5 Delegation Mistakes Every Perfectionist Manager Needs to Avoid
Making delegation mistakes is often a big concern for people struggling with perfectionism. According to the Association of Psychology (APA), perfectionism is ‘the tendency to demand of others or of oneself an extremely high or even flawless level of performance, in excess of what is required by the situation’.
That’s just exhausting, not just for you but for your team too.
As a Mindset and Productivity Coach for perfectionists (and also an APM and PRINCE2 accredited Project Manager), I’ve seen these issues crop up time and time again. So I wrote this article to highlight some of the core mistakes you should avoid when sharing the workload with your team members.
“If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.” – John C. Maxwell
Here’s why you need to change
If you’re a high-achieving perfectionist, you’ve probably found yourself being a bottleneck — a single point of failure — in your company due to your desire to grow, take on more work and your ability to just get things done.
And while climbing up the career ladder is an admirable skill, as you get to more senior levels, being a bottleneck is much more of a damaging and potentially career-ending role where no good comes from it.
I don’t want that for you.
I want you to flourish in your career and empower your colleagues to work with you on big strategic goals.
In fact, a study showed that CEOs with great delegation skills increased company revenue by over 33%, so let that be motivation for you!
Mistake 1: Micromanaging everything
Annoying everyone on your team by micromanaging everything because you truly believe that no one can do it as well as you.
And maybe that is the case but as explained in this 2022 study, “Micromanagement does more harm to employees than good. It limits their creativity and ability to act independently, ultimately reducing productivity and job satisfaction.”
Having a ‘no one can do it better than me’ mindset will create a toxic workplace environment because your co-workers will grow to resent you for not trusting them.
And besides, controlling everything defeats the purpose of delegation.
An Accountemps survey showed that “of those who felt they’d been micromanaged, 68 per cent said it decreased their morale and 55 per cent said it hurt their productivity.”
So instead of seeking to control everything your colleagues do, set clear goals and expectations and then let them handle the details. It’s your job to focus on the outcomes rather than micromanage the process.
Who knows, they might know something that you don’t and surprise you with an innovative method of working.
Mistake 2: Only delegating unimportant tasks
A common mistake is only delegating unimportant boring and monotonous tasks to your team.
When you do that, you don’t allow your colleagues to learn and feel more empowered to help you with the more complicated tasks.
You may actually be contributing to a workplace phenomenon called ‘boreout’. As noted in this BBC article, “boreout happens when we are bored by our work to the point that we feel it is totally meaningless. Our job seems pointless, our tasks devoid of value.”
So while you’re complaining about your workload and the stress of dealing with complicated strategic missions, your team’s soul is dying due to the lack of brain stimulation and they will be looking for another job very soon.
Your inability to delegate meaningful work is destroying the mental health of your team.
One study found “Participants stated that job boredom was caused by the actions of the managers. The executive actions, which confine the area of individual freedom, burn out the individual psychologically and spiritually.”
Did you hear that?
Burning out your team through boredom ‘psychologically AND spiritually’. That’s no easy feat in the workplace.
So, if you want to avoid being a workplace soul destroyer, I recommend you learn how to delegate authority not just tasks.
In a YouTube video, successful multi-millionaire founder, Leila Hormozi said ‘you can’t grow if you always try to control everything yourself. By delegating authority, you create leaders rather than just task doers’.
To delegate authority you must give your team members broader responsibility over a project and allow them to make decisions within pre-defined boundaries.
This way you involve them in the process of working towards company goals.
The work becomes more meaningful and enjoyable (regardless of its complexity) because now your team can see the bigger picture rather than jumping from task to task.
“Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.” – Ronald Reagan
Mistake 3: No clear instructions
Not giving clear instructions causes a myriad of problems down the line.
Both you and your teammates will feel frustrated because the work is not being done properly and no one knows why either side is unhappy.
Over time the team will lose trust in your ability to communicate effectively resulting in lower work satisfaction and higher turnover.
According to a 2019 survey reported by Inc, “80 per cent of U.S. workers felt more stress because of ineffective company communication and 63 per cent have wanted to quit because it interfered with their ability to do their job.”
Poor work is often the result of bad instructions.
If you don’t explain the purpose, process and milestones clearly at the start, you will find yourself with no one else to blame but yourself when team morale drops and everyone leaves.
“Don’t assume others understand what you want just because you do. Express your expectations clearly.” – Stephen Covey
You must set clear expectations and provide instructions when delegating tasks and authority to your team if you want to set yourself up for success.
At the very least, you should describe the task and explain the purpose so that you can get buy-in from your team.
However, putting on my Project Management hat, you should also aim to provide the following details:
- Describe the task and explain the purpose
- List out all of the activities
- Note key milestones and deadlines
- Any dependencies?
- Any templates?
- Key contacts: RACI
- Who is responsible? Who is accountable? Who needs to be consulted? Who needs to be informed?
