What's your biggest challenge when it comes to delegating?

Delegation is one of those things that many of the leaders I work with know they should be doing more of, but they struggle with mental blocks that keep them from delegating work effectively.

Before I jump in, I'll put out an important caveat:

If you're not delegating because everyone already has too much on their plates, then we need to talk about how you can work together to figure out what your department or library can stop doing. That's a different conversation that's also incredibly important to have!

When that's not the main obstacle, here are three things I hear most often when I ask people what's keeping them from delegating more.

I don't want to dump my work onto someone else

You were hired or promoted into this role to do a job, and you're going to do it, even if it completely wears you out. You're getting paid more than others, so you expect to carry more weight than others.

That's the model many of us have seen and internalized, so we run ourselves ragged to try to live up to that example.

In the “do more with less” culture that's been pervasive in libraries for far too long, that meant that individual contributors get promoted into management with the expectation that they just do more. Continue all of the work you were doing as an individual contributor AND learn how to effectively lead a team!

And honestly, sometimes it's really hard to let go of the work that you love – whether that's teaching, liaison work, story times, cataloging, preservation work, or any other specialized work that drew you into this field – to focus more of your energy on administrative meetings and paperwork.

But the fundamental nature of your job changed when you shifted into a leadership role.

I fully support finding a balance that lets you continue loving your work. But your individual contributions are no longer your highest priority.

Your job now is to develop your team. Your job is to support your team members in growing into / as outstanding individual contributors, and to provide opportunities for those who want to grow into leadership roles.

Delegation isn't about foisting your work off onto others. It's about giving other people opportunities to learn new skills and grow as professionals.

Of course, that means using your discretion and matching the tasks to each team member's interests. This should be part of a larger conversation about each team member's long term goals and interests, and what will help them achieve those goals.

But you may be surprised at what tasks you think of as boring chores that someone on your staff might actually really enjoy doing!

If you thought of delegation as development instead of as offloading your own work, what would you feel better about delegating?

It's faster for me to just do it myself

This time.

It's faster today to just do it yourself today.

Let's say we're talking about a 10 minute task that only has to be done once a week – something so small that it feels like a low priority to delegate. Let's say it would take you a whole hour to teach someone the ins and outs of getting it done correctly every week.

Every week, that hour feels like way more time than it's worth, when it would only take you 10 minutes to do it yourself.

But that one hour investment pays off in just 6 weeks.

And that's just looking at the time spent on the task. Delegating that task also clears it from your mental load of things you have to remember to get done.

If you scale out to the bigger picture, to look at delegating as an investment that pays dividends over time, even if it costs more time today, how would that shift your approach?

Insert some version of perfectionism here

(Perfectionism shows up in so many ways that there's no one line I could come up with to use there to fully encapsulate it!)

We care deeply about the library mission, so of course we want the work to be done well. But there's often a gap between work that's done well enough to meet the objective and completely flawless, perfect work. I learned this lesson from crafting. I see all of the flaws in that pair of earrings that I made, but I also get a ton of compliments every time I wear them. The same thing goes for the throw blanket I crocheted or the bookshelves I built. I see the flaws, but others see functional pieces that look a better than a lot of the stuff you could buy at Ikea!

The general advice in workload management spaces is that if someone can do the job at least 80% as well as you can, then you should delegate that work to them.

I know how hard it is to accept that. Even as I'm writing this, I'm fighting back arguments for when the work might actually need to be done to that 100% standard.

But my experience in library work has matched my experience in crafting. So many times I wrapped up an instruction session or outreach program feeling like I failed to meet even that 80% standard myself, because I was stretched too thin. And then the students and faculty reacted as if I had exceeded all expectations!

I'm guessing that you've had this experience, too.

So if you focused on the objectives your communities need, without worrying about perfection, what else could you delegate?

Working through those mental blocks

I encourage you to take some time to reflect on how you can reframe the mental blocks that have been keeping you from delegating and sharing more decision making power in your unit.

And if you're finding that you're still struggling to let go of these narratives, coaching can help you find your path forward. When you focus on delegation as a way of developing your team members, that helps to build trust, which leads to a healthier team.

And when you delegate the work that others can do, you can focus more time and energy on the work that only you are in a position to do. Which means you'll be better at your job.

When you're ready, let's talk about whether we'd be a good fit to work together.