reporting Standards [37:50]

• Make it clear how and when they should report progress (e.g., weekly updates in your 1:1).

  "If it hasn't been reported on in our world, it hasn't been done." — Mike [38:02]

7. Ask for Skill or Resource Needs [39:26]

• Finish by asking if they need anything to succeed.
  • "What do you need from me?"
  • Not a “reverse delegation” but supports their success and reveals any final blockers.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Why Delegation Matters:

  "Delegation, it's a managerial behavior that is absolutely core to organizational growth and innovation." — Mike [39:32]

• On Letting Go of Work:

  "We can't have it both ways. Wanting to grow by having our boss trust us and then not granting that same trustworthiness to our own directs." — Mike [39:32]

• On Executive Advancement:

  "Effective delegation is the single biggest behavioral difference between managers and effective executives. If you harbor any desire to gain more responsibility, you have to be willing to share what you're working on now with your directs." — Sarah [39:56]

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:54] – The Juggling Koan: Delegation and organizational capacity
• [13:34] – The ‘Delegation Cascade’ explained
• [17:19] – Why delegating big tasks doesn’t work
• [23:35] – “Delegate to the floor” and Mike’s green-bar paper anecdote
• [27:53] – The 7-Step Manager Tools Delegation Model introduction
• [28:01] – Step 1: State your desire for help
• [29:42] – Step 2: Tell them why you’re asking
• [31:43] – Step 3: Ask for acceptance
• [35:41] – Step 4: Describe the task/project
• [37:02] – Steps 5-7: Deadline, reporting, and support
• [39:32] – The big takeaway on trust and leadership growth

---

Final Thoughts

The updated Manager Tools Delegation Model puts practical, persuasive communication at the heart of delegation. Managers are urged to delegate smaller tasks thoughtfully, ensure clarity and reporting, and recognize that letting go is both necessary for their own growth and core to the organization’s expansion. The episode closes with a reminder: advancing as a manager depends fundamentally on your ability to delegate.

---

Recommended for:
Managers seeking specific, workable steps for becoming more effective and building stronger, results-oriented teams—without drowning in endless “theory.”

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to Manager Tools. This is Sarah.

[B]

This is Mike.

[A]

Today's podcast is the Delegation Model.

[B]

This cast answers these questions. How can I delegate some of my responsibilities to my directs? What do I say when I'm delegating something? And why is delegation so important for managers and organizations?

[A]

If you want answers to these questions and more, keep listening.

[B]

Here we go.

[A]

Create an organization where the folks on your team want to work with their managers, because all of the managers in your organization know the process and disciplined routine of relationships and communications with their directs. Create an organization where results and retention matter and are measured. Create an organization where managerial acumen and delivery contribute positively to the health and welfare of your organization. Create an organization with less difficulty sourcing new talent and lower degrees of turnover because professionals are vying to work for your organization. For more details about our effective manager training so you can create this kind of organization, reach out to Maggie by emailing us at customerserviceanager-tools.com all right, Mike.

[B]

Hey, Sarah.

[A]

Hi. How are you?

[B]

I'm doing great. It's a pleasure to be recording this with you. And today we're going to talk about something I find really interesting, exciting, because there probably isn't a Manji book on the face of the earth that doesn't talk about the importance of delegation.

[A]

You bet.

[B]

And the sad thing is that very seldom does the author get into any type of detail at all about how to do delegation.

[A]

How to do that thing.

[B]

Right. And of course, that's Manager Tools, folks. The how to. Right. So today we're going to talk about the how to. How to determine what and to whom to delegate and specifically what steps to take when delegating to an individual. So there you go. Good stuff. And we have a long outline. I don't think this is be a terribly long cast, but no, it's a lengthy outline.

[A]

Not lengthy cast, particularly lots of points.

[B]

And not a encyclopedia for each one of the points. So the outline is. We're going to talk why delegation is the solution, the Manager Tools delegation model, which consists of some steps, and we'll walk through the steps. State your desire for help, tell them why you're asking them, ask for specific acceptance, and then going describing the task project in detail, going over deadline and quality standards, nailing down reporting standards, and asking for skill or resource needs. Pretty straightforward.

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

Okay, so why is delegation the solution, Sarah?

