Upward Delegation: Are You Doing Someone Else's Work?

A senior partner in a professional services firm recently told me of frustration over the amount of time he spends editing other people's writing. Here's what happens.

Members of his team write a draft report, for example, give it a quick review and then pass it to him as ready to go out to the client. In most cases, it's nowhere near ready to go out, and he spends too much of his time fixing it up.

As a manager, do you do this? Or do you make your manager to do this for you?

This expensive and frustration process is called upward delegation, and it should stop for the sake of all concerned. Here's how both parties can correct the problem.

Writers

Writers must take the first editing task more seriously, so that the version they send upwards is no longer just a first . In my writing courses and workshops, I see many written messages that were pretty good drafts, but unfortunately they were sent out without the editing that would have made them first class reports.

Of course you are busy, and your time is precious. I know that. But that written piece represents both you personally and your firm or company. Don't you want it to represent you well?

Managers

You've created a monster, and it's up to you to kill it! If they know you will correct their written work they will leave it up to you. After all, they're only human. Why spend all that time editing when they don't have to? Next time, send the piece back and tell the writer it is not up to standard. Suggest some areas that need work, but let them doing the editing. When you make a practice of doing this, they'll realize you are no longer prepared to do their work.

People often complain to me that their managers always make changes, so they don't see the point in working on their drafts. This doesn't encourage self-improvement. Just because it's not written as you would write doesn't make it wrong. If your changes are substantive, take time to point out to the writer what's wrong. If they are unimportant detail, though, perhaps they can remain unchanged.

If they need help to improve their writing, I strongly recommend you get it for them. Courses and workshops in business writing skills are one of my areas of service, so I see how desperately many people need help in this area. An investment in such a program could be returned many times in the savings senior managers' time --- not to mention their sanity!

If you'd like to explore how I can help, call me at 416-966-5023 or drop me a line by email at hwilkie@mhwcom.com .