You’ve likely encountered a situation where you’re unhappy with one of your team members. You’d like to delegate a task to them, but are hesitating.

The employee may be likable and even work hard, but the work has problems. Now, you’re wondering if they can handle an important project.

At its core, not wanting to delegate is an issue of trust. Can you trust this individual to get the job done?

Whether you’re dealing with an individual or an entire team, knowing how to build and keep trust is crucial to effective leadership.

How do you build trust in the workplace and on your team with effective delegation?

First, Know the Dimensions of Trust

Our partners, Drs. Michelle and Dennis Reina, have researched trust in the workplace for decades, and have found that trust is built, and broken, around 3 critical areas:

• Trust of Character,
• Trust of Communication, and
• Trust of Capability.

The 3 Dimensions of Trust

1. Trust of Character

Trust of Character sets the tone and direction of teamwork. This dimension of trust in the workplace represents mutually serving intentions and is the starting point of a team relationship. When teams have Trust of Character, each member has faith that the others will behave as expected.

Team members care about one another as people and hold each other’s best interest in mind. This is the foundational dimension of trust teams need to be effective. Team members build this trust when they do what they say they will do, engendering a mutual view of reliability and trust within the team.

2. Trust of Communication

Trust of Communication fuels collaboration and makes it safe for team members to talk with each other directly. This goes beyond simply providing information to one another, but also working through issues and concerns and offering different types of feedback in the spirit of deeper learning and growth.

Through Trust of Communication, teams practice transparency — they communicate openly and honestly. Members feel safe to admit mistakes and know where they stand with one another. Trust of Communication creates an environment of collaboration that teams need to thrive.

3. Trust of Capability

Trust of Capability opens the door for team members to contribute and to use their knowledge to make a difference. Members build this type of trust in the workplace by leveraging the skills and abilities of one another, seeking each other’s input, engaging in decision making, and teaching one another new skills. Trust of Capability helps create a culture of innovation and allows teams and organizations to be competitive.

Together, these 3 dimensions of trust help teams understand the behaviors needed to build and sustain trust in the workplace.

Then, Talk About the Trust Issue

Once you understand the dimensions of the problem, it’s easier to have an honest conversation with a team member or colleague. Here are some phrases that help start the conversation out in a productive way:

• “I’d like to talk about something that’s concerning me.”
• “May we talk about your work on the project?”
• “I need to explore with you where we are on the project.”

It’s important to address problem employee behaviors in a way that shows the employee genuine support — demonstrating your loyalty. Then, you can discuss a solution to the problem, such as pairing the worker up with a more experienced team member. Finally, make sure you are delegating workloads effectively and set up a method for creating accountability.

Some Final Thoughts on Building Trust in the Workplace & Your Team

Honest, open discussions about trust set the stage for deeper, more productive conversations about team performance and create stronger bonds between leaders and employees.

These steps are essential to building trust in the workplace, and with your team.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Upskill your people’s ability to build trust in the workplace through delegating effectively with a customized learning journey for your leaders using our research-backed modules. Available leadership topics include Conflict Resolution, Communication, Delegating Effectively, Listening to Understand, Psychological Safety & Trust, and more.

The post How to Build Trust in the Workplace and on Your Team With Delegation appeared first on CCL.

You know this, but still, you try.

Even as more work and more responsibility get piled on, you shoulder it.

You might feel that it saves time to just take care of a task yourself. Maybe you doubt that anyone else can do what you do. Or, you could be hanging on to assignments and hovering over tasks because you just don’t have a solid process for delegating.

Whatever is behind your avoidance to delegate your workload, we have some concrete, research-based suggestions that could help.

First, Why Delegate Your Workload?

Delegating tasks, roles, and decisions frees you up for other things and helps prevent you from getting overworked and burnt out. That’s a huge benefit. But when you delegate effectively, you’re opening the door to many other benefits, too. Effective delegation:

• Enables direct reports to develop as leaders.
• Contributes to teamwork.
• Demonstrates trust in your team.
• Provides employees autonomy, increasing the innovation, communication, and creativity of the team.
• Can result in better decisions when people who are closer to the problem can solve it.
• Encourages professional growth and enhances an employee’s value to the organization.

Delegating is not just telling someone what to do or assigning them tasks. Delegation shows trust in your team and involves giving someone the authority to do something that’s normally part of your job — along with the resources, direction, and support needed to achieve the expected results.

How to Delegate Your Workload More Effectively

4 Tips for Delegating More Thoughtfully

As outlined in our guidebook, Delegating Effectively: A Leader’s Guide to Getting Things Done, effective delegation is not a linear process — it’s a cycle that involves 4 key steps.

1. Understand your preferences for delegation.

Leaders who delegate effectively have prioritized their workload and know why they’re handing off some tasks and holding on to others. They also know themselves and what they want. For example, do you want constant updates or just an update now and then? Will you let the person or team assigned the task determine the process, or must you have it done your way? When you’re clear about your preferences, you can better communicate those needs and expectations to other people.

2. Understand your people.

Effective delegating involves assigning people tasks, responsibilities, and duties that match their knowledge, skills, abilities, and interests. It involves giving assignments that will help them learn to lead. By truly understanding the people you manage, you can effectively identify the individuals to whom you should (or should not) delegate specific tasks.

3. Understand the task and its purpose.

The task is what must be accomplished. The purpose is the reason that the task is being done — it gives meaning to the task. When a leader effectively matches the purpose of a task with a team’s or individual’s beliefs and goals, it becomes an opportunity for development. This is the idea behind purpose-driven leadership, which helps increase employees’ commitment and willingness to go beyond the original assignment if necessary to accomplish the purpose.

4. Share the process for assessing and rewarding accomplishment of the task.

What does successful accomplishment look like? How will you be assessing the task itself and how it’s accomplished? Will you require people or teams to report to you after every step of the project, or will you just ask for a weekly rundown? Will you develop a series of benchmarks you want them to meet with regard to the project? And, when it’s over, or at key points along the way, can you find a way to recognize and reward the people and teams who accomplish what you asked them to do?

A Closing Thought on Delegating Workloads

To delegate your workload effectively, you need practice and patience. It’s natural to struggle to delegate your workload, especially when you’re first starting out as a new leader. But when you’re struggling, remember that delegation is key to developing your team members and direct reports to readily accept and excel at a range of challenges — and a hallmark of effective leadership.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Upskill your people’s ability to build trust, establish rapport, and delegate workloads successfully with a customized learning journey for your leaders using our research-backed modules. Available leadership topics include Collaboration & Teamwork, Creating Accountability, Delegating Effectively, Psychological Safety & Trust, and more.

The post Delegate Your Workload: Go Beyond “Getting It off Your Desk” appeared first on CCL.