Mistake 4: Jumping back in at the first sign of trouble
It can be scary to let go completely which is why jumping back in right away when a mistake is made is an attractive option for perfectionists.
Instead of developing a growth mindset and using it as a learning opportunity for both parties, you step in to ‘solve’ the problem but end up creating new and bigger ones by disempowering your team and disrupting their psychological safety.
One of two things will happen when you take on this approach:
- You discourage creative thinking and create a culture of fear
- You create employees who become dependent on you and create a culture of weaponised incompetence
Not really a managerial technique that you should aspire to use.
A study in the Leadership & Organization Development Journal explained that “employees are demotivated and disengaged when their managers constantly intervene and take over tasks, which fosters a toxic work environment”.
I know it is hard to let go, especially when you see your team making mistakes, however, it goes right back to my previous points about delegating authority and setting clear expectations. If you fail at those 2 steps, you can’t blame your team for getting it wrong.
The more you interrupt, amend, tweak and blame, the more you keep your ‘team members feeling powerless and insecure’ according to this Psychology Today article.
‘You can either have growth or you can have control. It is very difficult to have both. So what you do is that you give up control and trade it for growth’ – Leila Hormozi
Okay, so what should you do when you notice mistakes being made on projects you’ve delegated?
Take a deep breath and pause for a moment. Then use it as an opportunity to provide constructive feedback while working with your team members to identify a solution.
You need to make an effort to focus on the mistake and NOT the person. The last thing you want to do is add to the problem by blaming and shaming them for making a mistake. Studies have shown time and time again, that shaming doesn’t work and keeps people stuck.
Ask questions like:
- What do you think went wrong here?
- How could we approach this differently next time?
- Do you feel like you have all the information and resources you need?
- What went well in this project despite the mistake?
Use this as an opportunity to offer support and empower your team without bulldozing through and taking over. Remember, you’re their manager, their leader and ultimately the person who should be encouraging creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Mistake 5: Picking the wrong person
This one may seem counterintuitive but bear with me! A common mistake is only focusing on the top performers when delegating your work.
Naturally, you want the work to be done well, right?
So, why wouldn’t you delegate to the person who is most likely to meet the high standards you have set for your team?
Well, a WITS Business School study showed that “the impact of bias delegation includes people leaving the team and/or organisation, team members disengaging due to lack of interest and unhappiness, low team morale, and specialisation that minimises room for growth and development”.
What seems like a small thing can snowball into a much bigger team or company-wide problem. You could be perceived as having ‘favourites’ and contributing to a toxic work culture— especially if one or more team members feel ‘routinely shunned’ which in HR terms is called workplace bullying.
Now, I’m not here to be all doom and gloom but I do want to highlight how quickly things can go sour when you engage in favouritism.
Never mind the fact that your top performers might be perfectionists too, resulting in them taking on more work than they can manage —people pleasing and overworking themselves to burnout forcing them to have to learn how to delegate too.
Favouritism leads to a culture of competition and not collaboration because only the top performers get any meaningful work, the rest have to take on unwanted repetitive tasks. Overall, this results in lower knowledge sharing and higher anxiety because everyone is scared of being overlooked for opportunities.
“No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” – Andrew Carnegie
To prevent this, I recommend you delegate based on skills, interests and professional development. For example, give a junior employee responsibility over a small project so that they can grow and gain confidence in their abilities.
As always, you need to set clear expectations and boundaries over the scope of each project so that there is no ambiguity in what the desired outcomes are.
Finally, make sure to praise people!
Thank your team members publicly and privately when they do great work because just that simple act can boost morale and shape the team’s culture for the better.
So are you making any of these common delegation mistakes?
Did any of these mistakes jump out to you? I know I’ve definitely made some of these mistakes in the past when delegating work —not giving clear instructions and only delegating unimportant tasks— hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes and choose a different method.
Knowledge is power.
The tips I have provided should definitely help you grow your team’s confidence, skill level and mindset around collaboration.
Start small, take one step at a time and remember your fear of letting go is rooted in perfectionism, not fact. The data shows that letting go is one of the best things you can do for yourself professionally.
Remember, CEOs who knew how to delegate effectively increased company revenue by over 33% so it’s a worthwhile skill to build.
If you would like to read more about delegation check out my post explaining 5 simple steps you can take to delegate effectively. I’d love to hear your opinions so feel free to comment below and share our tips!
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Related Posts:
- 5 Steps To Delegate As A Perfectionist And Prevent Burnout
- Perfectionism vs High Standards — Are You Pushing Yourself Too Far?
- 13 Subtle Signs You’re A Perfectionist And Don’t Even Know It
- Where Does Perfectionism Come From?
- 3 Types of Perfectionism – Which One Are You?
- How To Deal With Mistakes as a Perfectionist – 9 Simple Ways!
- How To Handle Criticism As A Perfectionist – 9 Simple Ways
- How To Make Decisions as a Perfectionist – 10 EASY steps
