Want It Done Right Journal 3Q 2007

Feature Article • Delegation Dr Daily Dose • Corner Crack-up • WIDR Products & Services • My Virtual Manager^TM

The Delegation Coach

Summer is here and the beautiful weather draws people of all ages outdoors for fun in the sun. Sports abound and as I watch people involved in sports and engage in them myself I think of coaching and what coaches need to know and do to build winning teams.

The field of executive coaching has grown exponentially in the past 15 years. As a professional coach who’s been coaching since before it was called such, I’ve seen a lot of transition in the profession. I don’t know if that gives me a perspective on the future of coaching or not, but what I believe is that while coaching will continue to be outsourced, it is becoming a paramount leadership skill for executives to learn and use with their direct reports. Leaders who learn to be coaches will run their businesses more effectively.

So what do leaders need to know to be effective coaches? What do professional coaches need to teach leaders? Leaders are keen on getting business results, but how do they get results in the form of behavioral changes—performance improvements? And how do coaches get the leaders they coach to extrapolate their ability and focus from business results to “people results” which will also deliver improved business results?

One of the questions I’m asked every time I present or train on my book is, “How do I teach my managers to delegate?” I’m always happy to hear that question because it tells me that these leaders know their role. They understand that their role is to coach and develop others into leaders. Luckily the skill required to coach people is the same skill necessary to get better business results, that is, effective delegation. In other words, leaders can use the process of delegation to coach people in any area of development and specifically, to coach people to delegate which is a great place to start.

Managers don’t delegate for many reasons. The most frequent reasons I’ve encountered are:

§ • They don’t truly understand the job of a manager;

§ • They are motivated by “doing” more than by coaching and developing others;

§ • They don’t know how and as a result have had one too many “delegation disasters;”

§ • They feel guilty about overloading their people;

§ • They don’t trust their people enough to let go;

§ • They are held more accountable for results than for developing their people.

Leaders need to assess which of these are true for the managers they’re coaching and adjust their interventions accordingly.

The manager doesn’t truly understand the job of a manager

Some people want the title and compensation afforded a management position without really wanting to be, or understanding what it means to be, a manager. A thorough review of the position description should reveal that being a manager means getting work done through others. The description should emphasize that the results the manager is held accountable for includes the development of direct reports in addition to achieving business goals. Leaders need to evaluate whether or not the manager being coached can and will recommit to the expectations of achieving business results through direct reports and to developing direct reports to maximize current and potential future contributions to the organization.

The manager is more motivated by “doing” than by coaching and developing others

Most businesses I’ve encountered have the same selection criteria when it comes to the decision of promotions: the best performers get promoted. Unfortunately, the characteristics of the best performers – namely enjoying the satisfaction and recognition they get from “doing” – may be the opposite of the characteristics required to be an effective manager. Managers get things done through others. They foster contributions by others to help them shine. Managers facilitate the job getting done. Facilitate means “to make easy”. Effective managers make work easy; make success easy. So leaders who are trying to teach their managers to delegate need to make sure they have people who want to, and can be, managers rather than doers. Leaders must assess whether or not the performer who’s been promoted to manager is motivated to learn what it takes to be a successful manager and is willing to accept a different kind of limelight—the satisfaction of maximizing the contribution of others.

The manager doesn’t know how to delegate or has had “delegation disasters”

If the reason the manager isn’t delegating is because he doesn’t know how or has had too many delegation disasters, the leader’s job is easy. Delegation skills can be easily learned with a copy of my book and workbook and/or attending training or a presentation on the topic. The key is to hold the manager accountable for learning and practicing the delegation skills. This can be accomplished in several ways: 1) by setting clear performance expectations for the manager to use the newly acquired skills, 2) by ensuring in the leader’s checkpoints and debriefings that the manager is getting results through his or her direct reports and 3) by holding the manager accountable for coaching and developing his people to an “Act” level of authority over time.

The manager feels guilty about overloading people

If the reason the manager isn’t delegating is because she feels guilty about overloading her people, the leader should be coaching the manager on how to achieve optimum levels of productivity by ensuring that work gets done right the first time (versus the 10^th time!). Rework — work being done over because it wasn’t done right the first time— is a key contributor to employee’s feeling stressed, burned out and overworked. The leader coaching this manager should evaluate how effectively she executes steps two and five of the delegation process to ensure that rework is minimized. If productivity levels are high (rework is low), it’s likely the manager needs more staff to complete the required amount of work.

The manager don’t trust enough to let go

If the reason the manager isn’t delegating is because he doesn’t trust his people to get the job done, the leader coaching this manager should evaluate how effectively the manager executes steps one, four and five of the delegation process to ensure that he is 1) being specific in his expectations and asking people to paraphrase, 2) is setting the appropriate level of authority, and 3) is setting checkpoints to increase his confidence that his expectations are being met. I haven’t found a manager yet who hasn’t been able to overcome his “trust issues” with delegation by using the process effectively unless of course, he has someone who simply can’t perform the job. If the person can’t perform the job then other decisions must be made.

