By Dr. Francis Eberle

When I talk to groups I often tell them that leaders should step back more. The biggest concern I hear in response is that if they step back, they won’t be able to help their employees do the task right.

I will probe and ask what “do the task right” means. Usually, they describe steps to do the task, and then launch into outcomes they don’t want, such as embarrassing the company, insulting a client, a grammatical error, inadequate research, and so on. These outcomes feel like they could be the result of a fully hands-off approach. That is an incorrect assumption about what stepping back as a leader means.

As in many areas of leadership, the best way to step back is multifaceted. If done well, everyone benefits. Yet it is not handing an employee complete autonomy without expectation. Stepping back begins with trust and an understanding of the employee’s strengths.

In fact, trust is one of the most common missing pieces in many workplaces. According to a recent McKinsey survey, 89% of employees feel it is an essential responsibility of their leaders to provide a safe and respectful workplace. Leaders can build trust through creating workplaces that are both psychologically and physically safe, where employees feel heard, valued and respected. Leaders can understand their employees’ strengths though tools such as assessments and examining how recent projects have gone—what portions went well and seemed easy for the employee? Which were more difficult? Managers who are concerned with the development of their people will typically pay attention to employee strengths naturally.

There are a handful of variations for stepping back, depending on the expertise of the employee and level of risk of the task. From a traditional perspective, many companies have several levels of review for most tasks. Here are four ways that leaders commonly think about stepping back and delegating.

1. Hand it completely off to an expert employee with minor check-ins.
2. Hand it off with guidance, and ask the expert-employee-in-training to check in certain points of the task or project.
3. Hand it off by partnering the employee with senior expert employee so they work together. This level is for the employee -in-training.
4. Hand parts of the task off. This allows for flexibility, depending on the resulting progress. This level is for a developing employee.

A different and more structured approach is the GRPI Model developed by Richard Beckhard in 1972. GRPI stands for Goals, Roles, Processes and Interpersonal Relationships and represents four areas and interrelated aspects. The GRPI is a four-step planning tool to help team leaders ensure productivity, efficiency and quality through better communication and delegation. Briefly explained here:

G – Are the Goals and expectations clear and agreed upon?
R – Are Responsibilities clear and understood?
P – Are the Processes to achieve the results understood by all involved?
I – Are there any Interpersonal relationships that are key and potential problems that could arise?

These questions can also be used in an after-action review to examine what was learned and whether there are areas that could be improved as the leader continues to step back and increase delegation.

To step back, a leader also has to step up. Stepping up means providing the vision, goals, objectives and audience necessary for the task. Employees need to know how what they are doing fits into the company’s vision and goals. Stepping up is leading, not managing. It is providing frameworks or expectations for the completion of a task.

Effective leaders can step back when they know about their employees’ capabilities, the task and audience for the task. Stepping up and stepping back are a pair of skills necessary for effective delegation and new initiatives. As stated by Elsbeth Johnson in her book Step Up, Step Back, “Meaningful autonomy is real empowerment.”  She means managers and leaders are then truly able to excel, take on more responsibility and learn as they lead.