[A]

Well, before we explain how delegation is the solution to growing the organization, we need to start with a small thought experiment. Now, some of you that have been listening for some time may be familiar with the juggling koan. Now, folks, if you're unfamiliar with the juggling koan, there is a total podcast on the juggling koan. Go ahead, find it, listen to it. The juggling koan essentially explains why delegation is part of the fabric of organizational growth. There are management theorists who believe that a lack of delegation is the single biggest internal roadblock to organizational growth. Now, some of those other culprits that are blamed most often are bureaucracy and lack of innovation, but that's how important delegation is. It's seen as fundamental to the core of the organization itself.

[B]

And it's true. These are very, very smart management theorists here, and they've nailed it. Delegation is like. You can get by without delegation. Maybe as a manager, maybe become an executive. You don't delegate, you are dead.

[A]

Oh, yeah, we do this at conferences everywhere. Right, Mike? And the way I think about the lack of delegation is I can assume safely, I can assume everyone listening to this podcast right now has got enough work to do to keep them busy for all of their working hours.

[B]

And by God, if you don't, don't admit it.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Don't tell us.

[A]

Don't admit it. Please don't tell us. Now, I would go so far as to say everyone listening to this podcast might make a pretty solid argument that they have more work than they can do in the working hours they've got. And what happens is organizational growth. Customers want new things, and more work is always given. If we don't delegate some of the work we have, that already overextended workday we have. To your point, when you go from manager to executive becomes an effort in working more hours, which is a problem.

[B]

Which is a problem because time is a limited resource. Right. And you cannot change it, no matter how smart you are.

[A]

Exactly. And family first. And all of the other things that we talk about, if work continues to be added, which, folks, to be clear, it does. And you can't find a way of ensuring that the work stays at a manageable level for the number of hours you have to do said work, you're going to have a problem. And that's where delegation ends.

[B]

And many of you do. And many of you are suffering that right now. And folks, this is the answer. So we're going to go through this analogy, if you will, here in a second. Stay with us. It will all make sense. And hopefully at the end of this thing, you will be convinced that you must do this. If we're doing our job, that is.

[A]

That's exactly it. So the juggling folks at home imagine a box that holds only 20 balls. And the balls within this box are of two different sizes. Now, of these 20 balls, there are five large balls and 15 small balls. The box itself represents your work week, the total of hours you have in a week. Let's call it 40. Just to make the math easy in this simplified model.

[B]

Yeah. Although we know most of you probably spend 50, but just stick with us, the total hours probably doesn't really matter. You'll see. Just stick with 40 for. With us.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. So these balls fill up the box because you spend time on all 20 balls every week, and we already established you're fully busy. The balls are two different sizes, and the sizes represent the amount of time you spend on the balls. And now, roughly again, to make this easy, because it's a thought experiment and you're hearing us do it in only an auditory fashion, we want to make it simple. The large balls each take five hours a week, and the small balls each take one hour a week. So we'll do the math. Five times five is 25 hours plus 15 hours for one hour per week, balls, which comes to a total of 40 hours. And perhaps most importantly, we grant that you have accurately assessed the relative importance of all of the balls and therefore are spending the appropriate and necessary amount of time on all of them. What that means is those five large balls are the most important things you do for your company.

[B]

We're also going to assume that your box is full. We already talked about it earlier. Right? You have a full workweek, you're fully employed, you're totally engaged, you're spending the entire 40 hours. So that's represented by the box. Having no more room for any more balls. It helps you visualize it was think all the balls are a grayish blue color. Come to different colors later.

[A]

So every week you're having to manage, manage. In this case being work on the 20 balls you've got. But last week, the CEO just signed a new $8 million account for your growing company. Now, the CEO doesn't have enough time to do everything she used to do and support this new high end client. So she delegates part of her previous responsibilities to one of her directs, whom is your boss.

[B]

Well, okay, so we're gonna assume here that your boss's box was probably already full, right? Just like yours and the CEOs and everyone else is in the organization. Okay, so that means that your boss has just given you a new big ball. Right? So now you have got 21 balls. The newest one being orange. This new ball you're being handed is orange. The rest are, we're gonna say gray, blue. A manager tools ball. If you look at our logo, right, and this ball is a big ball. So you now have six big balls and 15 small ones. Uh oh, uh oh.

