Why Is Delegating So Hard?

The most common struggle my executive clients have is related to delegating. So many of them don’t delegate enough. Thus, they take on too much work, get overwhelmed and burnt out, and then blame their job or the organization for their unhappiness. Why would highly intelligent, successful people have trouble delegating? Well, it turns out they are human and they run into the same issues the rest of us have.

There are three main reasons that people don’t delegate:

1. they don’t think anyone else can do the job as well as they can
2. they think it will take too long to get someone up to their speed
3. they feel too guilty asking someone else to do more work

All those reasons are understandable and yet by not delegating, leaders are setting up a house of cards that is likely to tumble with them landing on the bottom of that mess. Let’s unpack them one by one.

First, if leaders are the only ones who can do a job well, then they actually aren’t leading very well. Having others who can take over for you is having a smart succession plan that is ultimately a win/win for everyone involved. How can a leader advance or advance others if no one else can do what they are doing? What if a leader gets sick or needs extended time off for personal reasons? They’ve now set others up to fail and for time, money, and aggravation to be put toward work that should have been handled earlier.

Second, yes, it can be time consuming to train someone to take on more projects and work. However, that will be time well spent when those people are up to speed and leaders are able to delegate more quickly and efficiently. Again, the more trained, competent people you have around you, the better everyone performs and the more confident everyone feels.

Delegating is one of the hardest leadership skills to master. But if you aren't delegating, you aren't truly leading. #leadership #delegating #teamwork Click To Tweet

Finally, let’s talk about guilt. Guilt is a common emotion, though often not a very productive one. If guilt is keeping a leader from delegating, that is actually hurting both the leader and their employees. It is keeping employees from developing new skills and growing in their position and it’s actually keeping leaders from the same thing. That guilt is just setting up a doom-loop of over-work, over-burden, and overwhelm.

Releasing that guilt allows leaders to delegate work that would be better done by others. And it frees the leader up to do more strategic work, which is where they will be more beneficial. A lack of delegating also often happens in families with the same results. Ask yourself if the work you are doing is the best use of your time or if it’s wiser to delegate what you are doing so that you can focus on your skill set and your employees (or family members) can focus on theirs. Delegating is a win/win once you get the hang of it.

Love,

Lisa Kaplin Psy. D. PCC