The manager is held more accountable for results than for developing people

If the reason the manager isn’t delegating is because she is held more accountable for business results than for developing her people the leader coaching this manager should look in the mirror. The expectations he defines are the ones she will execute. Leaders must emphasize the employee development function of the manager’s job in addition to business results. In other words, the leader needs to ensure the manager is performing her entire job well, not just the portion of delivering business results. In fact, the leader should define his expectations for the manager as getting business results through her people and as the development of her direct reports. The leader should also do a thorough self-assessment to ensure he is fulfilling the requirements of a good coach/leader by:

§ • modeling effective delegation;

§ • providing performance feedback on soft skills as well as hard skills;

§ • holding managers accountable for getting results through others, not just results alone;

§ • providing resources for skill building; and

§ • requiring managers to hold people accountable for expected results.

The more effectively leaders use the delegation process themselves, especially the development elements of the process, the better they will be at creating the future leaders of their business. Leaders must be able to specifically define the soft skill expectations they have for their managers and use the delegation process to review progress and hold managers accountable for their own professional development.

I’ve heard leaders say, “Business would be great if it weren’t for all the people issues!” Many leaders understandably struggle with how to manage so many different personalities. Their training and experience with such matters may be limited and their interests are often more in the “content” of their business. Unfortunately, without understanding how to effectively manage people to get results a business can fail. Like a sports coach, the goal is not to have players just be able to play, the goal is to win games.

Leaders need practical tools to do the job of a coach. Coaches will benefit leaders most by translating their coaching skills to leaders in a practical way. The delegation process helps them do that. A leader doesn’t have the time (or probably the desire) to acquire sophisticated training but they do need to be able to assess their employees quickly and effectively. The delegation process helps them do that. Most leaders don’t have the financial resources to provide coaches for all their managers but they do need to be able to get results in the form of performance improvements from them. The delegation process helps them do that. As a result, leaders can use the same tool – the process of effective delegation – to not only achieve business results but for employee development as well. Hopefully this article has equipped a few more leaders with the tools to become coaches of winning teams and to find the happy middle ground between people and results.

Corner Crack-up

A football coach walked into the locker room before a big game, looked over to his star player and said, "I'm not supposed to let you play since you failed math, but we really need you in there. So, what I have to do is ask you a math question, and if you get it right, you can play."

The player agreed, so the coach looked into his eyes intently and asked, - "Okay, now concentrate hard and tell me the answer to this: What is two plus two?"

The player thought for a moment and then answered, "4?"

"Did you say 4?" the coach exclaimed, excited that he had given the right answer.

Suddenly, all the other players on the team began screaming, "Come on coach, give him another chance!"

Delegation Doctor’s Daily Dose

The Turkey Story

Jim Coiner of the Eagle Institute, a friend and colleague who passed away suddenly last year, used to tell a story to the groups of people he trained. Some form of the story was told to him by Rudy Ruettiger (of the famed movie Rudy). “The Turkey Story” always made an impact so I’ve requested permission from the Institute to paraphrase it for this newsletter.

A farmer was out in his field one day and found an egg. The egg looked different from any normal egg he’d seen in his life. Being fascinated by the egg, he took it to a friend nearby who owned a turkey ranch to see if his turkeys could possibly hatch it. They put the egg in the hen house with the rest of the turkey eggs. Sure enough, a turkey sat on the egg and incubated it.

Finally, the special egg hatched along with all the others. The bird that hatched turned out to be an eagle. But because the eagle hatched with turkeys, and he didn’t have a mirror to see what he looked like, he thought he was a turkey too.

He was a pretty smart turkey. He noticed that as his friends got bigger and fatter, they left and never returned. This happened every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, as he noticed this, he decided he wasn’t going to let himself get big and fat; he was going to stay trim and in shape.

One day, as he was working out, he happened to be looking up in the air. He saw this big beautiful bird flying in the wind. “Mother! Mother! I want to fly like that bird!” She said “Oh, Son, that’s an eagle. That’s what eagles do. You’re a turkey. Turkeys don’t fly.”

The young eagle was content to believe his mother’s word - that he was a turkey just like all the rest of her children.

When he was older, he was out in the turkey yard exercising and stretching his wings, and he started to come off the ground. The turkeys yelled out: “Wait! What are you doing? You can’t do that! You’re just creating dust! Knock it off! You can’t fly!” So he tucked in his wings and acted like the rest of the turkeys. As time went by, the little eagle grew up to be a mature eagle. He never left the turkey ranch and he never flew. He grew old and died believing he was a turkey.

The moral to this story is: If you live with turkeys and listen to turkeys, you allow them to convince you that you’re a turkey. All of us are really eagles, but we may spend much of our time listening to and associating with turkeys. Until we believe in ourselves and develop our own “eagle” talents, until we make our dreams goals, we will be whatever other people tell us we are.

For more information about the Eagle Institute, please visit www.EagleInstitute.net

WIDR

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