4 Reasons Leaders Resist Delegating
“If you want something done right, do it yourself.”
Have you heard this before? Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Unfortunately, many so-called leaders live by this statement. This is a cop-out for failing to delegate.
The past two days, we kicked off a conversation about delegation. On Monday, we established that many leaders deal with stress, exhaustion, and feelings of inadequacy. Yesterday, we offered delegation as a solution to overcoming these feelings. Today, we’ll continue the conversation by looking at the potential downside of delegation.
Balance is required in order to delegate properly. A leader should not micromanage, or he will fail to empower his team. On the other hand, a leader should not fail to manage, or he will lose respect and ultimately control of his team. When the scales are tipped one way or the other, a leaders efforts to lead through delegation will fail.
I don’t think of myself as a micro-manager, and I don’t believe I under manage most of the time either, but I don’t always get the delegation thing down right. In fact, I am someone who fails to delegate. And I believe I’m not alone. Too many leaders fail, because they fail to delegate. This has to change. Before it will change, we must gain a better understanding of the factors which cause leaders to resist delegating.
Here are the 4 primary reasons leaders don’t delegate which I have learned from my own experience:
4 Reasons Leaders Resist Delegating
- Pride. Many leaders fail to delegate, because they don’t want to give up their authority. They also don’t want to dilute the credit they will get for a job well done. Leaders take pride in their work, and they simply don’t want to put the outcome in the hands of others.
- Selfishness. Leaders are selfish when they don’t want to “waste” the time to delegate. Delegation takes time to request the desired outcome, establish the boundaries and deadlines, and to provide appropriate feedback. Leaders are sometimes too stingy with their time and information.
- Fear. What happens if the outcome doesn’t measure up to expectations? What happens if the outcome is better than expected? Either way, leaders fear they will look bad with a poor outcome or by being out-classed by a team member. They do not want to lose their place in the organization, and this fear can paralyze leaders from delegating appropriately.
- Past experience. Leaders resist delegating because they don’t know how to delegate – they haven’t been trained appropriately – or because they haven’t experienced good delegation from former leaders.