[A]

We have a problem. We already established your box was full right before this new ball got added to it. And before we start finding a problem, let's establish the fact that this is a problem. We're going to give you some natural constraints. That is, for the purposes of our analogy, you cannot work more hours. Again, family first. You can't just add more hours to the day because who suffers? The people at home. Additionally, a constraint, the size of the box is the absolute maximum your spouse and your physical body will allow it to be. Yes, you could potentially, periodically, if needed, work longer hours for short stints, but that still won't give you enough time to be effective at these new 21 balls on a consistent basis.

[B]

Okay, but wait, wait. I'm going to work smarter.

[A]

Sarah, don't work harder, work smarter.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Folks, over time, we can all get smarter about our work and we can do more over time. So in this analogy, it would mean that your balls over, over time are shrinking in size. Okay, again, over time. But that happens gradually, not overnight. Right? It happens gradually. You get smarter, you get more experience, you know, you're not smarter immediately. So that isn't the solution to this juggling Cohen. Right? You can't instantly get smart at everything else, saving yourself the time to be able to do the work required for this new orange ball too.

[A]

Exactly. And Mike, I think to myself, folks might also be thinking automation again, though, folks, automation doesn't happen overnight. Automation requires time. I mean, I work with the constraints of a tech team over here all the time, and they can't just automate a bunch of stuff for me overnight. It's got to be scheduled and it's got to happen over the course of time. So again, automation is not an option in an effort to overcome this new ball.

[B]

Now, unless you're in the habit of telling your boss no all the time, that's not a solution either. Right? So if you're looking for a solution, you just can't say, oh, hey boss, I'm full up, got no more capacity. No, I'm not going to do it. Mark will often say this is a historical IT solution. Right? Because prior to more agile and DevOps software development, do those things create more capacity and more flexibility about how they get Work done. But it used to be many, many years ago, IMT managers had a rigid mathematical construct. When presented with more work, they said, oh, I have 10 guys. They can program 100 lines per hour. You're currently producing 8,000 slides a day. And since they don't have any more capacity, can't add another project that makes our workload any more than 8,000 lines a day. Clearly that doesn't work. So that's not. So that's not a solution. No, is not a solution either. This is getting rough, man. This is tough.

[A]

I know, right? I mean, there's almost nothing we can do. Or is there? Exactly. Okay, so folks, the reason that for a long time, I'm going back to Mike's previous example with IT managers. The reason for a long time that CIOs generally didn't become CEOs was because they saw these resources, number of hours as finite and didn't work out a way to make more things happen given those constraints. That is, you can't make someone responsible for the organization when they can't help the organization grow. And seeing ours as finite creates a situation where the organization by definition can't grow. We need to be able to think outside that box.

[B]

Yeah. Now, the solution to this thought experiment, it's already been revealed. Right? We'll give you a hint. The CEO, upon getting a new responsibility, the new $8 million client important to this growing business, delegated one of her prior responsibilities to her direct. Your boss. Your boss, responding to this new increased workload because his box had gotten over full on account of his boss's delegation to him, delegated one of his responsibilities to you. So think hard. What might be the answer here?

[A]

Right. The immediate correct response to being delegated to causing your workload to increase beyond your standard available work hours, is to delegate to some of your directs. That's what works. That's how it works in organizations. We call it the delegation cascade. It's a standard known managerial behavioral response to innovation and change in the organization. It's really an organic way of keeping the organization focused on or working on the right tasks for the organization.

[B]

Right. Okay, so now let's go one step further. Let's go back to our thought experiment. If you imagine the diagram again, you have three choices to get your workload back to stasis. You can delegate one of the big gray balls, delegate that new big orange ball, or delegate one or more of the small balls. So let's go through the options here. Let's do it in order since look at the, the first two, by the way. Delegate one of the big gray balls. Delegate the big orange ball. Bad ideas, right?

[A]

Bad idea.

[B]

Third one, Right. Now, the last one is, right. Delegate one or more of the small balls. But let's walk through that.

[A]

Okay, so the first one, then delegate a big gray ball. Now, at first glance, this seems like a reasonable answer. If you're gonna have to delegate something, and we've told you that you are gonna have to delegate something. So that's a known. Why not delegate a single item that is kind of essentially the same size as the item you just received? Less hassle, right?

[B]

I mean, less math.

[A]

There you go. For me, less math. It's awesome, right?

[B]

No multiplication involved.

