What do good people want at work? Money, bonuses, promotions? Holidays, work from anywhere, free food?
No matter what material incentives or benefits we give our people, after some time they become part of the baseline and their expectations. They do not add to the long-term satisfaction at the job, and hence the desire to seek more money, perks, and incentives remains.
The one thing that is most priceless for good people at work is Autonomy—the ability to craft their own decisions and destiny. Learning how to delegate effectively is a foundational leadership capability that transitions a team from a state of constant dependence to absolute ownership.
How can we give people more autonomy and empower them to perform at their best?
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Audit your choices: Make a list of all the decisions you make today from small to big at work. This can include budgeting, target setting, doing reviews, hiring, designing a product, and so on.
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Align the decision maker: Now, for each decision, put next to it the name of the person who is best suited to make that decision. The golden rule here is that the person who is closest to the action should be the one deciding. For example, customer-related decisions should be made by the sales person who meets the customer regularly.
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Formally transfer ownership: Go ahead and delegate the decision to the person identified. Formally tell them that from now onwards they will lead and anchor this decision.
To enable good governance, you can also set up a basic guideline. For instance, when it comes to hiring you can say, "You have a budget of xxx% of sales for hiring. Within that, you are empowered to hire and go ahead," or "You can spend up to xxx$ to meet any customer requirement without asking anyone." By structuring these strategic guardrails, you successfully institutionalize the power of autonomy in the workplace without creating operational chaos.
The goal here is to progressively delegate authority and decision-making to different people and make them accountable for delivering the results in their part of the business.
It also means people will make mistakes and there will be problems to solve. As you navigate those moments, remember not to fall into the trap of central decision-making and power controls.
Delegate your authority. Watch your teams flourish. To discover more real-world frameworks for optimizing your leadership style and scaling team output, secure your copy of my book, 10X Productive Leader.
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