Delegation Theater: “you’re empowered as long as you make the decision I’d make, or you do the task the way I’d do it.”
A leader rarely puts it that way. They don’t intend to do Delegation Theater. What usually happens is a leader delegates work fully intending to trust their teams, and as long as they get the result they expected, everything’s great.
But if they get a result they’re not happy with, they jump back in, overriding the decision or doing the work themselves. To the leader, this is just ensuring a good outcome, but to the person or team the work was delegated to, it feels like Delegation Theater. It’s yours as long as you do exactly what I would’ve done.
There are two big reasons empowerment breaks down:
- Missing clarity about who owns which decisions and how those decisions will be made
- Missing information, capability, and systems to support more people making the right decisions
In this week’s Humanizing Work Show, Peter and Richard introduce the Team Empowerment Map, a tool for visualizing the current state of empowerment for decisions on a team and for increasing the level of empowerment in an productive way. It’s the antidote to Delegation Theater.
Visit the episode page for the video and audio versions of the episode, a transcript, and a downloadable facilitation guide to help you build your own Team Empowerment Map.
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