[A]

Exactly. But there's one problem with it. Let's imagine that your directs have a box just like yours, and their time is restricted by their spouse and their family. So they are also already having 20 balls that they're juggling. Now, in order to show you what happens in delegation, we ask a question. What does it look like when you delegate one of your small balls to one of your directs? What happens when you delegate one of your small balls to your direct is it becomes a big ball for them because of your abilities, your experience, and sometimes your role power and their lack of those abilities relative to yours. In any case, what it means is that what you could do in an hour or so a week will take them at least initially, much longer. Sometimes we estimate it to be a five times increase. So it takes you one hour a week. It takes them five hours a week. Small balls delegated become big balls.

[B]

And this principle is why delegating that big ball is such a problem. Can you imagine delegating one of your big balls to your drex? It gets larger as it goes down. It's like five times five. It's going to crush them. That's the problem.

[A]

It's the size of the planet Earth. That's how big it is.

[B]

It's going to crush them. Right. So the balls get bigger as they move down the organization. And you don't want to be giving your directs your big balls. They'll just be overwhelmed, right?

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

And you know the simplified math, that if you delegate one of your big responsibilities to your direct, you spending five hours a week on it, it will take them 25 hours a week, like we said. Crushing.

[A]

Crushing, exactly. And so you might think, I mean, again, thinking about that ball, which is the equivalent of the ball you just received, you might think to yourself, well, then why don't I just Take that big gray ball and split it up among five directs. That might be a possibility, but, folks, it isn't. It really isn't a possibility. We tested it. Splitting a big ball amongst multiple directs is generally not a good plan. In essence, if a ball was easily splittable, it probably already would have been split up into multiple small balls. If it's one big item, it's probably because it's very difficult to tangle it apart. And now delegating that one large ball to multiple people means managing the multiple people's work and kind of coordinating them to come together to achieve one result. And that just makes your life harder. That is, you'd think you'd save all this time, but really the time saved is replaced by the time spent managing the collaboration and the coordination and thus alleviating any decrease in work at all.

[B]

Yeah, you know, the great thing is that in this colon here, there's. There's even a worse solution, which is delegating the big orange ball. If you can imagine. If you can imagine something worse than crushing directs.

[A]

Yeah, exactly.

[B]

And that's delegating the big orange ball. Right. We already know that delegating a big ball is a bad idea, but delegating the big orange ball is even worse.

[A]

Mm.

[B]

And why bad?

[A]

It's even more bad, folks. It's not because your boss is keeping an eye on it, but that is also true. Your boss is keeping an eye on it. So you probably want to get it done. Right. And it's not inherently because it's new, though. That is also a part of it. It's because you don't know how to do it yet. If you don't know how to do it, how are you going to help your direct understand it? How are you going to know if they're following the right path or doing it the right way or taking the right approach? You need to understand the project before you can delegate the project.

[B]

Yeah. It's not to say that you have to know everything or have done it yourself before you can delegate anything. You don't. But you do need to understand it well enough to be able to provide direction. Because this ball is new and needs to be attended to now. You need to keep it.

[A]

Yeah. Folks, we have a podcast called Never Step out of the Middle. Right. And that's essentially what delegating something that came immediately from your boss causes. If my direct needs any help, they have any questions, any inquiries, and again, they can't ask me because I don't know the answer. Who do they have to Go to to get those answers. My boss. And now I'm creating this situation where my direct out of need has to skip me because of a situation I've created. So, yeah, say don't do that.

[B]

Not good for anybody involved. Okay, so we have one final choice, and since all the others are bad, this must be the right one, and that's to delegate one or more to make the math work. So if you got a big ball, it's worth five to you. You need to delegate five small balls, right? Five times one equals five. So think about the diagram again. Five small balls are equal to size. One big ball. So enough time for you to do the work that's required to make enough room for that one big orange ball that your boss gave you, you need to delegate five of your small balls.

[A]

Mm, exactly. And folks, the best solution would be to delegate each of those five balls to a different direct. Though it may be harder for you to manage in the short term, that is having five people to liaise with essentially instead of one. It will certainly be easier on your directs. And if your directs find being delegated to easy the first time, they'll be more willing to be delegated to in the future. So five small balls to five different directs.

[B]

You present conferences all the time. What kind of pushback do you get on this?

