Peer to Peer Magazine

LESSONSLEARNED The Art of Delegation: How Not to Be a Micromanager H ello, my name is Craig Bingham. And I’m a recovering micromanager. I spent many years dictating solutions and requiring too much information, leading to a hangover I could never shake. As with most addictions, it was those around me who suffered most. As I’ve come to realize, people cannot love their jobs if they feel invisible. Unfortunately, when you work for a micromanager, it’s difficult to feel a sense of ownership when you’re being given an excess of guidance and direction. But there’s good news: We can change, and it doesn’t even require 12 steps — only five, in fact. Over the course of my career, I have developed a list of five things that help me limit my micromanagement tendencies and become a better leader. I keep this list in a task reminder that pops up once a month and reminds me to review them. You may be thinking: Great, only five things to remember! But I have to warn you, it isn’t that easy. After all, a lot of leaders have gotten where they are because they exhibited the ability to get things done. Getting things done makes for happy attorneys, and having happy attorneys will make you successful in most firms. However, after a while, you learn that getting things done at the expense of people’s autonomy leaves a wake of turmoil and turnover in your team, and turmoil and turnover have a negative impact on your success. This is the leadership conundrum that no one tells you about, and the more people you lead, the more evident it becomes. There are many different definitions of leadership, but in my opinion, it is best defined as finding a balance between accomplishing tasks and empowering people. Though these ideas are not mutually exclusive, they often conflict with each other. Here are five steps to help find that balance and solve this leadership puzzle: 102 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer • Set Clear Goals and Explain the “Why” Setting clear goals is pretty obvious. People need to know what they are trying to achieve before they can be successful. However, too many managers don’t take the time to explain why a task needs to be accomplished. Explaining how achieving a goal benefits the firm gives the person doing it a framework for decision-making and connects their sense of accomplishment to the firm as a whole instead of just the department. • Set Reasonable Reporting Intervals Setting clear goals and deadlines and then asking to be updated once a day is a sure way to ruin a person’s sense of empowerment. The more updates you get, the more likely you are to offer “helpful” suggestions. However, offering suggestions is the quickest way to take away someone’s ownership of a project or task. Instead, ask for milestone meetings and make them a means for people to brag about what they’ve accomplished, rather than making them feel like they are on the witness stand. • Don’t Dictate Solutions How often does someone ask you to do something and then tell you how to do it? This is particularly present in leaders with strong technical knowledge. After all, it’s difficult to set a goal without laying out the technical roadmap when you’re sure you’re the smartest person in the room, right? While you may in fact know the best way to do something, meticulously instructing the person responsible for the task will only diminish their commitment to accomplishing it. • Don’t Be a Wimp If you’re going to give people a lot of space when accomplishing tasks, then they must consistently meet your expectations. I view this “hands-off” approach as an agreement between you and your staff. You agree to give them space, they

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