Learning To Delegate Tasks As A New Manager

"I'll delegate when I find good people." Translation: "I'll trust them after they prove themselves." Plot twist: They can't prove themselves until you trust them. Break the loop. Delegate to develop. Here's how: 1️⃣ What should you delegate? Everything. Not a joke. You need to design yourself completely out of your old job. Set your sights lower and you'll delegate WAY less than you should. But don't freak out: Responsibly delegating this way will take months. 2️⃣ Set Expectations w/ Your Boss The biggest wild card when delegating: Your boss.  Perfection isn't the target. Command is.  - Must-dos: handled  - Who you're stretching   - Mistakes you anticipate   - How you'll address Remember: You're actually managing your boss. 3️⃣ Set Expectations w/ Yourself  Your team will not do it your way.  So you have a choice: - Waste a ton of time trying to make them you?   - Empower them to creatively do it better?  Remember: 5 people at 80% = 400%. 4️⃣ Triage Your Reality - If you have to hang onto something -> do it.  - If you feel guilty delegating a miserable task -> delete it.  - If you can't delegate them anything -> you have a bigger problem. 5️⃣ Delegate for Your Development  You must create space to grow. Start here:   1) Anything partially delegated -> Completion achieves clarity.  2) Where you add the least value -> Your grind is their growth.  3) The routine -> Ripe for a runbook or automation. 6️⃣ Delegate for Their Development Start with the stretch each employee needs to excel. Easiest place to start: ask them how they want to grow. People usually know. And they'll feel agency over their own mastery. Bonus: Challenge them to find & take that work. Virtuous cycle. 7️⃣ Set Expectations w/ Your Team  Good delegation is more than assigning tasks:  - It's goal-oriented  - It's written down  - It's intentional When you assign "Whys" instead of "Whats", You get Results instead of "Buts". 8️⃣ Climb The Ladder Aim for the step that makes you uncomfortable:     - Steps over Tasks  - Processes over Steps  - Responsibilities over Processes  - Goals over Responsibilities   - Jobs over Goals  Each rung is higher leverage. 9️⃣ Don't Undo Good Work Delegating & walking away - You need to trust. But you also need to verify. - Metrics & surveys are a good starting point. Micromanaging - That's your insecurity, not their effort. - Your new job is to enable, motivate & assess, not step in. ✅ Remember: You're not just delegating tasks. - You're delegating goals. - You're delegating growth. - You're delegating greatness. The best time to start was months ago.  The next best time is today. 🔔 Follow Dave Kline for more posts like this. ♻️ And repost to help those leaders who need to delegate more.

2023 was the year I discovered I suck at delegating. It's the biggest blocker between me & career growth. Here are the 5 reasons why (and what I'm doing about it): 1. Old Mindset: delegation is "nice to have" 2. Getting lazy about delegation as projects pile up 3. Not consciously building delegation skills over time 4. Not having a simple framework to delegate more easily 5. Old Mindset: not-delegating is shielding my team from chaos and makes me noble These approaches worked well up to now. But as they say, "What got you here won't get you there." Here's what I'm changing. --- 1. New mindset: "Mastering delegation is mastering team development" Not delegating isn't protecting my people. It's stopping their growth. The more I delegate, the more they develop. I already care deeply about building my team's skills and finding excuses to argue for their promotion. By tying delegation to something I already care about, I'm strongly motivated to do it. (Tying new habits to things you already care about is a trick I learned in my coaching certification and something I do in every coaching call with clients.) --- 2. Create a master Kanban board with all my work projects. I call it, simply, "The Board." Each ticket is a project I touch in some way. Each has at least 1 subtask with a next action. It has over 20 projects (and still growing). Keep it simple with 5 columns: - backlog - waiting - queued for today - doing - done Tickets near the top are higher priority (i.e., rank ordered). Higher priorities are more important and more urgent. I label each project using the "RACI" framework to help prioritize: - Responsible: I do the work - Accountable: I sign-off on the work (& unblock when needed) - Consulted: I give advice on the work - Informed: I keep tabs on the work --- 3. Weekly Bottleneck Grooming Every week, I'll look at all my open projects, especially the ones labeled "responsible" and "consulted." Then I'll ask, "Where have I made myself the bottleneck?" and figure out how to fix it. The goal is to never be the bottleneck. --- 4. New Mindset: "Delegate by Default" This is the hardest and most important one. The goal is to reserve for myself the work that only I can do. As Peter Drucker put it, effective executives ask themselves, "What can I and no one else do which, if done really well, would make a real difference to this company?" --- Inspired partly by Annie Nelson, I plan on posting more about my development areas instead of things I've already figured out. It feels vulnerable, edgy and exciting. Want to get better at delegation this year with me? Follow so you don't miss out. Let 2024 be the year you #thinksenior and level up!