[A]

Anything in terms of pushback in. In our conferences, when we're presenting the principle of delegation and organizational growth, oftentimes, Mike, yes, to your point, they interrupt us because they see what they think is a flaw in our reasoning. That is, the CEO comes in with this new $8 million client and as a result delegates one of his small balls to the vp, which becomes big at the handoff. The. The VP delegates one of their small balls, which becomes big to the director. The director delegates one of their small balls to the manager, who takes on the new big ball. And the manager delegates a small ball to the individual contributor. But now we ran out of people. The individual contributor now has 21 balls, and the individual contributor has no one reporting to them. So how does this increase organizational capacity? And now the way we can save the most time in our guidance is just tell you an easy answer. And the answer is delegate to the floor. The individual contributor doesn't have people.

[B]

Yeah, they just stop doing something. Oh, my God. Oh, God. Can't do that, folks. This is how organizations grow. This is how organizations focus on the right things. I'll tell you a quick story, sir. Sarah, I've probably told you before, I was a IT director at One point, way back in my career, and we went through this exact exercise. This. So just imagine this ball coming down, big orange ball. So I had to go find capacity. So in my office, those of you don't know what green bar paper is that used to come out of computers. You're younger than me. So this green, these reports, and they went all over the organization. I had an entire organization of. Well, entire organization. I had four or five people who did nothing but produce this report. This is what they did. This is their living. And I saw this report, and it was in my office because I was supposed to be reading it. I read it. I couldn't figure out why this pertained to me at all. So I started asking questions. I went around the entire organization, went to the CFO and went all over the place. This report that I had four or five people doing nothing but reporting was produced every. Was it once a month? Once a week. I can't remember whether it's month or week. Regardless, nobody read it.

[A]

Nobody.

[B]

Nobody.

[A]

No.

[B]

Yeah. So guess what I did. We stopped doing it.

[A]

Stopped doing it.

[B]

Now, did I fire those five people? No. I shifted them on to things that were more important. And by the way, if you asked those people whether what they were doing was important, of course they would have said yes.

[A]

Of course they would say yes.

[B]

So anyways, this is what smart managers and executives do.

[A]

And I mean, when folks push back at the conference, they're like, we can't possibly do that. I say to them, okay, does anybody in this room go to a meeting they find such little value from that while they're in the meeting, they do their email. And then the next thing I say is, okay, if you have one and you're a manager or director, even, you're in our conference, you got to assume your directs, at least have one, probably two or three meetings they go to that they get no value from, and.

[B]

They deliver no value.

[A]

And they deliver no value. Exactly. Do you create a report that you're pretty sure no one's reading? Because if you've got one, your directs have many more than that. And the buck has to stop somewhere. And it's at the individual contributor level, because by definition, they're doing the least valuable work. The least valuable report, for example, that an individual contributor is creating is the least valuable report by definition. That's why they delegate to the floor.

[B]

Yeah, and there's more here. We got other podcasts. You have to understand this, Cohong, because once you do lights come on, then the question really is, okay, how Do I do it? This is where it'll be a little bit different because we're actually going to tell you exactly what to do. And that's called the Managed Tools delegation model.

[C]

If you're in the D.C. area. Good news. So are we this August, and we're hosting two events focused on management and communication. Our podcasts are great, but if you have questions about how your specific challenges are going to play out or. Or how to move the needle even further, in person is better. We promise to answer your questions in person. If you come to one of our events, we'll be in D.C. august 6th and 7th with our EMC and ECC in person. Sign up at manager-tools.com training.

[A]

Okay, so now we know the why of delegation. Established. We now need to know the how of delegation. So once we've decided to delegate to do a direct, the actual delegation is relatively easy. Now, the model itself, Manager Tools delegation model, is a persuasive model written in a bottom line, upfront way. And the initial conversation will take very little time. And hopefully you're doing Manager Tools one on ones. And that conversation can take place in a one on one or at another convenient time. The model itself has seven steps and only the first four are critical.

[B]

Okay, what's step one, sir?

[A]

Step one. The first thing we do is state our desire for help. So, for example.

[B]

That sounds complicated.

[A]

I'd like your help on something. It's pretty easy.

[B]

That's it?

[A]

Mm, yeah, that's it. Mike, I'd like your help on something. We do have some data to suggest, Mike, that if you use a person's first name, it increases the likelihood they will say yes. Yeah, right.

[B]

You think, you think that, like, you, you gotta go into the reasons why and what, what they need to know before accepting it. Like, don't. Don't do that. If your boss asked you and came to you and said, hey, Mike, I need your help, what are you gonna say? You're gonna say yes, right?

