Why Leaders Who Master Delegation Earn 33% More Revenue

In today’s fast-paced business environment, many leaders struggle with a rapidly expanding workload. But the solution to addressing this burgeoning workload isn’t working longer hours, but learning to master the art of delegation.

What the Art of Delegation Actually Means

Of course, when we look at the examples of various successful leaders, we see a clear understanding that the art of delegation isn’t just about lightening your workload, or off-handing the work you don’t want to do.

Rather, it’s about finding opportunities where you can help your employees expand and develop their competencies, build greater levels of trust, and strengthening the organization’s capacity to adapt, learn, and evolve.

The art of delegation is knowing how to delegate responsibilities to your employees that create opportunities to do work that matters. Work that they can see a direct impact on the organization’s goals, and which fuels the collective sense of purpose behind why we do what we do.

The Business Case for Delegation

In more concrete terms, research from Gallup has shown that leaders who excel at the art of delegation generate 33% more revenue as compared to leaders who lack this critical skill.

The good news, though, is that there are a number of actions any leader can take to help them master the art of delegation and empower their team to succeed.

3 Steps to Master the Art of Delegation

First, focus on delegating work to employees that balances their current abilities with opportunities to stretch and grow. Make sure it also connects to what gives your employee a sense of meaning and value in what they do.

Second, provide your employee with both clear directions and expectations of how they should approach this new responsibility. Make sure you define for them what a successful outcome looks like so they know where to focus their efforts.

And the final step which can feel like the hardest is to understand that once you’ve assigned your employee this new responsibility, you need to demonstrate trust in their ability to succeed by giving them the autonomy to tackle the work in the manner that best works for them.

Remember, the goal here is to both alleviate your own workload while also providing opportunities for your employees to take on challenges that motivate them to stretch and grow.

They need to see you believe in them and trust them to do what’s needed, which is why you should only offer them support and not constant monitoring of their progress.

Questions to Ask Before You Delegate

Now if you’re not sure where to begin, reflect on this set of questions I share in some of my workshops on empowering organizational growth and success:

What one task could you delegate this week that would challenge and develop one of your employees? And how can you support them to succeed in this new effort?

Delegation Is How Leaders Multiply Their Impact

As leaders our job is not to do the work, but to make sure the work gets done. And that means building teams who are capable of accomplishing far more than we could alone. 

Through the art of delegation, you not only promote that kind of teamwork, but you invest in your employees’ potential to help drive your organization’s future growth and success.