A Guide to Empowering Teams While Maintaining Standards

Let’s start with a quick exercise. How many of those tasks have you been doing regularly:

• Setting the team’s day-to-day priorities and tasks
• Planning and delegating daily and weekly priorities and tasks
• Providing training on QA, best practices etc. to manage common mistakes etc.
• Checking pacing in the platform against the media plan
• Checking post-launch setup to triple check the campaigns went live without a glitch
• Responding to the client when they need an ad hoc data report
• Covering setup questions and concerns with the clients
• Having weekly or bi-weekly catch-ups with trainees and execs on their performance
• Preparing roles and responsibilities breakdown for trainees and execs
• Proposing ideas on how something can be done more efficiently e.g. structuring a report

Have you noticed that those are all the responsibilities of the account manager? However, most channel or PA leads, still find themselves doing them regularly. 

I was in a situation where I was filling all those as a Search lead. Telling myself that it’s because of resource constraints and pressure to execute flawlessly. I assumed that this was the nature of the job and couldn’t be changed. 

What was also contributing to my workload was an unhealthy dose of wanting to be helpful, difficulty to release control and feeling guilty for letting the team down, if I don’t do it. 

Sigh. 

The uncomfortable truth is that every time we step in to “help” with these tasks, we’re not just doing someone else’s job. We are actively preventing our team from developing the skills they need to succeed and progress. 

And crucially, you’re not doing the job you were promoted to do.

Your actual role should focus on four key areas:

• Strategic oversight: Setting direction and ensuring alignment across projects, channels, disciplines and PAs
• Operational support: Creating frameworks and processes that help your team succeed
• Escalation point: Handling genuine challenges that require your expertise
• Mentorship and coaching: Growing your team’s capabilities

If you’re feeling seen right now, you’re not alone. The struggle to delegate often comes from an array of factors:

• The pressure to maintain high standards (especially with demanding clients)
• The speed of delivery needed in digital advertising
• The fear that mistakes will reflect poorly on your leadership
• The (often correct) belief that you can do the task faster yourself
• The comfort of doing work you know you’re good at

But here’s the thing – your role isn’t to be the best at doing the work anymore. Your role is to be the best at developing others to do their best.

Here are some practical tips to start shifting the balance towards empowering your team: 

Shift from strength and growth delegation approach: 

• Schedule specific checkpoints rather than hovering throughout the process. This gives your team space to work while maintaining appropriate oversight.
• Accept different approaches. Unless there’s a genuine problem with the output, resist the urge to redirect work just because it’s different from how you would do it. Different doesn’t mean wrong by itself.
• Before any project starts, define what a “good” end result looks like. This gives your team a target to aim for and you a framework for evaluation that isn’t just “how I would do it.”
• Work on accountability and upskilling in the quieter periods. This can be related to understanding QAing and best practice, encouraging finding innovative ways and improvements etc. 
• Make it safe to fail. Create an environment where team members can flag concerns early without fear of judgment. Better to catch issues early than to have people hide problems until they’re critical.

By implementing those frameworks into your process, you will be able to shift your involvement from doing to guiding.

Next time, when you find yourself about to jump in to “do it quickly,” pause and ask yourself: “Is this helping my team grow, or am I just feeding my need for control?”

The path to becoming an exceptional leader is about creating an environment where your team can thrive, even when you’re not in the room, rather than being the best contributor. 

Yes, this transition takes time and yes, it can feel uncomfortable. But it’s essential for both your success and your sanity.

Your team is more capable than you think. Give them the chance to prove it.