Doers Become Effective Leaders When They Learn to Master Delegation

Doers are the backbone of any organization. They are problem solvers who drive results by managing details and moving things forward.

Organizations benefit from having doers at all levels. However, one of the unintended consequences is that doers typically get promoted into management roles. While doers make good individual contributors, something important occurs when a great doer becomes a leader. What made them successful as an individual contributor (IC) can become a barrier if they continue to operate the same way. Once they become leaders, they’re no longer measured primarily by what they accomplish as an individual but rather by what their team collectively accomplishes.

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The Individual Contributor: Becoming a Task Master

At the IC level, doers execute, solve problems and deliver results. Their action-oriented mindset builds credibility, accountability and trust while deepening their understanding of the organization and its work. However, a strong focus on completing tasks sometimes can limit broader impact. Doers may become so focused on execution that they lose strategic context, underinvest in relationships or unintentionally create dependency by taking on too much themselves.

To maximize their impact, doers must learn when to step back, involve others and share ownership of the work. Doing so builds trust, develops capability and ensures progress doesn’t depend on one person to keep the work moving.

When the Task Master Becomes the Leader

Leadership can be an uncomfortable shift for doers. Many have been promoted for their ability to get things done. Soon after, they’re expected to stop personally doing all of it. Making the shift from doer to leader isn’t easy, and the instinct to jump in to get things done doesn’t go away once someone gets a leadership title. Doers know the answers; they know they can do the task better and faster; and they finish the work and fix it when the quality isn’t right.

Once the shift is made from doer to leader, the question that’s asked also needs to change. Rather than “What can I accomplish?” the focus should shift to “What can I help my team accomplish?” The goal is for the leader to make the shift from being the task master to being the task delegator.

The Doer as Leader: Becoming a Task Delegator

Doers also can make excellent leaders because they understand how work gets accomplished. They often are skilled at identifying bottlenecks, setting expectations and creating accountability, while their experience gives them credibility with employees. However, the instinct to “do” can become a leadership challenge. Leaders who remain too involved can become the bottlenecks themselves, creating dependency and discouraging employees from making decisions or taking ownership.

Effective doers-turned-leaders must learn to trust others, provide space to learn through experience and accept that their way isn’t the only way to achieve the right outcome. This transition, however, requires patience as they shift from personally doing the work to creating the conditions for others to successfully own it.

The Doer’s Dilemma: ‘I Can Do It Faster Myself’

This “transition” can be a delicate dance. For doers, there may be cases where doing a task themselves may be quicker today. There is the time taken to teach others, answer their questions and go through their work to see where they made mistakes. But there are cases where doers need to go beyond today. “Doing it myself” creates immediate efficiency. However, developing someone else to do it creates future capability.

When a leader delegates appropriately, they move work off their own plate while building experience, confidence, decision-making and capabilities in their employees. Over time, those employees need less direction, and the leader is able to take on greater responsibilities. Consequently, the organization becomes less dependent on any one person. Doers-turned-leaders who step in and take charge whenever a situation requires it must learn to evaluate their personal involvement and determine when and how they should step out to allow others to shine.

A New Definition of Getting Things Done

The essence of a doer isn’t something leaders need to abandon to become effective. Doers understand the details, take ownership and are committed to results. Great leaders still wear these characteristics — it’s just the target of the commitment that shifts. At the IC level, commitment and ownership over results are realized by taking ownership of the work. The shift at the leadership level is realizing commitment and ownership by building a team where the members own the results. This distinction forms the basis for the progression from task master to task delegator.

A doer, ultimately, doesn’t shift from someone who gets things done to someone who doesn’t. The shift is from doing things themselves to creating a team where members get things done — and that, may be the doer’s greatest accomplishment of all.

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