When it comes to delegation, I think my #1 mistake wasn’t not trusting the person; rather, it was trusting the person too much and not putting in any work on my end.
Let’s say you’re asking your marketing manager to come up with a new paid campaign plan. This might require a significant budget increase, so it’s a P1 project. What you can do is:
- Fully trust the marketing manager. She has a lot more experience than you in this particular field.
- Meanwhile, also do the research and think about the plan yourself in the background. This doesn’t mean you’re not trusting the marketing manager; of course you’re trusting her.
- Don’t share your work; if you do, you’re doing the work, not the team.
This has a few advantages:
1/ If she brings a much better plan than yours, that’s great; you can quietly set aside your work.
2/ If she brings the same ideas that you thought about, it may not be the worst, but you can challenge her to think more creatively.
3/ If you honestly think your plan is better than hers, you can provide very specific input.
CEOs should not and cannot do all the work, but they must have a pulse on important areas of the company, and this often requires CEOs putting in the work themselves in the background.