Leadership Means Letting Go
New leaders are told by those of us who have been leading for some time that it is important to delegate, delegate, delegate. This is easy for us to say yet it can be very difficult for new leaders to do.
New leaders feel tremendous pressure to deliver. They own the responsibility entrusted to them and don't take this lightly. If delegating was simply about assigning tasks to others, we would not be having this conversation, but it's not. Delegating is about letting go and that is where the challenge for leaders exists.
As experienced leaders, it's our responsibility to coach new leaders in letting go of the misplaced belief that a leader must do it all or that a leader can do it all; of the perception that a leader who delegates is not pulling his own weight; of the apprehension that staff won't deliver or worry that staff will deliver and letting go of the fear that, in any case, she will look bad.
As experienced leaders, it is our responsibility to coach new leaders in letting go of the angst of uncertainty. Rather than pursue certainty in their leadership, new leaders must be coached to live with uncertainty and to tackle it head on.
A leader knows how she will approach a task, what she will do to manage the project and what resources she can turn to for assistance. A leader knows that she will, come hell or high water, get the job done. What she doesn’t know is how well a staff member will do the same. She doesn’t intuitively know how to communicate her expectations clearly or at what intervals she wants to receive project updates. She doesn’t know what support she should offer or at what point her assistance becomes micromanaging. She values lessons learned but she sees little value in hindsight at the moment a project fails.
New leaders suffer from a lack of experience and the confidence that comes from falling down, jumping back up, coming face-to-face with their inner strength and knowing they can not only recover but can learn from their experiences to make that next delegation better than the first.
New leaders suffer from a lack of experience and the confidence that comes from success.
The only thing certain is change and it is the responsibility of experienced leaders to develop confident leaders. Confident leaders trust their choices and their ability to respond to new situations. They trust their decisions and their ability to distinguish between right and wrong. They trust their people and their ability to get the job done.
Rather than judging, penalizing or coddling new leaders who hold tight to tasks, subordinates and the idea that they can control outcomes, it is our responsibility to coach them to confidence.
Think back to your early days as a new leader. Where were you not willing to easily let go? What was standing in your way? What did you do about it? What mistakes did you make? What advice did you heed?
Now, go find a green new leader and coach them today.
Lisa Rosendahl, SPHR has over 18 years of experience in human resources. She has provided leadership and expertise to full-cycle strategic HR operations in public and private manufacturing organizations and now, in federal health care. Lisa authors a personal blog at lisarosendahl.com where she writes on leadership and is a co-founder and the past editor of womenofhr.com.