[A]

Yeah, like 90% of the people are gonna be like, yeah, of course, of course.

[B]

Right? So, yeah, your directs are just like that. They want to help you. They want to be of use to you. So, yeah, just say, hey, Brian, I like your help.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. And now notice, folks, it's, I'd like your help on something. Now, we didn't say, brian, can you do me a favor? And we didn't say favor because this isn't a personal thing, it's a work thing. I also didn't say, brian, I need your help on Something because it's not a need, it's a want. So, Brian, I'd like your help. And we're asking nicely. We're not getting personal about it. And note, we haven't actually asked a question yet. I mean, we're just stating our desire. That doesn't mean they might not respond by saying, yeah, sure, what's up? They might say, yeah, sure, what's up? But they're not saying, yes, I will do something. They're simply acknowledging the fact that you're a human being saying words in their direction.

[B]

Yeah, and people like to be asked. They like that. So, okay, so now next step is tell them why you're asking them.

[A]

So it could be anything. It could be you're one of the best meeting managers on the team. You'd really enjoy running this meeting. You mentioned multiple times to me that you're looking for more opportunities to get better at leading meetings. It's us making a statement about why we've chosen them.

[B]

Right. We just didn't pluck this assignment out of thin air. Right. We want Brian to know that we thought about it carefully and he's the right person for the job. And that's one. It shows that you're thinking about what Brian wants or needs to develop, for example, and people like that.

[A]

Yeah, dude, people love that. I mean, I would go so far as to say one of the reasons people don't love to be delegated things from their manager, maybe potentially, is it just feels like their manager is delegating because this work needs doing and you're a human being, which is a good reason. It's not a compelling reason. It's not beneficial to the individual. And sometimes I find managers don't like delegating because they feel like delegation is a punishment because they haven't thought through why this person, why this item, and identified something that would be truly useful, beneficial, valuable to that individual. When you find that, it changes delegation.

[B]

Yeah. And for brevity's sake, we're not going to it. You can find other guidance where you walk through in detail about how. What are the kind of questions you might ask about?

[A]

Yeah, we do. We have a question. What to delegate, what to go, how to determine.

[B]

Yeah, so there's, there's a lot more there. But just suffice to say, go find that guidance. We are just not randomly picking somebody. We're putting some thought into it. We can tell them why we selected them because we've thought through it. Okay. But we're not going to go into a lot More detail now here.

[A]

Okay, so the next step, ask for specific acceptance. So what I've said so far is, Brian, I'd like your help. You're one of the best meeting managers on the team. Next we ask for acceptance by saying, would you please take responsibility for the monthly project meeting.

[B]

Yeah. Now a lot of people are surprised here because you didn't give Brian all the details before you asked for acceptance. Right, we asked for acceptance. Then we go into the details and our data shows that 81% of directs will say yes at this point without even had heard much if any of the details.

[A]

Yeah, like just automatic yes. Automatic yes. And folks, there's a specific reason that we ask the question itself before we describe it in detail. Because if they don't say yes, they're likely to say something like, well, I could, but I'm worried about my workload or well, yeah, but I don't know how to do that thing or I don't think I can because of the monthly end run and that's required next week and I'm kind of slammed. And when we ask the question, we get some insight into what their objection is. Is.

[B]

And if you're a salesperson, you're loving this. Right? Because. Right. Salespeople love objections because the objections give them a clue as to what the concerns are of the person they're talking to, what they need, what their needs, what their wants, what their desires are, their concerns. So you might say, well, if I can sort out your workload, will you be able to do this work? Or if I can teach you how, will you do it? Or if I can solve the monthly end run problem, will you agree? And the person will either give you more concerns, in which case just repeat this step or say yes and then you can move on.

[A]

Exactly. And folks, asking the question early on does a few things. One, you know what their objection is. Also though, another important benefit of having the direct agree before they hear the detail is, is once they've agreed, they're so much more likely to listen to you describing the task in detail and potentially taking notes while you describe it. Because I just said yes, I better pay attention because now he's going to tell me how to do it. I got to know how to do it, this thing that I just agreed to.

