Delegation is incredibly important. An organization cannot survive without managers who can effectively and efficiently delegate tasks to staff. Managers who fail to learn this critical skill will find they and their teams inefficient and ineffective. These are the managers who try to do it all and inevitably burn out and fail.

As an engineering manager in a matrixed organization, I’m in a unique position when it comes to delegation. I have multiple managers who delegate to me and multiple staff that I delegate to. Through this experience, I have come to learn two truths:

1. Many engineering many don’t know how to delegate
2. The managers who do know how to delegate are fantastic to work with.

In my post today, Im going to dig into when you should delegate, and how to do it effectively.

When to delegate

If you’re anything other than the most junior of engineers, you should be delegating, and doing it frequently. A good rule of thumb is this: if someone else more junior to you can do a given task, then they probably should.

This might seem strange – wrong, even. Should you really be giving other people that much of your work?

Yes, you should, and here’s why: there’s no such thing as getting everything done. Neither you, not anyone else in your organization will ever make it to the end for your to do lists. That’s just not the working world we live in today. This means that it’s absolutely mandatory that you focus your efforts on those things that:

1. Only you can do
2. Are important with respect to the organization meeting its goals.

It’s pretty clear why items that meet these criteria are the ones you need to focus on: if you don’t do these, nobody will, and the company will not meet its objectives.

If you look through your own to do list, you’ll likely find that the majority of things can either be done by others or aren’t actually that important. You need to eliminate the unimportant and delegate the rest.

Approaching your task list this way allows you to focus on the things that only you can do, and gives others the opportunity to learn and grow by taking on work they would not have otherwise. When done properly, delegation is a win-win arrangement for both the delegator and delegatee.

How to delegate

When delegating, it’s important first to pick the right person to delegate to. You can chose either to give the task to an expert or to someone still developping the skills needed for the task. If high quality and quick turnaround are needed, then an expert is your best choice. Otherwise, you may concider chosing someone who is capable, but who will be stretched by the assignment. This way, the delegatee grows and will get one step closer to becoming an expert in that particular task.

Once you’ve chosen who to delegate to, it’s important to communicate a few key things:

1. What needs to be done
2. Why it’s important that the task be done (organizational context)
3. What the budget is (time, money, other resources)
4. What the deadline is
5. What level of quality must be attained
6. How to prioritize this task in relation to other tasks

I find it best to communicate what I need verbally so that I can explain myself fully and answer any questions that the delegatee may have. Afterwards, I follow up in writing to ensure clarity and allow for task tracking later on.

It’s important to have some sort of system for tracking what you’ve delegated. I’ve used several different systems in the past, including Excel, SharePoint, Asana, Outlook, Redmine, and even simple pen and paper. Each has their strengths and weaknesses – just use whatever is most practical for you and your organization.

One thing to note in particular here is that I didn’t list “How the work is to be completed” as a key thing to communicate. Telling somebody how to do their work is the definition of micromanaging. That’s bad. If you feel the need to tell someone how to do their work, you’re either bad at delegating, or you’ve chosen the wrong person to delegate to. Look

Once you’ve delegated something, leave the delegate alone. If you’ve chosen the right person for the job, and have communicated the items suggested above, you can be confident that the work will get done. Meddling in the work serves only to distract you and distract the delegate, meaning nothing is getting done as efficiently as it could be.

Next Steps

Armed with this new knowledge, I’m challenging you to take some time today to look at your own task list and think through which things really only you can do and are important to have done. For the remaining tasks, think about which experts or up-and-comers could take them on. You’ll be amazed at what all you can get off your plate and how great it feels to be able to focus clearly on those things that really and truly demand your attention.

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