The Leader's Journey- Understanding the 6 Levels of Delegation

Delegation is a great way to manage time and build confidences in the decision making skills for your direct reports. Delegation helps motivate your staff by giving them responsibility. Your team will benefit by participating in activities and the decision making process; therefore becoming more capable and autonomous over time.

The organization will benefit from having a pool of staff that can cover each other, take more responsibility and resolve issues on their own. Please remember not to delegate responsibility without giving the authority to complete their assignment. So often we give our Team Leaders or Supervisors additional projects or assignments and then tie their hands by not giving them the authority to successfully complete their mission.

As a result, our direct reports shy away from additional skill building opportunities. A Leader must constantly think about delegating tasks to others not just to save them time but also to help the Team grow and become more capable and self-reliant.

Depending on how much control you want to have over a delegated task, you can choose from one of the six levels of delegation to control the outcome.

We will learn the "Six Levels" and review how each affects Control and Time to better understand how they can be utilized...

1. Do exactly as I say. Here is the situation and what I have decided.

• Impact on Control- We have total control over the delegation and the decision making process.

• Impact on Your Time: This provides absolute control but also requires substantial time on your part.

2. Look into this and inform me about various options. I will then decide.

• Impact on Control: You now trust the delegate to perform a thorough research which you can then safely use to make a decision.

• Impact on Your Time: You can spend less time on this as the delegate will help you on the task. However, since you are making the decision, you will still need to go over the details and spend some time on the task.

3. Consider this problem and give me your recommendation on how to proceed. I will then decide and share my decision with you.

• Impact on Control: You expect the delegate to provide recommendations so you only have to use your intuition to confirm the decision rather than carrying the analysis yourself.

• Impact on Your Time: You spend less time on the task as you don’t have to spend as much time on the decision making process. However, since you retain control, if the need arises you can quickly take over and make sure the task is carried out with the right quality.

4. Explore this issue and make a decision. Check with me before going ahead with the decision.

• Impact on Control: You delegate the task and the decision making, but still retain control in going ahead with a decision.

• Impact on Your Time: You spend only a small amount of time “signing off” on the tasks. As you are relying heavily on the delegate for the analysis and the decision, you can save considerable amount of time.

5. Solve this problem. Consider the following parameters. So long as these parameters are satisfied you can make a decision and go ahead with it. Otherwise, check with me.

• Impact on Control: You now trust the delegate to research and make a decision so long as it is within the limits that you set.

• Impact on Your Time: Minimal time is spent by you mainly to define the task and set the parameters. You are holding the delegate accountable and have significantly reduced the amount of time needed on your side.

6. Here is the problem. I want you to take care of it. I trust your judgment. Here are the resources available for it. Do what it takes to solve it.

• Impact on Control: You have given ultimate control over the task and the decision making process. The delegate is now accountable and responsible for the outcome and you have made this very clear. This is a high-level delegation and is usually carried out on strategic decision making when delegating to people who have a high level of autonomy and control over their roles.

• Impact on Your Time: The impact on your time is extremely small. The delegation activity is carried out more as a consultation or a discussion on resources and how decisions could impact other areas of work as oppose to a straight forward delegation activity.

Ask yourself...

Are you delegating at the right levels?

What should you do to be able to delegate at a higher level?

What are the specific benefits of delegation at a higher level to you and to your Team?

After Delegating, were you inspired by their techniques and approach to the Task?

Delegation Review

1. Consider a task that you want to delegate to your team members or your colleagues and record it below.

2. Choose a delegation level from the “6 Levels of Delegation” that is suitable for the task and the delegate. Describe how you approach the delegation task and record it below.

3. What strategies would you use to gradually increase the level of delegation in order to save more time and increase the efficiency of your team and organization? Record your strategy below so we can discuss it later...

Can you use these Delegation Techniques when managing your own Team?

Source: Trevis Baker via LinkedIn.com