90 Seconds to Be Inspired

Everyone loved the delegation rainbow in my first newsletter, so in this edition of Time for Joy, I’m going deeper into the how of delegation. 

But first, some real world stories that inspired me to write this.

Meet Eloise, a co-founder and brilliant engineer who had solely managed the R&D team at her company for 10 years. When she finally hired her first VP of Engineering, she told me how she was going to fully delegate hiring to this new VP. She said, “I have to accept that the first few hires likely won’t be great, or maybe just wouldn’t be my top choices, but delegating hiring is so critical to setting this new hire up for success, it’s worth a few mistakes at the beginning.”

Eloise was playing the long game - short term pain for long term gain. This is one of the many “why’s” of delegation - scaling requires it. Full stop.

Meet Sandeep, another Founder/CEO I work with. He hired a President to take over day-to-day operations and eventually manage half the leadership team. His goal was to stay in the lane of Product (his zone of genius) and give up a lot of the job that he wasn’t naturally good at or energized by. But he knew he needed time with the new President to teach, to observe, and to build trust. He hired me to be their accountability coach - help them build a plan where delegation leads to greater autonomy, with concrete milestones to show their progress along the way. This was a 6-month long delegation process and one of the best ways I’ve seen a leadership transition in action!

Great delegation takes intention, planning, and a common end goal. So let’s talk about how to do this well.

90 Seconds to Learn a Little

Here is my delegation process - and it works for all types, small tasks to entire roles!

PLAN

STEP 1: AUDIT

This step is all about auditing your to-do list, your priorities for the quarter ahead, and your team’s growth goals to decide what to delegate. Ask yourself these questions:

• Is this task or project developing or stretching me?

• Is this task or project something that could develop or stretch someone on my team?

• Is there a component of a task or project that I could give away to either free up my time or stretch or challenge someone else?

Your answers to these questions provide you with ample opportunities for what to delegate.

Now, you get to decide who to delegate to.

STEP 2: SELECTION

This tool is called the management continuum. Consider who you’d like to delegate to and ask yourself, where does the person I want to delegate to fall on this continuum? How am I managing them?

The goal, with every member of our teams is to be in the center, a “thought partner”. It’s the “not too much, not too little, just right”, management style. But it takes time to get to that place with each person. 

So imagine your person is in the micro-manager stage. Ask yourself, why? Usually it’s because they are new/still learning, or maybe they have had a bit of underperformance and need greater oversight, or perhaps it’s YOU. You can’t let go and you’re not allowing them enough space to breathe and take risks. It’s important to know why so you can make your plan accordingly.

Then, you can bring the delegation rainbow back in to decide the level of autonomy/oversight required!

DISCUSS

Now that you know what to delegate and who to delegate to, with the correct amount of oversight, you can meet with the person and co-create your plan. The next three steps are the delegation conversation.

STEP 3: ASK

First, describe what you want to delegate, why they are the right person (bonus points, connect it to what motivates them!), and ask what their initial reaction is to this. This helps you connect the task to their motivations and also get a true read on their confidence and/or excitement about the work ahead. If they are enthused, fantastic. Move into “handover”. If there is hesitation or concern, spend time asking questions to get to the root of the resistance.

STEP 4: HANDOVER 

Explain the project/task in detail. What needs to be done, what resources are available to them, what deadlines exist, and what the ultimate goal/success metrics are. Keep in mind, the further to the right they are on the delegation rainbow, the less detailed this step needs to be.

STEP 5: PLAYBACK

 Most delegations fail between this conversation and the first step the person takes! To avoid this, we need to check for alignment before ending this meeting. Instead of asking a closed-ended question like “do you have any questions?”, have them playback what they’ve heard. For example:

• What will success look like on this project and how do you plan on getting started?

• What will be the end result here that you’ll feel great about and how can I support you?

This ensures you’re on the same page!

MONITOR

How you monitor the progress is critical. And it should be relative to where they are on the delegation rainbow. If someone is very new to something, you should proactively plan checkpoints and deliverables. If someone is further to the right, ask them to tell you how to monitor progress. Remember, you are still accountable for their work, so the monitoring process needs to ensure you reach a successful outcome.

One of the coolest realizations I’ve had in delegating this way, is how successful we both feel going into it, working through it, and coming out of it. Try it out, and let me know how it goes!

Remember, delegation is critical to you and your team’s ability to grow and scale. Stop avoiding it and follow this process to get it right. 

90 Seconds to Connect

Does anyone else feel like all the meetings, all the conferences, all the work of a year falls between Labor Day and Thanksgiving???!!! I’ve had more in person powerful connections in these last two months than the rest of 2024 combined.

I’m finally home this week for the first time in 2 months and need to download all the learnings and use this time to be intentional. I’m planning for the most important things to close out the year and plan for 2025.

Priorities determine goals. Goals determine actions. Actions determine outcomes, and outcomes are what make a life.

Here are a few priorities I’ve established this year and some ways you may be able to apply them!

• In-Person Connection: One priority I’m setting for 2025 is to be in person in NYC for the majority of September and October. Summertime I’d rather work from home and be present for quality time with my kids. This is balance, though. To prioritize family for a few months requires being away from them for 2 months of the year!

• Abundance Mentality: I have found so much value in collaborating with other entrepreneurs this year. I’m spending time with them now to decide how we will support each other's businesses and do meaningful work together in 2025. This is an abundance mentality, there is plenty of work to go around. Share the wealth, share the work. We are better together!

• Conferences: Speaking of conferences, I mapped out all the conferences/events of 2025 and asked myself: which do I want to be at as a participant and which would I like to speak at? Why? How will this help me achieve my goals? Asking these questions helps me be intentional about where to spend time, money and energy.

• Follow the Energy: What type of work gave me energy this year? What type of work helped me achieve results? These answers help you reverse engineer what needs to be true for next year.

Thank you all for being part of this journey and for continuing to help me connect, learn and be inspired!

Connect with me in person!

I’m in Charleston the majority of November, but doing a quick Dallas trip the week of November 18th and back in NYC the week of December 2nd if anyone wants to meet up before year end 🙂

Help expand my inner circle!

My company, ScaleJOY, has delivered quality experiences to hundreds of clients and has grown solely by word of mouth referrals. Spread the joy by sharing this newsletter, or connect them directly to me for leadership development, coaching, or offsite facilitation. Thank you for your continued support!