You can't do everything!

In partnership with

Ahoy,

Today is a delegation 101 session.

A “delegation for dummies” type approach.

For those of you that have read much of my work, you’ll know I’m always a big advocate of empowerment over delegation.

A subtle nuance that has a huge impact on the “buy in” to the work your team are doing.

However, empowerment isn’t always possible, or always required.

We shouldn’t not give work out just because we can’t find a way to “empower people with the task”. Sometimes you just need to delegate work.

For multiple reasons people find this challenging, or just go about it all the wrong way, so we’re going to break it down into easy to understand steps.

This is a broad overview, I know there is always nuance, and you should always feel free to use your best judgement as a leader to adapt these steps for your team as required.

But for the sake of simplicity, we have to start somewhere!

So where do we start when it comes to delegating?

Step 1) Understand what needs delegating.

I do this through the Eisenhower matrix:

It’s extremely simple. Personally, I use this as a planning tool in order to prepare my day by populating it with the tasks I need to get done. However, you can even use this as a frame of reference for when tasks appear throughout your day. Just think where this new task would fall on the matrix and react accordingly!

So if you’re not sure what you should delegate, start in that bottom left box.

Note: By “important” we tend to mean “can only be done by me”. For example, your taxes are really important and need to be done by a specific time, but it doesn’t need to be done by you, you could hire an accountant instead. Therefore it falls in the delegate box. However, wishing your mum a happy birthday can only be done by you, so don’t delegate it!

Step 2) Handover the task effectively.

It’s not good enough to just say “do this job for me”…

We need details of what needs doing! But that doesn’t mean a point by point breakdown of how to do the job.

The best way to deliver the task effectively is to provide a Definition of Done (DoD).

We used this all the time in our ‘action grids’ on board submarines. Instead of writing out the whole task, we would simply describe what the situation looked like after the task was done.

For example if you want a report written you could provide the following details:

• Date/time the report is needed to be completed by.

• It all fits on one page with a word count of 500.

• Use the data provided by…

• Report tracker is updated.

• Supervisor has reviewed the work and has given it the all clear.

The point being, you have a description of what you want the finished product to be, while giving the team member the space to do it in the way they see fit.

Step 3) Review

Look, I get it.

People will never be able to do the work as well as you can…

Firstly, wrong.

Secondly, what you think is right, is usually just your preferred style.

For example, if someone handed you the report from step 2, and you didn’t like the wording but it hit all the requirements, why does the wording really matter?

Just because it’s done differently to the way you would do it, doesn’t make it wrong!

Also remember, if you’re going to spend just as long sending it back and forth to the team member telling them to make changes, you may as well have just done it yourself!

Not to mention the amount that will annoy whoever is doing it (we’ve all been that person making 100 small changes for a picky boss).

But that’s it.

1. Identify what you need to delegate.

2. Hand over the task effectively.

3. Review it/approve it.

Three easy steps to delegating effectively.

As always, have a great day.

Reece