Hold back the "How."

Thoughts on empowering your team

Hold back the “How.”

Leadership is essentially a human endeavor. The humans on your team need a lot of things just to survive (to feel safe and to feel respected, for example). In order to thrive, your team members need to feel empowered, valued, and heard. One way to support your team members in feeling empowered is by being intentional in how you frame your guidance to them when delegating. I’d invite you to focus on what you need them to accomplish and why, and deliberately hold back on the how. 

Here’s why. When you share how you want something done, or even how you would do it, you are either directly or indirectly closing the door on your team member’s unique perspective and stifling their opportunity to own the task. In its harshest interpretation, it could feel like you don’t trust them to figure it out or that you don’t value them as anything more than an extension of you. As a leader, you want the exact opposite - you want your team members wrapping their arms around the task, thinking creatively about how to solve the problem at hand, and energetically driving progress while feeling your support and trust in them to get it done.

This does not mean that you should give all team members complete autonomy in how they tackle what you have asked of them. It’s important that you as the leader have an opportunity to inform, influence, support, and coordinate the efforts of your team. So how can you balance the need to support initiative and empowerment, while still guiding how things get done on your team? There isn’t a single solution here, and it’s important to note that a culture of mutual trust, clear communication, and shared understanding are vital, but I’ll share a few thoughts below on how to strive for this balance when delegating.

Prepare to share your intent. Share your Intent. Request a share back. Align on the plan.

1. Prepare to share your intent. What is the next task or opportunity you get to delegate to a team member? Take a few minutes to think about how you want to share your guidance, what language you want to use to focus specifically on what you need them to do and why it needs to happen. How will you remind yourself to hold back on how you would do it/want it done? Think about how you hope they feel during and after your conversation - what language or behaviors could support that outcome? 

2. Share your intent. Clearly lay out what needs to be done and why it needs to happen, along with whatever clarity about timelines, resources, and other critical context you can provide. Make it a conversation, rather than a didactic information dump. Articulate your desire for shared success. As you think about this person’s experience (or lack thereof) what kind of support or cadence of check ins do you think they might benefit from? What do you expect or need in terms of updates? Perhaps it would be helpful to brainstorm potential pitfalls or obstacles together?

3. Request a share back. Invite them to take what you have discussed (your intent and critical context), think about it, and come back to you to share the outline of their plan, along with any questions and resource requests. This dedicated time and invitation to “share back” gives them space to think through the project and own the plan. If they lead a team of their own, they could even use some of this time to collaborate with their own team on what their approach will be. Get clear on what level of detail you expect for the share back, and set a time and date for the share back to help keep up momentum. 

4. Align on the plan. Now that your team member has had some time to digest the information you have shared and come up with the basics of their plan, have a conversation in which they share what they have in mind, questions, and resource requests. For you as a leader, this conversation serves a few different purposes. First, you have an opportunity to refine or correct any issues you see with their initial plan before they move full steam ahead. Second, it’s a developmental and trust reinforcing opportunity - you get to learn about your team member’s thought process, approach, and planning abilities and you get to co-create with them how they will execute, rather than handling them the how. Once you feel aligned on the plan and clear on any questions or resource requests, your team member can go full steam ahead and you have clarity and confidence in where they are headed.

When your team members are feeling empowered, valued, and heard they are bringing their creativity, lived experience, and unique perspective to their work - making your entire team’s work better in the process. They are also more likely to feel more satisfied and loyal to you and to the company. This is one approach to delegating tasks in a way that ideally feels empowering and energizing for your team and that gives you the necessary insight, control, and accountability to lead your team with confidence. I invite you to make it your own - bring your operating context, authentic leadership style, as well as the unique dynamics and gorgeous diversity of your team into account when bringing it to life in your work as a leader.

Onward,

Emily

About this newsletter: A Human Endeavor is a newsletter that I write about leadership - it is imperfect. For me, it is an exercise in reflection, clarification, sharing, learning, growing, and being of service to others.

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