Upward Delegation: An Expensive Mistake

A client recently told me he was hugely frustrated over how much time he regularly spends editing reports and other written materials produced by his people. What he didn't understand was that they were delegating their work upwards to him! Here's how this typically works.

Someone writes a draft report, gives it a quick review and then sends it over to the manager for approval before it goes out. But in reality it's nowhere near ready to go out, and it's left to the manager to fix it up. And of course, the manager's time is much more expensive, so this is not cost-effective.

Are you falling victim to this upward delegation? Here's what you can do, and what you should encourage your people to do.

WRITERS

Insist that your people edit their own materials before sending them up to you for review. In my writing courses and workshops, I see many pieces that would have been acceptable as first drafts, but unfortunately they were not treated as drafts but sent out to clients and others in this form.

Yes, everyone is busy and they think they don't have time for this. But if you approach this right you can encourage them to take pride of ownership in their work, effective self-editing being one way to show it.

MANAGERS

You've created a monster! If people know you will fix their writing, they will get lazy and let you get on with it! Why do all that editing work when they don't have to? In future, send the draft back marked unacceptable. You might suggest some general problem areas, but leave the actual editing work to them. When they see this is the normal practice, they'll put more effort into editing as well as writing.

Don't make the common mistake of correcting small things that don't really matter, just because you wouldn't have written them that way. There's more than one correct version, and people will become demoralized if they know that they can't please you no matter what they write.

Many people, including highly educated professionals, need help with their writing skills. I see the evidence of this in all my writing workshops and courses. Consider bringing an expert in to provide the training they need. Upward delegation is an expensive practice, because the manager's time costs a lot more than those doing the writing. So although training is an investment, it's one that can bring a big return.

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