How to delegate properly

In a way that inspires your team, not annoys them

Hey team,

This week is finally starting to slow down in terms of calls etc, and I’m getting some much needed time working ON the business. I can not wait to show you what we’re building for 2025 (Don’t miss the P.S. for a lil sneak preview).

But for now, we’re in your FINAL step of the 4-Step Ultimate manager reset challenge, where we are levelling up together, ready for 2025.

For a long time, we’ve viewed delegation as nothing more than handing over tasks - But when applied properly it’s a skill that can:

• TRANSFORM your team’s morale

• EMPOWER your team to love the work they do

• Have them view you as an INSPIRING leader

Over the years I’ve honed in my delegation process, and the overview of the process looks like this (we’re going deep into point 3 today):

1. We can not expect what we can not inspect - We need a written down process doc before handing over to communicate clear expectations, even if it’s 3 bullet points, it needs to be written

2. Ensure you’re picking the right person - Play to people’s strengths

3. Delegate with purpose - Communicate the purpose and the outcome (not the how)

Delegation with purpose

“Our passions are ignited when we set out to advance a cause greater than ourselves” - Simon Sinek

Sounds all fancy the way Simon says it, but in simple terms, when we are connecting the work we’re doing day to day, to a bigger purpose than ourselves, that is when we feel inspired and empowered.

Meaning… To empower your team with your task delegation, you need to be constantly connecting your team’s work to a bigger vision and/or mission. 

How does it look in practice?

The next time you hand a task over to a team member, I want you to first start with the purpose.

Let’s break it down:

Say you’re a manager in a tech company, and you need a member of your team to do a task, you ask:

“Please can you run a report from me of our clients, with columns of their average monthly revenue, and where they’re located in the world. I need it by Friday.”

You’ll most likely get exactly that. 

A report, with a list of clients, with the columns you’ve asked for above. And (probably) by Friday.

A normal task, inciting normal action, happening every day across the working world.

Your team member will feel indifferent, and most likely go home and tell their partner about the mundane tasks they’ve had to do at work. 

But let’s use some simple psychology to flip this entire scenario on it’s head, and turn the delegation into something much more empowering.

This is what we say:

“In order to start building cutting-edge tech that actually impacts people’s life, we need to figure out where our highest-paying clients are located, so we can run setup some research groups in those areas.
I know you’re great with data and attention to detail, so please can you run a report for me showing where our biggest clients are in the world.”

Now you have:

1. Started with the purpose (connected it to the company vision, something bigger than themselves)

2. Outlined the strengths of this particular team member.

3. Given your team members the outcome of what they’re trying to achieve, but you’ve not directly explained how they should achieve it.  

Applying the above principles to your task delegation does a few different things:

• Inspires them, by connecting their task to a bigger purpose

• Hands over autonomy in the way they deliver the task, allowing them to use their own expertise to ensure you’re given the most effective information possible

• Shows them the outcome, meaning if there’s a better method of achieving the outcome (in this example, there may be a report that already exists), they can decide the best way to get the job done. 

• Shines a light on one of their strengths and let’s them know why thye’ve been picked to do the task, bringing a sense of pride and ownership to the task.

Mid-task, they may find more information that might be really helpful to your search. Something they would never have thought to do had you just asked them the first way.

Do you see how we can start to turn some of the oldest parts of management (handing tasks to our team), into being sparks of daily inspiration and motivation?

Let’s run through a couple more examples:

You can start practicing this week, every time you ask a member of your team to complete a task, pull a report, give you an update on a project, think, how can I connect it to a bigger purpose? 

Use this purpose prompt each day for 30 days to hold yourself accountable:

Peace,

H

P.P.S 2025 is currently planned to look like… 👀

1. Our transformational course Fresh Start is open for enrollment for a very short period of time, get yourself on the waitlist so you don’t miss out.

2. 👥

3. 📚

4. 🎙 (This one is still a little undecided)

Oh, and we got a new YouTube video live yesterday, you might like it…