Do you know how to delegate?
An oak tree standing beside a river with tall reeds, stormy with lots of wind, oil painting / Dall-E
I recently revisited one of my favorite books, The Effective Manager (link: The Effective Manager Book | Manager Tools ), and found the chapter on delegation to be extremely timely.
Delegation is a skill, just like any other managerial behavior. Knowing when to delegate, how to do it, and how to support the person you’re delegating to, all are key components of delegating successfully.
What should I delegate?
Small work. Remember, for the person you’re passing the work to, a small task will be a big project (at least initially). Don’t overwhelm people with massive, complex work all at once. Simply saving yourself a couple hours every week is enough to make room on your plate for more impactful projects.
Who should I delegate to?
Give people projects they’re interested in. Use your understanding of what people are curious about, good at and want to achieve. Try to avoid simply delegating stuff you don’t like doing - instead make the process of offloading work to a report something that they see real value in, either for their career, their interests or their desire to learn and acquire new skills.
How do I do it?
The Manager Tools book provides a really simple process for delegating. It looks like this:
State your desire for help
Tell them why you’re asking them
Ask for specific acceptance
Describe the task in detail
Address deadline, quality and reporting standards
(Manager Tools, pg 173)
The big insight here: Explain why they’re the right person and ask for their buy-in (steps 2 & 3) before explaining the details of the task (step 4). This fundamentally changes how they listen to the task description - instead of listening for reasons to avoid saying yes, they’re now listening with an ear towards figuring out how to make this work their own. It’s a subtle bit of psychology that research shows drives a stronger sense of ownership and better results overall.
Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!
Quick Reads:
Pay Transparency Becomes Law in New York City - If you want a simple (but challenging) way to increase equitable outcomes in compensation, publish your pay ranges on job postings. A huge step forward in the law, hopefully more cities and states follow suit.
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