Lead Smart

CHAPTER 6Delegate early and well

Delegation, in the corporate work context, is the act of assigning the responsibility of a task or a project to someone else. It is a crucial tool in a leader's kitbag, and one, unfortunately, not always used as often as it should be or with enough attention to quality.

In most teams, work is often created by the leader, or will flow through the leader to their team. Of course, this is not always the case, and in the most effective teams, work will flow below the level of the leader and not need to involve them at all. But when issues arise, or opportunities pop up, or a course of action is decided upon, it may fall to the leader to decide who they delegate the execution of the work to, and to ensure that it is done in a timely way to the right level of quality.

This is often not as easy as it sounds, as you are busy, they are busy, and this new piece of work is probably competing with many other priorities and deadlines. But if done in the right way, delegation is the key to the effective progression of work in a high-performance team.

When should you delegate?

Q: When should we delegate?

A: Whenever the work is a better use of someone else’s time or skillset.

One of the main reasons why leaders and managers may not delegate as much as they should is a need for control. They might not see it that way, and often tell themselves stories about why they are not delegating the work: ‘My team is already overloaded’; ‘It would be quicker to just ...