Leveling Up: Strategic Work Management

In this Leveling Up Leadership blog series, we discuss our work helping clients to successfully master the challenges of rising to new levels of leadership. The most recent blog focused on the first of five common “leveling up” challenges: enterprise & strategic thinking.

Today, we’re focusing on the second of these leadership challenges: strategic work management and delegation.

Strategic Work Management & Delegation for Leaders

“They’re so involved in the details of the work that their direct reports feel micromanaged and disempowered.” “He always seems overwhelmed—working harder, not smarter.” “She’s been invaluable to the organization as an individual contributor, but she seems less comfortable leading and developing others.” 

This type of feedback clearly indicates that a leader could benefit from greater skill with strategic work management: getting work placed where it needs to be. That includes being able to identify work that the leader should not be doing and effectively delegating it to others.

We again asked Executive and Team Coach Jennifer Budd for a client example. She shared the story of a leader in a large, non-profit technical organization.

“This client, “Susanne,” came to me because she thought she should have been made a VP of her division. She had all the qualifications and was very well respected in her organization, so she was baffled when the job went to someone outside the organization who had no experience with their industry. Susanne struggled to understand, ‘Why would they choose someone who knows nothing about what we do? What am I doing wrong?’

“Feedback from a 360 assessment revealed a consistent theme: Susanne focused too much on doing and not enough on leading. 

“Sometimes Susanne’s direct reports welcomed and even invited her close involvement. When they brought problems to her, she would sit down with them and walk them through solutions, telling them exactly what to do and often contributing directly to the effort. And sometimes, she made other teams’ jobs easier. If they couldn’t figure out how to give her what she needed, she would jump in and do the work herself—and she was smart, skilled, and resourceful enough to do it well. 

“Although Susanne’s interventions may have helped with completing tasks (tasks that weren’t actually her responsibility), they got in the way of developing talent. They also weren’t always well-received by the people she was trying to help. Numerous individuals complained that Susanne didn’t listen well. While other people were talking, she tended to think several steps ahead and interrupt them to share her opinions and solutions. Moreover, the time and energy Susanne devoted to tactical problem-solving depleted her ability to make an impact in other ways within her leadership role.

In my coaching with Susanne, we first worked to build skills with listening and asking questions rather than just giving people the answer. In fact, I told her, “You’re not allowed to give an answer until you ask at least four good open-ended questions.” Susanne followed this instruction for an entire week and reported back, “This was the hardest thing I’ve ever done! And—I was amazed at how people could figure stuff out on their own.”

Once Suzanne had broken out of her ‘I’ll just do it’ habit, I asked her to consider what it is that she brings to leadership beyond her problem-solving abilities. She reflected and told me, ‘I’ve always been a connector.’ We explored making connections as her ‘superpower’—and one that was highly valuable to her organization. By connecting individuals and groups across different departments and units, she could facilitate critical knowledge sharing and cross-functional learning. 

Thanks to her new ability to step back from over-involvement, Susanne found herself with more time and energy. She started leaning into her ability to make connections. And within just a few months, she got promoted to the VP level within another division—in an area where connecting skill was critical. 

Today, Susanne no longer hears complaints that she’s too far in the weeds; instead, she’s known for her strong focus on the big picture. She’s leaned heavily into making strategic connections and developing others. Now, the organization appreciates her as an exceptional leader, more than a “doer.”

Susanne’s story is far from unique. Our coaches and consultants have worked with dozens of leaders who’ve struggled to transition from doing to leading and needed to hone their strategic work management skills to make that happen.

How does strategic work management play a role in your own team and organization? Are there ways in which an improved ability to place work where it belongs—including through skillful delegation—would help you better develop others and focus on higher-level leadership challenges?

***

If you’re interested in learning more about what we can offer to help leaders and teams excel in this capacity, please contact us today.