Mastering Delegation: The Art of Embracing Release

Having commenced my career as a software engineering intern right after college and ascending to the position of a senior software engineer, followed by a shift to leadership and engineering management, delegation has been an integral aspect of my professional voyage.

At the outset of my career, some people pointed out that delegation was my weak spot. However, with time and experience, I was able to master the skill and transform it into one of my core strengths.

Let's begin by exploring the meaning and importance of delegation.

Delegation can be simply defined as the act of assigning a set of tasks or activities to another person or party on your behalf. This can be a one-time occurrence or a recurring responsibility, and it involves transitioning from a 'doer mindset' to a 'teaching mindset.' As the delegator, you entrust the responsibility to the identified party, who becomes the delegate.

For instance, consider a family of four with a mother, a father, and two kids. The parents have a hectic work schedule, so the father delegates the task of cutting the grass to the elder son. This personal example highlights how delegation works, where the father teaches the son how to use the lawn mower, and eventually, the son can do it independently.

Similarly, in our professional lives, particularly in the technology industry, effective delegation is crucial for scaling our roles and responsibilities. Delegation is a powerful tool that enables us to avoid single points of failure within the team, scale ourselves, and create a multiplier effect. However, if not implemented properly, delegation can lead to a sense of losing authority, slow down progress, and result in unexpected outcomes.

Delegation of power and responsibility

Delegation entails two important aspects to bear in mind: delegation of power and delegation of responsibility. Delegating power involves granting some form of authority to the delegate.

To illustrate this, consider an example where you delegate the task of creating CRM reports to a team member. If you delegate this task, it means transferring similar 'power' to the delegate, granting them admin access to the portal.

Conversely, delegation of responsibility is slightly different, as it involves delegating the responsibility for a task. For instance, asking a team member to present a project report to leadership is an example of delegation of responsibility. While most scenarios may involve a combination of both, acquiring an understanding of the delegation process can be highly beneficial. Let's delve deeper into this process.

A step-by-step process for delegating tasks/responsibilities

1. Identify the task or set of activities to delegate

   The first step towards effective delegation is identifying the appropriate opportunity and timing for delegation. For instance, let's say you are responsible for creating a quarterly report on your team's project metrics, specifically, the sprint level burndown. After a few quarters, you feel overwhelmed due to being pulled into a critical new project, which is crucial for your company. The report task seems coachable and transferable, and you realize it can be delegated to someone else on the team, given the time constraints you're facing. This scenario exemplifies identifying tasks that are transferable and can help free up your time. To determine tasks that can be delegated, look for repetitive, coachable, and transferable skill tasks.

   
   

2. Identify whom to delegate

   Now that we have identified the task to be delegated, we need to look for who we can delegate it to. This can either be one person or can be multiple people or an entire team. As you decide on this, we need to look for a few key things before we decide on who to delegate. Supposedly you have a team member in your team who is looking to gain more experience in mentoring junior engineers.

   
   

   Perhaps if you have a new joiner in the team, it is a good opportunity to assign and delegate the onboarding of the new hire to this person in the team. It will help in two major ways- career development of the existing employee as you find them new opportunities to grow, and also help the new hire to onboard faster to your team. Finding the right person(s) for the job is a critical component of delegation and something that gets better with time and experience.

   
   

3. Understand how to delegate the task effectively

   Next, we have the two big pieces in the puzzle squared out, the task to be delegated and who it will be delegated to, but can this person or team simply do the task without your help? The simple answer is no. For any delegation to be successful, as the delegator, one needs to provide the right amount of support to help with a smooth and effective delegation experience. Now you may wonder what kind of support would be helpful.

   
   

   Few things to keep in mind(from my own experiences):

   1. Acknowledge that the delegate might be new to performing the task, so explain to them the task and activities involved as if you were to explain to a child.

      
      

   2. Let the delegate know that your doors are open for any questions or doubts they might have.

      
      

   3. Maintain a bi-direction flow of communication to ensure there are no assumptions and each one can be candid with each other throughout the process. Be clear with the goals and expectations to ensure no open-ended interpretations.

      
      

   4. Provide the desired training resources and documentation that can come in handy as they learn the task. Remember the time when you first time picked up a task and had a learning curve to be better at it.

      
      

4. Retrospect and gather feedback

   Feedback and retrospection are essential components of any process. Retrospection allows us to analyze what went well, and what could have been improved, and develop an action plan for the future. Delegation is a valuable learning experience for both the delegator and the delegatee, making it crucial to extract lessons from the process. Moreover, candid feedback should be shared to facilitate open communication and provide constructive criticism.

   
   

With this step-by-step process, one can aim for effective delegation and make this a win-win situation for both parties.

What to do if delegation does not go as expected?

Delegation will not always go as expected. Let’s say you expected your team member to create an operational excellence dashboard to be shared with the leadership team. You gave them the data points and instructed them to make use of the tool used by your team. Now when the time comes for you to review the report and soon present it to the leadership, you find out that the team member used incomplete metrics to build dashboards and also created reports on a week-by-week basis instead of the expected monthly cadence dashboards.

This defeats the whole purpose and you and your team member might have to cut a sorry figure in front of the leadership. This is a typical case of delegation gone wrong. Now let’s share some insights on how can we handle such situations.

Being involved in the process from the start, especially if it is the first time the delegate is performing the task, can help smoothen the process. This is also a chance for personal growth and collaboration for both sides toward a stronger partnership.

Rather than dwelling on the negatives, it's an opportunity to work together and generate ideas to resolve any issues and create a plan for improvement for the future. The way we can see delegation is teamwork, it is important for the whole team to succeed and sail together to the finish line.

In summary, delegation is an effective tool when used to its full potential and helps build trust and confidence with the team members. By learning from past experiences and continually refining your delegation approach, you can enhance your ability to empower your team and attain success. It's essential to bear in mind that no one is flawless, and even the most skilled leaders can make errors. The crucial factor is to extract lessons from those mistakes and leverage them as opportunities for personal development and advancement.