A Delegation Disaster

Problem

"While I was working as the Director of Infrastructure Security Consulting at the NCC Group, there was a client project I was leading with 5-7 consultants associated with it. While everything had been going well on the project, it was really difficult work. There came a time when I wasn't going to be available for my team, as I was going to be on a plane, so I needed to delegate."

Actions taken

"I chose one of the consultants in the team, and clearly outlined their responsibilities and my expectations and then went to catch my 7-hour flight. By the time I got off the plane, the whole project was on fire. The client was talking about firing us, the project wasn't going well, everybody on the team was upset, and the person leading it was freaking out. I learned something about delegation at that point. All these consequences started happening - all these people above me, like my boss, my VP and my COO started calling me, angry about this project. I realized that while I had delegated authority to this other person, you can't really delegate responsibility. I couldn't hold them accountable for what had happened because ultimately I was still accountable - it was up to me to face the music. I went back to my team, gathered them all around and outlined what we were going to do. The person who was in charge came over to me and asked how mad our leadership team were at them. I explained they weren't mad at them because it was me who had delegated authority, but ultimately I was responsible."

Lessons learned

"This instilled confidence in the team, as I didn't pass the buck or throw them under the bus. In addition, it gave me a clear reminder that you have to be very careful about how you delegate, and what you delegate. It can often be much better to delegate separate tasks to different people than to have one person fill in as the leader."

"I learned something about delegation at that point." "It can often be much better to delegate separate tasks to different people than to have one person fill in as the leader."