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This guest article is by Simon Harris, Logical Model.
How to Delegate 101: From both the ‘Transactions’ and the ‘Transactions’
Clarify your requirements and confirm performance criteria
Understanding the context is key to success
How both parties should deal with issues
How to Report Delegated Work
How to Delegate to Anybody, No Matter Their Experience
To delegate from an experienced to a beginner
To delegate to an intermediate
To delegate the job to someone you trust (but who isn’t an expert)
Summary of the Four Delegation Styles Above
Responsibilities for DelegationDelivery Life Cycle Options
Clear and stable requirements vs. Unstable and unclear requirements
The Impact of people’s character
The Right Supervisory Level
The Key Takeaways
Simon HarrisLong time ago, I found delegating to be a confusing process. I was able to find guidance from a variety of sources about how to delegate effectively. It was easy to delegate effectively if you consider the right factors (in my opinion as well as that of my team!). It is the tangle of right elements that makes it easy for delegation to go wrong.
Let’s look at “What are the keys for getting it right?”
First, remember that delegation is a dialog. It is a two-way transaction.
Second, the transaction’s content changes depending on the combined competence and character of all parties.
Third, it’s a conversation that goes from initiating the delegation to agreeing on when obligations have been fulfilled.
Are you unsure what delegation is? This article will explain how to delegate tasks.
How to Delegate 101: From both the ‘Transactions’ and the ‘Transactions’
You have a duty as a delegator to:
Clear your goals – more information on the pitfalls is below
Give the environment, support, and resources necessary for the success of the delegate
Clear the reporting and escalation paths
Respond to reports and escalates.
You are the recipient of the delegation and have a responsibility to:
Confirm that the performance criteria have been mutually agreed upon and understood
You must have the ability and will to transform the resources into the desired result. More details below
Learn how to assess the status of issues, report them and escalate them appropriately
This is a nice text book. The real world is always in the way. It is easier to understand how to deal with the variations when you have a default approach that works in the ideal situation.
The duties are defined above. Below I will add the rights and ‘how-to’ steps for each party. You can mainly, but not completely, remain in the idyllic world of the ideal.
Clarify your requirements and confirm performance criteria
A pair is a set of requirements that are matched to agreed performance criteria. They are two sides of the same conversation.
It is easier to live a life that is clear, precise, realistic, and stable before delegating. However, life is not always perfect. The delivery life-cycle that is most suitable for your needs will be affected if requirements change or are unclear. Although delivery life-cycles are beyond our reach, I will touch on them below to provide some guidance.
The delegator must be able state the desired end result and exchange requirements. There are two ways to determine what is required:
Either: Describe what you want to achieve (Output, deliverable, product etc.). In this case, omit instructions about the actions that should be taken unless they are restrictive. Your delegate must know (or discover) how you will achieve the result.
Or, you can state what you want to do (behaviours, actions, or services etc.). In which case, acknowledge that the end of your sentence is
