What do you do if you're an IT Strategy professional struggling with delegation anxiety?

Delegation is an art because you need to understand what tasks can be delegated and when so that the person/team is in the best place to be successful. In a sense, you need to set up that person /team to be successful hence this could be one anxiety in itself because the goal remains the same. You need to have intermittent touchpoints to assess and give "just enough" feedback and let the team act upon these to course correct as required. Be brave enough to delegate as there could be a "fear of loss of control" that can be a trigger for anxiety. Work on such situations acknowledging that its a journey to you as well as the delegatee and do whatever it takes to ensure its a successful one.

It's crucial to address the following points: Identify the root cause: Understand why you're anxious about delegating. Address your concerns. Assigning tasks based on team members' strengths can boost success, reduce your own anxiety, and set your team up for triumph. Building trust and fostering open communication within your team is critical. Doing so can significantly improve the effectiveness of your delegation and your team's overall productivity. Follow up and provide support: Regularly check in with team members to offer help and ensure tasks are on track. Celebrate successes: Acknowledge your team's achievements to boost morale. These tips can help you overcome delegation anxiety and empower your team to excel.

Understanding the root cause of your anxiety is the first step toward overcoming it. Are you worried about losing control? Do you fear that tasks won't be completed to your standard? Or is it about trusting others with important tasks? Take a moment to reflect on these questions. Recognizing the source of your anxiety is crucial in developing strategies to address it.

1. Before Delegation, IT Strategist need to understand what needs to be done and how it should be done. 2. Key Challenge IT Strategist encounters, they don't understand ground reality and by virtue they become strategist. 3. Their attitude sounds like Boss, and they expect people to work like a machine. 4. Their delegation skills are like throwing responsibility and accountability to people. 5. They take credit for outcome people produce and distribute Debits to people who actually do work. 6. IT Strategist need to understand people mind set, skills, etc else they will face challenges.

Effective delegation is a skill that can be learned over time. I suffered from this for a good while, but at the end of the day everyone is there to do a job well. Delegation is less about palming off workload, and more about up-skilling, experience and efficiency. Delegating to the right person or team, will ensure an efficient approach to getting a task done quickly. Supporting that team with clear objectives and KPIs will ensure its done to the best quality. Getting others involved with an interest in elements of the project will ensure up-skilling and progress. Delegation is a balance of enabling and encouraging your team.

Clarity is key when delegating tasks. Ensure that you're setting clear, concise, and attainable goals for your team members. This involves defining the task, outlining the expected outcomes, setting deadlines, and providing the necessary resources. Clear goals not only guide your team but also provide you with peace of mind, knowing that you've laid out a clear path to success.

Make sure they understand clearly what is being delegated. Ask them to tell you what they understood. Fix some misundertood parts, when found, and ask them again. Register and track these goals with your and theirs agreement. Verify and support them, on their way to achieve it.

Having trust on the team members to whom you are delegating work is the key. Having intermediate touchpoints while giving appropriate guidance is enough. When the trust of the senior is evident, the confidence level of the team shoots up and they will try to perform the maximum.

Effective communication is the cornerstone of trust-building. Start by openly addressing any concerns you may have about delegation with your team. Clearly articulate your expectations while also expressing your confidence in their abilities. Transparency lays the groundwork for trust and ensures everyone is aligned towards common goals.

Understanding and trusting your team is key to effective delegation, as highlighted here. Jeff Bezos' approach at Amazon demonstrates how investing in knowing your team's capabilities and entrusting them with tasks can lead to remarkable success. This emphasizes the importance of fostering trust within any organization for optimal performance.

Building trust is fundamental. Remember, you've surrounded yourself with talented individuals for a reason. Each team member brings their own set of skills and perspectives to the table. Trusting your team to take on tasks allows them to demonstrate their capabilities and grow. This doesn't mean abandoning oversight; rather, it's about giving your team the space to innovate and problem-solve within the boundaries you've set.

One of the toughest aspects of delegation is letting go of the need to micromanage every detail. This involves accepting that there are multiple ways to achieve a goal and that your way isn't the only way. Letting go allows your team to bring their own creativity and problem-solving skills into play, often leading to innovative solutions you might not have considered.

Ultimately, delegation is about growth—for you and your team. As you delegate more, you free up time to focus on strategic planning and other high-value tasks. Simultaneously, your team members develop new skills and gain confidence in their abilities. This collective growth fosters a dynamic and resilient team, ready to tackle the challenges of the IT world.

In my scheme of things, efficiency improvement is significantly achieved once delegation is judiously done. So for effective delegation, I must know the skills of person to whom I am delegating, secondly his previous record of handling delegated task is of utmost importance. In case the person being delegated to, is short on skills required for delegated task, he should be upskilled since that will be justice to effective delegation else I will have to be equally involved in supervision defeating the very purpose of delegation. Once I have imparted the skills and he is up-to speed I can trust him to complete the delegated task and I can review once to be on same page and thus move on