Lend help
While you have inspired your team by delegating, you also have to make sure your managers are following the same practice.
For MacKechnie, it’s easy to identify a le
ader who is great at delegating.
“You can see it,” he says. “One of the best ways to tell is (to find out) how many people has that individual developed in the company.”
If you see a manager who has people below him or her rising up the ranks, you know you have someone who is strong at following guidelines and delegating.
“A great leader develops lots of great people,” he says.
However, you may also have a manager who is slow to delegate, but fantastic at his or her position. The manager works hard, he or she is dependable, and when something needs to get done, you know he or she will come through in the clutch. But the one problem is that the manager doesn’t share your philosophy that delegation is more effective than doing everything yourself.
You have to go beyond simply telling someone to delegate.
“We are going to be coaching them and working with them to improve their skills,” MacKechnie says. “If they’ve got all the other qualities, but just lack that a bit, we are going to work very hard with them.”
Don’t be so quick to dismiss someone because he or she isn’t buying in to the procedures or delegating. You spent a lot of time and resources to hire or promote a manager, so don’t be so quick to dismiss that person if you see some flaws you didn’t see before.
“It’s expensive for us to hire people and train them,” he says. “So, we want them to succeed. We want our management team to do everything we can to help mentor them, and foster and explain to them why they are doing these things. They’re not doing them just blindly, but, ‘Here’s why we want you to follow this procedure.’”
That’s why you can’t just tell someone to be better at delegation and hope for the best. You are going to have to step in and help him or her realize the benefits of delegation.
“It’s got to be done with one-on-one coaching,” he says. “You really have to spend some time and care about these people,” he says. “Good leaders don’t want to lose people. They don’t want to lose talent. But at some point, a decision has to be made.”
You can give that person a couple of years to adjust, but if he or she still hasn’t learned to delegate, you need to step in and bring in someone to whom he or she will have to delegate. You involve the manager in the selection of the person, but you have to let the manager know this person is being hired to help with managerial duties.
If that doesn’t work and you’ve exhausted every avenue to help the manager delegate, then you will have to part ways.
“We can’t retain them if they are unable to delegate,” he says. “By delegate, I would say that is the ability to get great results through other people. If they’re not able to do it, they shouldn’t be in a leadership position.”
It might not be the result that you wanted, but you did everything you could to help the person. If the person isn’t promoting the team environment by delegating, then you won’t get an environment where people are motivated and will feel free to come to you with ideas. Because, as a manager and a leader, you are only as good as what your team produces.
“It’s not managing what people do in a company,” he says. “It’s managing what they do together.”
How to reach: Amscot Financial Inc., (813) 637-6100 or www.amscotfinancial.com
