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OPINION
Delegation is crucial for growth, helping managers shift from doing the work themselves to empowering others effectively. The subtle art of cloning yourself
A s AEC professionals develop in their career, there inevitably comes a crucial pivot point where the job transitions from “doing the work yourself” to “doing through others.” Moving up the ranks into a management role (whether project, personnel, or firm related) is a common path, but most of us enter this period with little training on how to handle the role effectively. We also don’t talk enough about why this can be such a struggle.
Morgan Stinson
Consider this: You’ve been a high performer for years as a young professional, putting out excellent work on schedule and on budget. As a result, you’re rewarded with a promotion to a management role, and your success now has nothing to do with you producing awesome work. You’re expected to help others produce awesome work, so the thing that made you special no longer makes you special. Talk about an identity crisis! This conflict of self-worth underlies many of the struggles that new managers have with delegation but make no mistake: delegation is crucial to you and your firm’s future success. The most common reasons I hear against delegation include: ■ I can do it faster myself. Your years of practice have turned you into a finely honed machine. If you can do a task in one hour that would take
someone else three hours, why on earth would you hand that off? ■ I know it will be correct if I do it. In addition to the extra time someone else would take, you’ll have to spend time checking their work (maybe more than once!). ■ I don’t want to over-burden my team. Work- life balance has (rightfully) taken on greater importance in recent years, and any good manager wants to make sure they aren’t driving their team too hard. All those reasons lead managers to just do the work themselves. In the short-term this can feel like the right answer. After all, it’ll be faster, more accurate, cost less, and keep others from getting burned out.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 30, 2024, ISSUE 1555
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