3 Keys to Effective Delegation

Every leader has considered the relationship between authority and responsibility. Likely because they were given responsibility without authority or vice versa and have seen what can happen.

Whenever a team goes through GiANT Worldwide’s 5 Voices for Teams training, we discuss the relationship between these two aspects of a person’s role in an organization.

When both are balanced well, we call that empowerment. When authority is present without responsibility, we call that self-preservation. And when responsibility is present without authority, we call that disempowerment

Let’s look at each of these states a little more closely.

Self-Preservation

Self-preservation usually results when someone is given authority without being held responsible for their actions.

Self-preservation usually comes from the person wielding authority using that authority to ensure their own interests are taken care of, without considering the interests of others on the team. When that happens, the team begins to crumble under the weight of the leader’s constant micromanaging.

The leader is harmed, as well. Because they’re chasing security or the success of a pet project, they can’t ever get enough. They constantly turn to their authority to get people to do what they want.

The leader rarely learns that people don’t put up with that kind of thing, even though they’ll experience people leaving their teams left and right.

Disempowerment

Disempowerment is the opposite problem. Imagine you’ve been given a job to do. Imagine also that it’s been made clear to you that you will be held responsible for that job.

But then imagine further that, every time you want to make a decision to ensure the job gets done well, you’re required to ask your supervisor in writing. You’re given no freedom to make decisions for yourself.

This is disheartening and disempowering. You know that your team leader will hold you responsible for the job but then feel like they might as well just be doing the job themselves since they’re having to make all of the decisions for it.

This is an extremely frustrating state to be in and can’t last long for most people.

Empowerment

The state of things to aim for is empowerment. This is when authority and responsibility are well-balanced in a person’s role.

A team member or leader is likely to perform best when they know they will be held responsible for the outcome but also that they have the authority to ensure the job is done the way they’d like it done.

Ensuring that your team members feel empowered in their roles can increase their effectiveness exponentially.

Responsibility serves to keep them grounded and aware that there is a standard they need to meet (or exceed). Authority gives them the resources and confidence to make the decisions that need to be made to meet that standard.

Avoiding the pitfalls of self-preservation and disempowerment can be tricky. A graph we often use in our training shows a see-saw, with one end being self-preservation and one end being disempowerment.

Too much authority without enough responsibility and the self-preservation end is weighed down. Too much responsibility without the authority to balance it out and the disempowerment end goes down.

The trick is to keep the see-saw balanced, with the right amount of both authority and responsibility to ensure that your team is as effective as they can be.

This framework is also helpful for team leaders to evaluate their own positions. Are you in a balanced position right now? Do you need more authority or clear responsibility to keep your role balanced?

Sometimes this means you have a candid conversation with your supervisor, and sometimes you just need to make personal adjustments.

Either way, we believe this framework can help us all remember to keep our roles, whether roles we’re assigning to others or roles we’ve been assigned, well-balanced.

A well-balanced position leads to the greatest team effectiveness and is best for the organization as a whole.