How Perfectionists Can Learn to Delegate and Give up Some Control
Anyone who has led a team knows that being an effective manager requires more than keeping track of work and goals. But for perfectionists, these aspects of work can be especially challenging because the only way to ensure that everything meets their standards is to do it (or at least test it thoroughly) yourself. In other words, some perfectionists may have difficulty delegating authority and end up on the verge of burnout and overwork as a result.
This is a problem that Melody Wilding , an executive coach and licensed social worker, regularly addresses with her clients. Based on her experience, she has developed several strategies to help perfectionists learn to delegate (and then actually do). She recently shared some of these tips in an article for Fast Company . Here’s what you need to know.
Start with a cost-benefit analysis
While it is likely that perfectionists are constantly weighing the pros and cons of their decisions at work, Wilding encourages them to take a step back and do a similar analysis of themselves and their delegation methods (or lack thereof), including the impact they can have on colleagues:
Your over-functioning can create dynamics in which others do not work. When you take responsibility for getting things done and “fixing” situations, there will be no opportunity for others to take a step forward. Delegation is not a punishment or about “dumping people’s work”. Rather, it is a chance for your team and colleagues to learn, grow, and acquire new skills and competencies.
This also includes considering how their difficulties in delegating authority affect their own mental health and possibly their personal growth opportunities. Per Wilding :
While you might consider trying to take on more positions as a rock star, the lack of delegation is actually signaling to senior management that you are not ready for more responsibility. Identifying what’s at stake can change your behavior because people are prone to loss.
Understand that this is not all or nothing.
In some cases, perfectionists put things aside entirely if they don’t think they can live up to their (usually self-proclaimed) high standards, including delegation of authority. But Wilding says it doesn’t have to be a serious handover of entire projects: it’s okay to start small and give yourself time to get used to the idea of assigning other people to tasks. She advises :
Start by choosing a low-stakes task that you can delegate first. Try tracking your time over the course of one week to identify candidates for delegation. These include tasks that:
- Administrative, tedious and time-consuming
- Requires a simple, repeatable process that can be easily taught
- Requires a special skill set that you don’t have
Apart from tasks, also share responsibilities.
While we can view delegation as telling someone what to do, Wilding says that perfectionists also need to think about it in terms of giving someone the authority to determine how something is accomplished. “It requires you to abandon rigid, perfectionist thinking and the assumption that there is a ‘right’ path to achievement and results,” she writes.