[B]

That's right. And they're listening very differently because my experience is if you haven't asked this question, they've said yes before you go the details. If they haven't done that, they're still evaluating what you're Saying not because they're learning, wanting to learn how to do it, they're trying to find out the reasons why they should not do it or find more objections. Right, right. This case, we've taken that all off the table. They've said, yes, they're going to do it, and now they're going to listen to the project or the task in detail.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, one of the things that I sometimes say to groups, Mike, when we're doing this in conferences is, folks, we all have at least one thing that we do that when described in grave detail, it sounds dull and horrible. It's that moment where you describe something and you're like, actually, it's kind of fun. You know what it is? It's actually my favorite part of my job. I know it doesn't sound fun, but it's really, really fun. It's that when you describe anything you do in grave detail, it sounds dull. And then you have to do the backpedaling of making it sound good. Whereas when you're describing what you do by first asking a question, they're not listening to all of the things about it that sound less than ideal. They're listening to, how am I going to do this thing? They're listening to the important bits.

[B]

And so when you get into detail kind of sounds like, okay, here's what's involved. And you just describe what, what your director will be doing. If they had concerns, you're going to focus on those concerns and why they shouldn't be concerned. It's like, dude, this is going to take you less than 30 minutes per month. Or I have work instructions so you'll know exactly what to do. I have a checklist. Just follow the checklist. Or we'll talk to Carl about taking over the monthly end run. It'll be great for him to expand his role there. And I think you'll enjoy this new work.

[A]

Exactly. And ultimately we go over the deadline and quality standards as well. So it might sound like. And you're going to report on the 15th of each month. And this is the template. Now note, when you're covering the work, don't forget to define the quality standards. Remember, the whole point of delegation is that you free up time so that you can do that next big ball that has come down to you from your boss. And if you spend your time improving your direct work because you didn't explain the quality standard enough, you've totally wasted your opportunity. Now, that's not to say that there won't be a quality dip while your Direct gets used to the new work, there almost certainly will be a person who's never done something before, almost never does it as well as someone who's had years worth of practice like you have.

[B]

Yeah, right when you started doing it, you had a quality dip, okay?

[A]

Exactly, exactly. But folks, the detriment to the organization will be short term. And that short term quality dip is nothing to the organization compared to the long term gain and the expansion of the ability for the team and organization to get more work done. And remember, your direct doesn't have to do it as well as you're doing it now. They only have to do it as well as you did it the first time you did it yourself. And we know that that drop is obviously acceptable because you didn't get fired for how poorly you did it when you first did it yourself. Otherwise you wouldn't still be in the role. They forgave you. They'll forgive your directs.

[B]

And the next nail down reporting standards, right? So they could say something like this, I want weekly updates in our 03 with any concerns. I mean it could be as simple as that. Whenever we allocate work, we also need to include reporting standards. If it hasn't been reported on in our world, it hasn't been done. Like you don't want to be in a position where you have to chase after your directs and find out whether they've completed the work that you've allocated to them. You're once again wasting the time that you've gained by delegating in the first place. And let me tell you folks, when I learned this the hard way, when I first started managing projects, I oh my God, I wish manage tools existed back then. Really, I really could have used it. So include reporting back to you in the work.

[A]

Okay, that's exactly it makes your job so much easier and ultimately ask for scale or resource needs at the very end. So after you're done delegating. So what do you need from me? If you've briefed properly, your direct probably let's fight, let's face it, won't need anything and you'll have time to get to the project that's been on the back burner for months or do the next big thing, that big orange ball that your boss gave to you. But if they do need something that isn't a reverse delegation, we'd suggest you do your very best to provide it. This last question can kind of be a a catch all for those times when you don't really properly delegate. They'll ask the question. So you got a little bit of extra insurance?

[B]

Yeah, that's. That's kind of it, right? It's.

[A]

That's it.

[B]

It's pretty simple, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So summarize real quickly. So delegation, it's a manageable behavior that is absolutely core to organizational growth and innovation. Too many of us don't do it because we think we have to do all our own work or we don't trust our directs to do it. But we can't have it both ways. Wanting to grow by having our boss trust us and then not granting that same trustworthiness to our own directs.

[A]

Exactly. And one final thought about delegation. Effective delegation is the single biggest behavioral difference between managers and effective executives. If you harbor any desire to gain more responsibility, you have to be willing to share what you're working on now with your directs. If you don't learn delegation as a manager, you're never going to make it as an executive.

[B]

Sarah, thank you. That was awesome. I enjoyed that.

[A]

That was really good. That was great. Thanks, Mike. That's all for this week, folks. Thank you so much for joining us. Join us again next week for a new topic.

[B]

So long.

[A]

Sa.