It’s often said that the best managers delegate a lot – but nobody actually tells you how you’re supposed to do it! Today, we’re going to look at what good delegation looks like and how to support your team. And next week, we’ll talk about how you get your manager to delegate more effectively to you.

Good luck with your future delegation! As always, reply to this email if you have any comments or any suggestions for future weeks. 💖

🤔 What does good delegation look like?

Good delegation is not just clearing your plate and dumping everything on your team to do instead. If you’re managing a team, you should be delegating projects to them that are:

• new in some way to provide challenge, and

• something that they have the potential to get wrong (and will need support with).

You can also delegate work if it is:

• recurring, if somebody else will have the time and energy to take it on as part of their normal responsibilities, or

• overloading you.

Being aware of your team members’ skills and growth plans is critical for effective delegation. That way, you can purposefully give them projects to gap-fill (things they haven’t done before, but should be able to) or stretch (things they aren’t able to do yet, but might be able to.)

You shouldn’t be delegating tasks that are way outside of their stretch zone – that’s just mean! (And probably means they won’t get done effectively.)

🌱 How can I support my team when I’ve delegated work?

Once you’ve decided what to delegate, the work isn’t over yet! Effective delegation includes spending time checking work, course correcting, and giving clear, direct feedback.

📝 Give them all the context they need.

Spend some time really considering all the information and resources they’ll need in order to have the best chance at success. They might not have had the same exposure to context that you have, so try to give them as much as you can.

Depending on your natural management style, you might choose to provide this in a meeting, in a document, or some other way – but just make sure you share it clearly. Give them a chance to ask questions at the start too.

🗓️ Clarify a clear timeline and milestones.

The worst thing to do when delegating is to set someone up with a task, a deadline, and then disappear. This is a development opportunity, and your people won’t grow effectively if they’ve been abandoned.

When you set up the project, make sure you set a clear timeline with any check-in milestones, and a deadline if relevant.

Once this part is done, you’ll need to step back so as to not micromanage. You have clear milestones to check in, and the team member should be able to proactively reach out to you if they get stuck in the meantime. Giving them space to explore, fumble a bit, and try their hand is how they’ll grow.

💬 Provide feedback.

At your check-ins, you’ll need to give feedback. It’ll need to be direct, clear, and actionable so that they can refine their work with clarity.

Remember to balance your feedback with a mix of praise and critique, as that will give your team member the most clarity about what’s working and what’s not. They should leave every milestone check-in with confidence and the drive to get better.

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