How do I get a team member to delegate and focus?

This article first appeared June 18, 2009.

I have a team member who spends too much time on low value added tasks that should be delegated to the appropriate support functions.

The result is that he doesn’t spend time on the high value tasks for which he is responsible. This keeps him very busy, often stressed. He feels that he is doing the right thing, but he is not doing his job.

How do I get this team member to focus on his priorities and to delegate?

This is a common situation faced by many leaders and managers in both the corporate and SME market. This is a performance management issue and the first place I would point you to look at is:

• Check in with your team member’s understanding of his role. What are his responsibilities and how does this match to his understanding of his responsibilities?
• Get a clear understanding of how he feels about his role. Is he confident performing this role? What are the skills gaps that he needs training/support in? What are his development areas? His challenges? What are his fears/concerns?
• Spend some time gaining a clear understanding of how he is spending his time and specifically on what tasks.
• What support does he feel he needs?
• Is time management an issue?
• You may wish to explore the possibility that he might be subconsciously equating ‘high value’ with ‘high risk’. Is he focusing on the ‘low value’ tasks to avoid risk? By focusing on the ‘low value’ tasks he may have the perception that he is still doing his job.
• Enquire if there is something outside work that is distracting him right now? Be prepared to support him.
  In knowing your team member, what other questions do you need to ask so that he feels met, understood and comfortable to have a meaningful, and possibly, difficult conversation with you?

The aim of the questions above is to understand where he is coming from and why he is avoiding his responsibilities without making him wrong and pushing him into a defensive position.

Now we move on to the next phase:

• Clearly communicate the responsibilities of the role and the expectations and outcomes that need to be met. Together create a development plan with timescales for achieving this.
• Have a conversation about the tasks currently being performed and why or why not they are not meeting the targets, goals or role functions.
• If the person does perceive ‘high value’ as ‘high risk’, a performance conversation about this would be valuable. Focus the discussion on how he perceives ‘high value’, teasing out what risks and rewards there are in order to shift him away from the perception of risk towards the perception of reward as a way to motivate him. Then talk about ‘high value’ tasks for the next time period and hold him accountable. If he still doesn’t do them, then a discussion about what is really going on will be needed. If you have not got him to open up, you may decide to remove any low value tasks as best you can (delegate for him), set the high value tasks and hold him accountable – with the consequence clearly communicated if he can’t do the tasks or can’t help you to help him.
• If the person is also responsible for leading others, have a discussion around delegation and the impact on his team of not delegating tasks. If he is not leading others then who does he delegate the tasks that he should not be performing?
• Set objectives and goals as part of your performance management conversation.
• Ensure that you clearly communicate to him what he is doing by not delegating (eg wasting time, not empowering his own team by not delegating work and ownership to the team, impacting his own progression, development and potentially his future in the role).
• Be clear about the outcomes of not stepping up and performing his role.
• Establish if he wants to progress and his level of commitment to meeting his responsibilities, goals and objectives.
• If the answer above is positive take on a coaching and mentoring role to support him to develop, arrange regular times to meet/check in on progress etc. Initially this may require more of your time, in most cases the investment is worth the effort. If the answer to the above is negative, then it may be time to re-evaluate his role and position in the company.

Some questions for you to think about:

• Check in with yourself, your leadership style? Are you modelling what you are expecting of your team member?
• If the answer is no, what changes do you need to make?
• How long has this been an issue? If it has been an issue for a while, what have you been avoiding?
• Are you willing to invest in developing this person?
• Do you have a HR department? If yes, they will be a resource for you.
• Who else can you talk to? Do you have a mentor who can advise you?
• Whilst going through this process it may be a good time to also examine your development areas?

Some resources to support leadership and delegation:

• How to Delegate by Robert Heller.
• If You Want It Done Right, You Don’t Have to Do It Yourself! The Power of Effective Delegation by Donna M Genett.
• Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion by Richard E Boyatzis and Annie McKee.

Some resources to support time management and efficiency:

• The Personal Efficiency Program by Kerry Gleeson.
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey.

Pollyanna Lenkic is the founder of Perspectives Coaching, an Australian based coaching and training company. In 1990 she co-founded a specialist IT recruitment consultancy in London, which grew to employ 18 people and turnover £11 million ($27 million). In this blog Pollyanna answers questions from our readers on issues they are experiencing leading or being part of a team.  She offers insights on teams and team dynamics. For support and information on team days run by Perspectives Coaching see here. Her previous Blog for SmartCompany, 2nd Time Around was about the mistakes she made and the lessons she learned building a business the first time round and how to do it better second time round.

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