“I know I need to delegate more, but some things are too complex to hand off.” Sound familiar? This mindset keeps many founders stuck in the weeds instead of leading strategically. Let me share a practical framework I use with clients: The Delegation Staircase. It transforms overwhelming handoffs into manageable steps: Step 1: Let them shadow you • You do the task while they observe • Debrief afterward to share your thinking process • Build understanding through observation Step 2: They observe and explain • They watch you again • This time, they explain your rationale • They articulate why you made specific decisions, and you provide feedback Step 3: They do, you debrief • They perform the task • You review together • You provide feedback on what you might have done differently Step 4: They take ownership • They handle the task independently • Optional: You give final approval before delivery • Gradually remove the approval step based on competence The key? You don't have to jump straight to full delegation. Each step builds confidence - both yours and theirs. This approach has helped dozens of founders successfully delegate complex tasks, from board presentations to client strategies. What else has helped you delegate complex tasks? Or what other delegation challenges do you have? #StartupLeadership #Delegation #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching

In the last decade of building Quadrant Technologies, we went from a small team to 2000+ members. It’s been a great ride, but one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced has been ⤵ DELEGATION To be more precise - how to delegate the right way. After conversing with fellow entrepreneurs and mentors, I realized I am not alone. This is something that almost every entrepreneur battles with. 👉 What’s the solution? Over the years, I found a framework immensely successful. We utilize it actively at Quadrant Technologies. Jenny Blake, a career and business strategist & author of the book PIVOT: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, suggested this 6T delegation framework. Here’s my favourite 6T framework : 1️⃣ TERRIBLE AT: Know your weaknesses and delegate them. You can’t be perfect at every task, and you don’t need to be. Instead, knowing what you are not good at is your strength because now you know what to delegate. 2️⃣ TINY: Small, insignificant tasks that don’t need your attention add up to your to-do list & make you feel overwhelmed. Delegate them sooner. 3️⃣ TEDIOUS: Tasks that are not the best use of your time. As a business owner, your time is precious. Invest it in doing the tasks that move your business forward, and everything else can be done by someone else. 4️⃣ TIME-SENSITIVE: Tasks that need your urgent attention but distract you from the bigger goal. These tasks compete with your priorities. Choose your priority tasks & delegate these time-sensitive tasks. 5️⃣ TEACHABLE: List the tasks that can free up your to-do list if taught. Train your team members & delegate. Once your team is trained, they can always handle that work, saving you time. 6️⃣ TIME-CONSUMING: Delegate the tasks that consume a lot of your time but don’t yield big results. Follow the 80/20 rule here. Delegate the tasks that consume 80% of your time & are only 20% effective. Focus on the tasks that take 20% of your time but give 80% of the results. --------------------- Delegation is a skill that’s learned over time. This is one of the frameworks that helped us immensely in delegating work effectively. What has been your go-to delegation framework/tips? I would love to hear your perspective in the comments. #delegation #leadership

A VP I coached once told me, “I know I should delegate, but every time I try, I end up taking the work back.” He wasn’t alone. Many of my clients come in saying they want to delegate more because they know it’s the path to bigger roles, more strategic work, and greater visibility. But when we dig in, they’re stuck. Not because their teams aren’t capable, but because they aren’t fully comfortable letting go yet. Why? Because delegation surfaces hidden fears: 😵💫 What if they don’t do it like I would? 😵💫 What if it takes longer to explain than just do it? 😵💫 What if I lose visibility into the day-to-day? The thing is, these aren’t tactical blockers. They’re emotional ones that cause many of us to get stuck. Here’s how he got unstuck: 1. Started small. One task. One person. One clean handoff. 2. Set clear expectations. What success looks like, what to escalate, and when. 3. Built a feedback loop. Not to micromanage, but to stay aligned. As a result of making these small tweaks he freed up a couple of hours each week, his team stepped up, and he finally had space to focus on the work that lit him up - and got him noticed! What’s one task you could delegate this week and fully let go of? Let me know in the comments 👇🏼 or DM me if you're working through this right now. #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching #Delegation #CareerGrowth #PeopleFirst #ChangeManagement #FutureOfWork #StrategicLeadership #3KeysConsulting