Reboot Podcast Episode Wisdom for Work #19 – Strategic Delegation: Building Trust & Setting Clear Expectations

The Reboot podcast showcases the heart and soul, the wins and losses, the ups and downs of startup leadership. On the show, Entrepreneurs, CEO’s, and Startup Leaders discuss with Jerry Colonna the emotional and psychological challenges they face daily as leaders.

Guests

Virginia Bauman

Virginia Bauman

Reboot Coach & Facilitator

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Ali Schultz

Ali Schultz

Founder, Coach & Facilitator

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Ali Schultz

Ali Schultz

Founder, Coach & Facilitator

Soul, savvy, magic, heart. These are the ways Ali moves in the world.

In 2014, after years of work in a variety of startups and a lifetime of soul-based explorations, Ali co-founded Reboot.io. As co-founder and coach, Ali weaves her business acumen with the innate wisdom of the body, the philosophies of the world’s wisdom traditions, and the “way of the horse” to help clients find their voice in service of finding themselves.

A visionary in the leadership development space, Ali cut her teeth in the early 2000s in the Boulder startup scene where she worked as an operator managing projects, teams, and human resources, and developing brands. In 2013, she and Jerry Colonna partnered to create life-changing CEO and Founder Bootcamps, both in the US and abroad. This acted as a catalyst and laid the foundation for the work that would become Reboot.

Ali is driven by the conviction that creating humane workplaces of safety and connection is an inside job that begins within each of us. Core to her work is the belief that whatever situation you’re in, the most important conversation you can have is the one with your own heart, and the most important relationship you have is the one you have with yourself.

As a coach, she moves with grace and ease from ally to challenger to guide. Her superpower? Getting you to tap into your innermost being, your source of creativity and innovation, in order to bear the rigors of work/life existential challenges — all the while, making you laugh from the very core of your belly.

Through her work, clients hear the clarity of their own voice and learn to trust their inner knowing so that they can then align their life with purpose and lead from that deep place.

Ready to manifest what it is you are here to do in this lifetime?

Ali earned her Master’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder, studied Transformational NLP at NLP Marin, and completed the facilitator program at the Center for Collaborative Awareness. An avid horsewoman, she is also a certified EQUUS Experience Facilitator in Equine Facilitated Coaching. You can find her writing on ‘The Art of Being Human at Work’ on the Reboot Blog.

Episode Description

Delegation is one of the most essential skills to master as a leader. Done well, it’s the fundamental behavior that impacts the culture, execution, and the bottom line. And, it creates inclusive leaders, flexible businesses, and the fostering of leaders in each seat in the organization.

In this episode, Reboot Coaches Ali Schultz and Virginia Bauman dive into the world of delegation, highlighting the importance of clarity, trust, and accountability in the process. Virginia shares a valuable mental model for delegation, emphasizing the factors of individual readiness and task importance. The pair explore the challenges faced by leaders in delegating tasks and provide valuable insights for both leaders and team members.

Show Highlights

Memorable Quotes:

“I’ve been a recovering people pleaser, still am, for a long time. And so one of the reasons that sometimes I won’t delegate or I’ll get in my own way is I don’t wanna impose on the other person.” – Virginia Bauman

“I think as a leader, you can’t do all the things. It’s about recognizing, okay, my energy is best put here on this pile of stuff or these top three items. And I know that this item needs to get done. I am not the best human to do this, nor is this like the highest and best use of my time or energy.” – Ali Schultz

“When delegation goes well and the communication runs smoothly and everyone’s aligned and it works, trust is reinforced and you kind of put those deposits in the bank.” – Virginia Bauman

“Delegation can be different with each individual on our team because each person in relationship with us is a little bit different. Each person has a different capacity. Each person is better at different things. And so we have to delegate differently.” – Virginia Bauman

“Is the task importance high and the individual readiness high? If so, how do we want to delegate that? And if the task importance is low and the individual readiness is low, how do we want to delegate in that situation?” – Virginia Bauman

“Knowing where the individual readiness of the person is and how important the task is, starts the process. So there’s a little bit of inquiry, there’s a little bit of going inward before we delegate. And that will give us a lot of clarity about how we delegate, what we ask for from the other person, and what we offer in terms of our time, energy, and capacity.” – Virginia Bauman

“I’d like to speak directly to the people who are being delegated to and say, you can use this the same way and you can help manage your leader that doesn’t have the capacity to have this conversation initiated from their side. You can initiate it from yours. Manage up and ask these questions.” – Virginia Bauman

“If we think about building a culture of robust delegation, and autonomy, then there’s a mandate to not only do this well, but model it and give people tools so that it’s accessible.” – Virginia Bauman

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