One of our goals with building this community is to identify valuable resources that extend beyond the ‘Cleaver’ ecosystem. Here’s our first effort in that project. This month, in keeping with the theme of Delegation, we’ve reviewed the book ‘Deep and Deliberate Delegation’, by Dave Stitt.

This book impressed us. 5 Stars. This is not only because the ideas and tools within the book are useful and relevant (which they are) but also that the book is so easy to read. Dave Stitt is a veteran executive coach, and it shows. His writing is direct, efficient and entertaining. He also has some unique things to say about delegation that make this more than a delegation ‘manual’ and more like a coherent ‘doctrine’ of delegation that helps to reframe the ‘traditional’ ideas behind the ‘how’s’ and ‘why’s’ of delegation.

With that said, we’re going to give you the bullet points followed then we’ll give some additional context on those points (along with some quotes) to help explain why those particular points stood out to us:

1. It explains how the nature of delegation has changed;
2. It argues that delegation is THE critical tool for developing new leaders;
3. It helps us to ‘see’ delegation from the delegatees perspective;
4. It addresses the ‘Trust’ barriers that often stifles effective delegation;
5. It provides a good balance between the ‘Art’ and ‘Science’ of delegation.

#1 The nature of Delegation has changed:

This book (published in 2018) is one of the most recent Amazon titles on the subject and it shows. Here’s the authors own words on the subject:

“Delegation is not a lost art, but an art we haven’t really needed before. Our management habits and assumptions haven’t kept pace with changing work cultures. Faced with rapid change we struggle as leaders to define what it is we should be doing and what we shouldn’t be doing. Nor is it obvious to us how to trust the people who are available, and with what to trust them.

We don’t know how to design and frame the outcome we want in a way that inspires commitment and enthusiasm. Having assigned a task, we don’t know what distance to keep between us and the delegatee, and veer between oppressive micromanagement and benign neglect. We don’t know how to have the awkward conversations we need to have, or to sustain the delegatee with the nutrients of encouragement and challenge. Finally, we pay too little attention to the interlocking systems that buffet us from way out beyond our modest zones of control, believing, wrongly, that the world will sit back and let us get on with it. All of this, I argue, requires mastery of the new art of deep and deliberate delegation.”

#2 Delegation is a critical tool for developing new leaders.

Most of us have been encouraged to develop our delegation skill sets as a way to help us be more productive leaders, but in the book, the author points out that a failure to delegate represents a failure to develop new leadership on your team.

Here’s just one example of his framing on this subject:

“ Done effectively (in a way I will call deep and deliberate), delegation is the managed process of passing accountability for an outcome from you to another person. It frees you up to do more of what only you can do, what you excel at, and what you really should be doing. But it does something else, too. It is like alchemy because the delegatee, in taking on this new accountability and supported with the right amount of feedback and encouragement, grows in competence and confidence. Talent is unleashed. The base metal of an untested, under-deployed team member is transformed into gold: a new locus of independent, dynamic capability. Deep and deliberate delegation is like cell division: it propagates the capability in an organization, allowing that organization to accomplish more.”

#3 He helps the reader to ‘see’ the Delegatee as part of the equation

Most delegation training is focused on the habits and practices the reader needs to utilize in order to become an effective delegator but Jim recognizes that we’re not delegating to robots (at least not yet) and because of this, we need to think about our Delegatee as a crucial partner in the process of delegating. Every delegatee will have different motivations, skills and reliability that should affect the way delegators manage the process. To this end he provides several chapters about ‘what and how’ you delegate to your delegatee partners.

#4 The book addresses the ‘TRUST’ issue

One of the delegation issues we frequently encounter is a trust gap. Would be delegators either have been burned, or are too afraid of being burned, to ‘let go’ of important projects or tasks. We can focus on developing the skills of delegation, but if we don’t address some of the psychological hurdles of delegation, it becomes like trying to paddle against a strong current.

We appreciate the fact that the author addresses this in multiple ways with multiple approaches from the philosophical to the pragmatic. This includes his tools for mapping out your delagatee’s capacity and reliability as well as a whole chapter called “ Why you must really let go, and how to do it”. The bottom line is that, like all development, growth takes a combination of both courage and perseverance. His willingness to address some of the psychological elements that hinder effective delegation is as important as his pragmatic tools for working through the nuts and bolts of the delegation process.

#5 An excellent blend of the ‘Art’ and ‘Science’ of delegation

The last thing that stood out to us about this book is the ways in which the author contexualizes his delegation advice within real world stories and situations. While he does provide specific tools and processes, he does so with the recognition that the world we operate in is messy. Ideas that look good in a book get challenged by the chaos and unpredictability of the ‘real world’. For this reason, he consistently focuses on delegation as a living, evolving dynamic practice that requires a leader be engaged and resourceful by relying on key principles rather than a specific set of delegation ‘best practices’.

Conclusion:

We found the book “Deep and Deliberate Delegation” to be a fresh and relevant perspective on a topic that really needed it. We are especially impressed with the ways the author reframed delegation from a simple ‘getting things done’ approach to one that addressed the importance of the Delegatee as both partner and beneficiary. We also think it does a good job of pointing out and addressing the ways that the modern work environment requires an update to our delegation toolbox. Our only criticism is that it is currently not available as an audio book.