Understanding Team Strengths for Better Delegation

How I discovered hidden talents that transformed our results. After over 2 decades in leadership development, I've seen a number of leadership strategies come and go. One truth remains: understanding your team members as individuals is key to effective leadership. Here's what I've learned works: 1. Observe and listen more than you speak. Pay attention to how your team members approach problems, interact with others, and handle stress. 2. Have one-on-ones that go beyond status updates. Ask about their career aspirations, challenges, and what they enjoy most about their work. 3. Provide stretch opportunities. This allows them to showcase skills that might not be apparent in their day-to-day roles. 4. Encourage your team to take calculated risks and learn from mistakes. This will reveal hidden strengths. 5. Consider reorganizing roles based on discovered talents. Creates cross-functional opportunities to leverage skill sets. This isn't about finding a perfect fit for every person, every time. As you uncover your team's unique strengths, your leadership style should evolve to nurture and leverage these newfound capabilities. It's about creating an environment where people can grow and contribute in meaningful ways, and where you, as a leader, grow alongside them. What's one unexpected strength you've discovered in a team member recently? How did it change your approach to leadership?

I became an Amazon VP because I was a leader; I did not become a leader because I held the VP title. Leadership came first. Here is how you can improve your leadership even if you are not a manger at all: Some of you may know the famous story of Tom Sawyer, written by Mark Twain. In the story, Tom is given the hot, dirty, boring job of white washing (painting) the wooden fence in front of his house. When his friends walk up and say, oh Tom, poor you, stuck painting the fence, he says ohh no, this is important work and none of you could do it well enough to be allowed to do it. Tom cons his friends into wanting to prove that they can paint the fence well. Then he gives them the brush and sits back while they fight for turns to do it. My dad was generally a pretty negative guy, and when I was looking at graduate schools he commented that I was "pretty good at getting others to whitewash my fences," a reference to this story. He was skeptical of my ability to succeed "on my own." He undervalued the value of my ability to inspire others to action. Most people think that only managers can delegate. That is one of the reasons why most people don’t become managers. You have to delegate to focus on the important work and move up. Here’s how: Each of us has tasks we love and things we are naturally good at. Most of us also have things that we really dislike or that we struggle to do well. The key to good delegation is to ask people to do things they like or that are easy for them. So, the key to delegating well is being able to identify those things. Once you have identified the tasks that someone likes, one way to delegate to them is to trade tasks. Find someone who is good at a task you are bad at, and then ask what you can do in exchange. In the ideal case, both parties will end up doing something easy, quick, and fun for them that was frustrating and difficult for the other person. Then, this will create a virtuous cycle. As you delegate more of the tasks you don’t excel at and take on more tasks that are easy to you, you will become more productive and focus more on what is important. This willl generally make you a higher performer and more valued in whatever it is that you do. As a result, you will be able to start requesting help with your projects and you may even be asked to lead a project or a team. In this situation, you can begin to delegate away even more of the things that you don’t like because you will have the official authority to do it. If you are not a manager, another delegation strategy you can use it to ask your manager to assist with delegation. If your manager values your focus on a certain type of work, they may be willing to move some of your other work to someone else. But, in order to make this happen you need to show them that this will pay off for them and for the overall team or project. Readers- Have you had experiences delegating as non-managers? Share in the comments below.

I used to think I could do it all. But in large-scale event planning, that's a recipe for disaster. When you're managing multiple moving parts, you need to delegate the right things to the right people. And that means you need a team you can trust. So here's how to build a strong team and delegate effectively: 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲: Identify key roles and responsibilities Create a clear organizational structure Establish deadlines and milestones 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Assess team members' strengths and weaknesses Assign tasks that align with individual skills Provide opportunities for growth and learning 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Schedule regular check-ins and progress updates Use project management tools for transparency Establish open channels for questions and feedback 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤: Resist the urge to micromanage Allow team members to own their responsibilities Focus on overall coordination and strategy Delegation isn't about passing off work. It's about leveraging collective expertise. In the end, a well-delegated event runs smoothly and delivers better results. #eventagency #events #eventsagency