The default mindset of mistrust

One of the hardest things about delegation is trusting the delegatee.

In one of my workshops, directors had circled the wagons and were insisting there was nobody they could delegate to, even though each had at least a dozen people reporting to them.

Impatient, the MD walked to the window, pointed down to full car park, and said: “So, what, they’re all incompetent? Why did we hire them?”

A perception of widespread incompetence is reflexive, and is often to do with protecting our comfort zones of control.

Sometimes the reason for mistrusting a potential delegatee seems compelling. It may be that they arrived in their current post through a different route than we did, and we suspect they lack competence.

Or maybe the training they got has altered since we were put through the paces, and we feel it is no longer adequate.

These misgivings are understandable, but they are also futile. We have who we have.

Delegators can break out of a paralysing pessimism by addressing their mindset, for instance by opening ourselves to the possibility that the young person is every bit as intelligent and committed as we were all those years ago.

That’s an interesting place to start.