Delegation is a 2-way street. With a new employee, delegation serves a training function. When you’re working with someone more seasoned, it’s still a critical process. Make sure you’re managing your side to maximize the impact leverage has on your bottom line.
8 points to consider when you delegate work to an employee or contractor:
- Define the assignment exactly. Describe end results as well as any interim deliverables. Consider mocking up tables or charts; indicate about how many pages you expect to see. Talk about how long you think it should take. Be as specific as possible. If you have something that looks similar, show it.
- Be clear on due dates and deliverables. Ask “when do you think you can have it done?” If the answer doesn’t meet the requirements, follow up to see if there are other priorities you can rearrange. At the end of the conversation be clear on commitments. Never leave it at “as soon as you can.” If you think the person has over-committed, question the deadline. You’re training your employee to be reliable as well as realistic.
- Specify when you want to see drafts or work-in-progress. If this is a complex task or a new deliverable for the person, you might want to see a very early draft to make sure the work is moving in the right direction. This can save you a lot of time on the back end.
- Establish approval and inerim check points. If there are any critical check points, create appointments for reviews. Make sure you aren’t a bottleneck in the project. Don’t let the dates slip without notice, keep the project on track or manage expectations. It’s very important that you and your employee respect these agreements.
- Identify anyone else who might need to be involved. Discuss dependencies. Ensure that anyone else who needs to be involved is aware of the schedule. Make sure your employee understands that he should raise a red flag if the project is slipping due to dependencies.
- Discuss anything else needed to start the project. Files or file/system access? Equipment? Supplies? Samples?
- Anticipate potential obstacles or challenges. Identify issues that might arise and how they might be preempted or addressed. Create an issue escalation process.
- Ask, “is everthing clear?” Each point should be discussed as needed. This is the wrap question, a chance to be sure you’re on the same page. If you have doubts, ask the person to run through the assignment with you. This seems like such a no-brainer question, but I promise you’ll get some surprising responses at some point in your career as a manager!
If you’re not getting satisfactory results from the work you’re delegating, the first place to look is in the mirror. Before you blast your employee, be sure you’re doing your job to set him up for success! Delegation is another task that takes time up front, when you feel you don’t have any. But if you don’t spend that time day 1, you just might end up wasting it on rework as you face a deadline too close for comfort.
