How to delegate in hybrid

By the end, you will be able to delegate with confidence, clearly explain to a team member, what it is that you would like to have done and leave them empowered and able to get on with that work. I'm going to share with you five steps, simple, actionable advice that if you follow will help you delegate brilliantly and free up that valuable time that we all need.

Well, the truth is we don't see each other so often and there's friction in how we collaborate and communicate as a result of that. So if we think about it quite often, when we are co-located, we often rely on ad hoc ways of communicating and also as a manager you can just look across the floor and see what's going on. So you can swoop in if needed. Now, if people are working remotely from you, you have to be much more intentional when you delegate so that there is a clear understanding of what the task is at hand and what your expectations are behind it.

However, that is such a big opportunity and getting it right. First and most importantly, it's going to free up time to work on the important and high-value activities that you need to do.

Secondly, delegating is a brilliant opportunity to build the skills of your team around you. So building the capability of your team and in this day and age, when the great resignation is rife, people are really looking for job roles that challenge them, help them learn new skills and have new experiences. So the more you can deliver that for people the better.

The first step is working out what you need to delegate. And the important thing here to remember is prioritisation, grouping up similar tasks and knowing who does what on them. I think using this four-box matrix, which looks at urgency and importance is one of the easiest ways of doing that.

It's divided by high importance to low importance, top to bottom and urgent to non-urgent right to left. The first box that we're interested in is high importance and urgent, this is your domain.  You do this. This is work that will be adding value, but it is obviously important to the organisation in which you work, and as a consequence needs your personal touch.

 The next thing to do in step two is to think about who you are delegating it to before you go and have this conversation. The key thing to think about here is what is the level of experience of the person you're intending to delegate this to? Because this will help you in the planning of your brief because if somebody has less experience, you're probably going to be a bit more prescriptive.

Now step three is the bit that most people associate with delegating and it's briefing the individual. And the most important thing to remember here is you need to describe the outcome. What you're really doing is describing what is "done". 

So you've done step three, which is to explain what it is you want to be done. Step four is to have a conversation about the work. So this is where you have the opportunity to talk about, and let them talk about, how they see the work being done, and where they think they need help. It's a step where you're checking their understanding and their motivation.

Finally, in step five, you review whatever you've delegated in your one-to-ones.
One-to-one are an essential part of any managers operating system, and as a consequence of that, if you're having them weekly or biweekly, following up on a delegated task just becomes a natural part of the way in which you work together.