🎙️ EP 69 : To delegate or not to delegate. That is NOT the question!

I often hear Leaders ask: “Should I delegate this or not”? I argue in this episode that there is a much more helpful question we can ask ourselves instead: “To what degree should I delegate this?” We are going to look at the delegation spectrum and how all this relates to coaching!

First, what is delegation? It means to ’empowering someone to act for another person’. A delegate is then someone who represents someone else. In that meaning, delegation is about ‘passing down’ work through a hierarchy.

As a comparison, what is coaching? It refers to ‘partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.’
Coaching therefore aims to establish an equal relationship, built on trust and ownership.

Delegation and Coaching complement each other surprisingly well.
To explain how, let’s look at the delegation spectrum:

• No Delegation (you do it)
• You show them how to do it
• They do it with your guidance
• They do it – with frequent check-ins
• Increasing the degree of autonomy
• They do it – with infrequent check-ins
• They tell you when they are done
• Full Delegation (they do it)

How does coaching work in this context? With increasing degrees of delegation, we also increase the level of autonomy that the other person has. These are perfect opportunities for us to ask coach-like questions to help them stay on track and deliver well.

Listen to the episode, to hear me share more detail on how this can work, including some

concrete examples!

Cheers, Maik