Learning to let go as a manager

I'm writing this between delivering a session on Communicating with Impact for the PRCA and Confident Management for WiPA, so I cheated a bit and asked one of my delegates what they would write about!

He said that one of his biggest development challenges was learning to let go as a manager and suggested that I write about that. So here goes!

That tricky gap

Let's call him T. His example was the age-old issue of writing - that tricky gap between how we would draft something and the result we get from someone else, that's fit for purpose but not how we would have written it. To top it off, he said that writing was one of the reasons he got into PR and it was disappointing to gradually realise that as he got more senior, he was doing less of that and more editing and strategic thinking.

I suspect that's something pretty familiar to most of us.

So what did T do about it?

T's answer was twofold and it's exactly what I suggest in management training (phew!) - namely, recognise when something is good enough and fit for purpose and have the self-control to leave the virtual red pen and comments alone.

It's totally fine, of course, to coach people on improving, or to share how you would have approached it, but this needs to be couched in a way that enables the other person to simply see it as another way to do it rather than a criticism of their work.

An emotionally intelligent manager is strong enough and disciplined enough to recognise when oversight and guidance tips over into rigidity or even (gasp) micromanaging.

What's my advice?

My advice is not going to surprise anyone who knows me: get clear upfront on what success looks like (for anything delegated, not just written pieces) and do your best to come to a shared understanding with the other person.

And delegate, as much as is possible, the ‘what’ rather than the 'how'.

You'll be guided, of course, by the experience level of the other person. Someone tackling a job for the first time is going to need more of the 'how' than someone who's been writing the team blog for 12 months.

Are you seeing the bigger picture or stuck in the weeds?

The real skill for a manager here is getting the balance right between providing counsel for growth and constructive skills or creating a bottleneck for the work by getting too in the weeds.

As with anything vaguely 'managerial', I'd suggest that a healthy dose of awareness and intentionality is needed here. Be aware when you make an editing call or are tempted to make yet another tweak - what impact will that have on your team member's skill levels and motivation - and weigh that against the possible benefit that adjustment will bring the resulting work.

On a personal note

I'd love to pretend I've got this completely figured out but I haven't. I'm human too and I like to have control over the work that goes out under my name. There have been plenty of times when I've caught myself faffing with something that was already perfectly good, not because it needed improving but because it wasn't quite how I would have done it. And that's the point, isn't it? 'Not how I would have done it' is not the same as 'not good enough'.

The moment I started recognising where I was holding people back by being too precious about the output was a real turning point. It doesn't mean I don't care about quality. It means I've learned (and am still learning) that my job is to set people up to do great work, not to rewrite it into my voice.

And what about the work you love doing?

T's realisation was that he was getting his enjoyment of writing because of the creative element, so he looked for (and found!) other ways to vent and deploy his creativity. How about you? Are you holding on to something because you love it, even though letting go might be exactly what your team needs? I'd love to hear how you've navigated this.

This article was published on LinkedIn via the fortnightly Big Fish Bites newsletter. What Big Fish Bites covers: career management, personal development, leadership, how to write, AI, wellbeing and more. Subscribe to hear from me approximately every two weeks. Practical tips, questions to ask yourself, and things you might be tempted to start doing. And probably too many exclamation marks.