Win-Win Delegation

I started doing management work long before I officially took a management job. One wise boss gave me a chance to practice parts of management by delegating some of his work to me. I learned about budgets, project portfolios, and strategic planning long before I made the transition into management. (I never did enjoy budgets, but at least I knew how they worked.) My boss used delegation to create a win-win situation: I learned valuable skills, and he had more time to focus on other priorities.

When you start looking at your workload, first determine if the work is really important. Better to get rid of busy work completely than delegate it to someone else. Make sure that the work you are delegating will buy you significant time and create a learning opportunity for your staff member.

Match Skills to the Task
Match the work and the recipient carefully. You want to provide a chance to learn a new skill and practice it, not create an impossible task. Someone who is good at planning and organizing her own work might be a good candidate for taking on one of your small projects. A staff member who enjoys analyzing defect data might be a good candidate for gathering metrics and creating trend reports.

Determine How Much to Delegate
Decide how much of the task you're handing off. Are you interested only in the end product, or do you want to check-in on intermediate steps? Look at the skills and experience of the person you're delegating to and formulate the delegation appropriately. Consider delegating in steps. For example, when you delegate a project to select a new defect-tracking tool, first delegate the investigation, then generating alternatives, and finally making a recommendation.

Explain Why
Describe how the task fits into the big picture, why it's important, and who benefits from the work. Providing a rationale will help the person assuming the task develop judgment and understanding. Without the why people are only learning what to do, not how the task adds value and benefits the organization. And people make better decision when they understand the context.

Delegate Authority with the Task
Make sure the person has the authority to accomplish the work. Telling the team member isn't enough. Other people in the group must know that you've delegated the task as well. One tester I know complained that her boss had delegated the job of collecting status to her without telling the rest of the team. When she went to talk to her teammates about progress, they responded by asking, "Who died and made you queen?" The boss had made her status queen—but hadn't bothered to tell anyone. Handing over the work without the authority is a set up for friction, frustration, and failure. Offer Coaching
For unfamiliar tasks or those that are building new capabilities in your team members, offer coaching. Don't ask, "Do you need help?"; people may reflexively answer "No." Instead, ask, "What sort of coaching would you like?" This establishes a presumption that receiving help is normal, not a sign of failure.

Focus on Results
When you delegate work, focus on the results you're looking for. Describe what those results are and list any specific criteria that should be met. Are there any options that would be unacceptable? Describe those, too.

Once you've described the results, let go! Allow the staff person to figure out the how. Prescribing the method for accomplishing the work comes across as micromanagement.

When you delegate a task, completion may take a bit longer than it would take you to do the work. Consider it an investment: you are directly building capability in your staff, and investing in helping the other person build her skills by paying attention to her career goals. This investment will build trust and contribute to retaining staff. The time it takes to complete a task will lessen as the person becomes familiar with the steps involved. In the meantime, if the work meets quality and time requirements, you're headed in the right direction.

A Word of Caution
Now that you're reducing your workload, make sure you aren't overloading your staff. Don't pile more work onto the already overloaded.

Use delegation to help you and help your staff grow. Look for interest and opportunity; define reasonable chunks based on skills and risk. Give people enough rope to move around, but not enough rope to hang themselves.