Delegation double-bind:
"Damned if I do it,
damned if I don't !"
One of the best
symptoms of a poor team due to defensive
interactions is the claim that delegation
does not work. Usually this claim comes from
both the team members and the team leader, but
under a different form !
Team members tend to share easily their
frustration about empowerment, usually using
the following arguments:
-
the leader prepares the decision with
one or two members she chooses arbitrarily,
without involving the others, and then
suddenly they impose their decision to the
whole team
-
the leader ask us often our opinion
before a decision is made and we believe
that this will be a collective decision,
but then suddenly she imposes us a decision
"out of nowhere" (see team processes
issues number 4.)
-
the (team) leader gets too often into
micromanagement and tells us what to do in
details, leaving us very limited action
freedom
-
when the leader delegates, she
complaints later that we have not done what
we should have done in her perspective. But
she did not tell us clearly her
expectations
Team leaders do not usually share as easily
their experience of empowerment. They often
feel that they are prisoner of a
double-bind:
"I am
damned if I empower and I am damned if I do not
empower !". When they accept to
share their frustration, it looks like
this:
- depending on the type of decision to take
and the interest of the team members in the outcome, I know who I
can trust to bounce ideas in the company interest and who will try
to influence me in their favor even at the company cost
-
when I do not empower - I tell them what
to do - and there is a problem during the
implementation, members turn back to me and
tell me that I have to (give instructions
to) fix it. And I just have no time to do
that: it is their responsibility
-
when I empower and there is a problem
during the implementation, (team) members
do not seem to care: they either
procrastinate to set up corrective actions
or they all say that they are not
responsible - "it just fell between
the cracks!"-
Helping the team to learn constructive interactions will rapidly improve the quality and the experience
of empowerment. The issues above - first from team members and then
from the team leader - will get openly discussed with the help of discussion cases and resolved with
discussion role plays.
Return
from delegation
to root team
building issues
Return from
delegation
to team
building results
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