As a manager, more people will ask you for more things. We’ve already talked about what to do when you have too much to do in The Value of Giving Up, but what do you do when you can’t even handle the amount of things you’re being asked to do?

This is where delegation comes in.

How to delegate

1. Direct them to the person to ask
   • Someone on my team is our “go to” expert for how we track and update certain information in our system. On another team, the data engineers were working on updating a process that might clash with our process. When the data engineers come to me to ask about it, I just say “Can you ask this person about it?”
2. Give context to the person you directed to
   • I immediately go to that person and give them context. “Hey the data engineering team is going to be asking you about updates they’re making to a process. I think there’s a chance it may overlap with the process that you own. Can you give them information about how we do it on our side, where the potential clashes are, and any recommendations you have about how to avoid these clashes?
3. Make sure you get updates
   • “Take notes when you talk with them. Afterwards, can you send me a little summary of what you talked about, what decisions were made, what standard operating procedures we’ll need to update, and any outstanding questions?”
4. You follow up with your team member
   • Once you get the update from your team member, ask clarifying questions and provide feedback where you can. If any decisions were incorrect, provide additional context for why the decision was incorrect and what you would like the decisions changed to.
5. They follow up with each other
   • Get them to talk again to clear up any issues, adjust any decisions, and provide another update
6. Your team member updates the whole team
   • The team member can give the team a summary of what was discussed, what decisions were made, and what standard operating procedures need to be updated.

At this point the order doesn’t matter, but there’s still a few things left to do.

• Update relevant standard operating procedures
  • You, the team member, or another team member who is an expert on the relevant standard operating procedures can update them. Remember that even this is an opportunity for more delegation.
• Additional follow ups
  • Make sure that you delegate out tasks somewhat evenly on your team. And be sure to check in on your team in 1:1 meetings to make sure they’re keeping their heads above water. You and the team member can give each other feedback on how this delegation process went, and how to improve it next time.

Why it matters to you

In Scaling Up’s function accountability chart, they mention that you should watch out for some people’s names showing up too many times. Basically, if you, or some people on your team, have too many responsibilities delegated to them compared to the rest of your team, there’s a real risk that someone’s going to burn out. If you’re not delegating some tasks, eventually you won’t be able to keep your head above water.

Why it matters to your team

Delegating is a great opportunity to let your team members individual skills, talents, and expertise shine. As the manager, you’ll have built up a lot of context based on cross-team conversations that you’ve had. A good leader will find ways to disseminate that context to the rest of the team, but by delegating, you can build that skill in your team.

For example, someone on my team is our go to expert on how we track and update certain information in our system. There are data engineers on another team that are looking into improving a related process. When the data engineers come to me to ask about the process, I send them straight to the expert on my team. I trust them to set up the meetings they need to on their own, and we have developed an understanding that the context and decisions from those meetings should be transmitted back to the rest of the team afterwards. By building this process on the team, individual contributors learn to communicate like managers, they can build relationships and rapport across teams, and it helps prepare them for the opportunity to move into a leadership position if/when that’s what they want.

Not everyone needs this much information, and the amount you want to take in is up to each person. Individual team members can choose the level of context they want. They can read through the full update, only review the decisions that were made, or just wait for a new version of our standard operating procedures to be published.

Wrapping up

Delegating tasks allows everyone to stay on top of the work that needs to be done, gives team members practice on how to communicate like a manager, builds relationships and rapport across teams, and prepares your team for the next stage of growth.