Blog Post

A Delegating Mindset

  • by Simon Carter
  • 08 Oct, 2020

At some point in their career all leaders have learnt that effective delegation can make themselves, their teams and their organisation more successful. 

As you progress through your leadership career, mastering the art of delegation early is strategic investment. It can be defining in the transition from positions of direct to indirect leadership, and the underlying principles come into their own as you form or join your first management boards or leadership teams where you collectively still hold the responsibility but physically cannot be in every bit of detail.  

Effective delegation depends on your ability to describe outcomes and results, allowing those closest to the job to bring their own experience and initiative to delivery. That does not mean you have completely abrogated methods, rather that you know how to set boundaries and values within which others are free to manoeuvre. You think in terms of intent, you create clarity and alignment – essential organisational leadership and board outputs.  

Delegation practises your ability to create the conditions for success, taking into account two key dimensions of what it takes to enable and help others to achieve: sharing and signposting all you know that could be relevant to the task, and helping individuals and teams develop the skills needed for you to be able to let them get on with things. In time, you automatically recognise and link interdependencies and see the ongoing strategic balance between generating outputs and nurturing people.  

And, crucially, delegating consolidates your ability to step back. There is no question that you need to retain oversight and appropriate control, but the emphasis is on knowing your indicators that things are heading the right way, your thresholds for intervention or correction, and being able to carve through a fog of information to spot them. In so doing, you grow the skills to help others bring structure and focus to their reporting, your capacity to look across wider inputs, and your appreciation of what questions to ask. This is the experience that equips you to go on to create and run effective governance frameworks that inform and hold to account.  

And finally, good delegation is dependent on regular communication; inputting new information promptly if the situation changes, of course, but also providing encouragement and acknowledgement where due. People appreciate feedback and connection, and organisations can only operate to their potential when it exists. It is something accomplished leaders never forget and work hard to preserve as they inevitably find themselves more remote from their teams in more senior roles and on boards.

Delegating is transformational. In the first instance, as the pivot from simply shedding tasks to spreading effort smartly and creating a sum greater than the parts. Mastery then comes largely through apprenticeship, but it instils an approach and confidence that are transferrable to every level of leadership.

Proficiency frees time for leaders to think about the things only they can rightly decide, and to focus on how they enable and guide their organisation through strategic complexity and change. Delegation shepherds them towards the realisation that is their higher purpose. It embeds a way of thinking and communicating that keeps everyone on the same page, that galvanises endeavour, and aids succession. It fosters a culture of empowerment, development, and trust.  

So, developing that proficiency is investment; the principles of effective delegation elevate into something much wider reaching, setting the conditions for high performing organisations and making the associated mindset a potentially decisive attribute for any senior leadership team or board.


The author, Simon Carter, is a Consultant with Independent Directors and Trustees Limited and an experienced director and leader who is proficient in working with multi-functioning organisations  

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