Delegation Conversations

Hand over responsibility in a way that grows your people.

The Problem

Leaders who will not delegate become the bottleneck.

They stay buried in work only they can do, run at capacity, and their people never get the chance to grow. When they do hand something over, it is often dumped without support, or handed over then hovered over.

The Insight

Great leaders delegate deliberately. They hand over real responsibility with clarity and support, matching the level to the person, so their people are stretched and set up to succeed while the leader stays out of the weeds. Michelle Rushton and Shaun Kenny, founders of People of Influence, have coached leaders at every level to delegate this way.

Delegating, or one of its imposters?

Delegation done right provides an opportunity for challenge, stretch and growth. Effective delegation sits between two failures. Hand it over then hover is Micromanaging. People feel untrusted and never build judgement of their own. Whereas hand it over and disappear is Abdicating. People feel dumped on, unsupported and set up to fail. Effective delegation is handing over real responsibility with clarity and support. People are stretched and set up to succeed.

Key Outcomes

What your leaders walk away with

01
Know what great looks like
Leaders understand what great delegation looks like, and the difference between delegating, dumping and hovering.
02
See where they stand today
Through the Growing Great People Diagnostic, an honest read on how well each leader currently Stretches and Supports their people (delegation is key to Stretch).
03
Strategies they can use immediately
A simple, repeatable structure for handing over responsibility with the right level of support, ready for the very next handover.
04
Practise the skill for real
Each leader plans a real delegation for a real task and rehearses the handover, with feedback from a colleague and the facilitator, so they leave with a baseline and clarity on what to work on next.
05
A toolkit and an action plan
Each participant receives a Takeaway Toolkit, plus their action plan built in the session for themselves and their team.
06
Nudges that reinforce over time
Behavioural nudges that remind and reinforce the habit long after the session.
The Diagnostic

The Growing Great People Diagnostic

Delegation is one part of a bigger picture. Pair the program with the Growing Great People Diagnostic, a holistic measurement and improvement tool for being a great people leader. It measures how well a leader Stretches and Supports their people, across delegation, feedback and the other conversations that grow people, then tracks their progress over time.

Stretch
How well the leader challenges their people to grow, through high expectations, accountability and increasing responsibility.
Support
How well the leader provides the encouragement, coaching and mentoring their people need to succeed.
See the Diagnostic →
The Growing Great People Diagnostic report shown on a laptop
Session Flow

How the session unfolds

Timings and emphasis are tailored to your group and the time available.

1
What good delegation looks like
The levels of delegation, from 'do exactly this' to 'own this outcome', and how to match the level to the person and the task based on their skill and will.
2
Hold up the mirror
They review the results of their Growing Great People Diagnostic to see how their delegation is currently perceived and compare this to what great looks like. The organisation's Dashboard shows patterns across the cohort.
3
Choose what to delegate
How to spot the tasks that will grow their people and free the leader, and let go of the belief that only they can do it well.
4
Structure the handover
A simple, repeatable framework: the outcome, the boundaries, the support on offer and the checkpoints along the way. This process is not exactly the same as an Expectation-Setting conversation, but it certainly rhymes.
5
Match the level to the person
How to delegate more as capability and confidence grow, so people are always stretched but never set up to fail.
6
Practice
Each leader plans a real delegation and rehearses the handover conversation, with feedback from a colleague. Before the session we work with the client to create a number of relevant, client-specific scenarios of delegation conversations. The scenarios are crafted with detail for the delegator, the delegate and the observer/coach.
7
Make it real
Each leader commits to what they will delegate, and to whom, starting this week.
8
Embedding
Over the following weeks to months: behavioural nudges, facilitated peer group coaching, individual coaching - a range of options depending on the engagement.
Format & Delivery

Shaped around your context

Duration
2 hours or half day
Delivery
In person or virtual
Audience
People leaders at any level
Two ways to work with us

People of Influence is the consultancy through which Michelle Rushton and Shaun Kenny deliver leadership programs, team offsites and impactful conferences.

Contact People of Influence →

Leadership Engine is our proprietary platform for measuring and improving leadership effectiveness with diagnostics, dashboards and behavioural nudges.

Visit Leadership Engine →