Be efficient in delegation
In my recent years as a lead software engineer, it has become more apparent that I no longer have the time to tackle all of the tasks in the way that I used to. That led me to the research of optimizing my time. One of the numerous things that you can do for optimizing your time is to start delegating some of your workloads to your team.
Delegation is a luxury that many cannot afford. But if you are in a fortunate position and have people that are skilled and capable, then you can benefit from the amazing collaboration that comes through it. I want to share some of the more interesting points on the topic that I learned that might prompt you to research it further.
What should be delegated
To figure out if we should delegate something or not, we should ask ourselves the following question - Is the work that needs to be done one of your core responsibilities?
If yes, then we should not delegate it to a team member. Core responsibilities vary wildly depending on the type of work, company, and position that you are filling in. But you can think of the following list as an example of things you should not delegate:
Core functions or responsibilities e.g. individual contribution if you are a part-time member of a team.
Praise and discipline.
Team building and talent nurturing.
Mission, vision, and company culture.
Crisis management.
Is the work that needs to be done repetitive, and can be accomplished by a team member? Is this a growth opportunity for a team member?
Then delegation should be considered. Delegation can be an amazing growth opportunity for the team member. Especially if they are interested in growing into the particular role that you are filling in. It will help you build a relationship with them and will help them realize what you are dealing with as well. It can also help you learn more about that person and how they operate.
When people follow you because they have to, they usually only do what they have to.
Explain where we want to go
One of the best things that we can do is to be very clear with the direction that we want to take. We need to define what the mission of the team is. What do we mean by direction? Let's say in the context of a platform team, that is responsible for the work that happens across teams, we are constantly working towards these goals:
Developer productivity
Code quality
Performance
If we explain why we do certain things it makes it much easier for everyone to see how the intermediate steps that we do fit in the greater picture. And when we see the value of doing certain things, we can also add our insights into how to reach our goals faster. Here is a very good article[1] that I like to reference for creating a proper team mission.
Delegation means delegation
There are different ways of passing work to teammates:
You can tell someone to do something where the person just needs to execute.
Advise the team on a particular initiative but at the end let them decide the direction that they want to take.
You can also consult yourself with the team about a particular project where they help you reach the best decision forward and then pass that work to the team.
And then there is delegating where we ask the person or team being delegated to perform a duty in the best way they see fit. The person or team being delegated to are the experts on the subject matter. They know what needs to be done to finish the work to the quality standards agreed upon.
As stated above, delegation requires you to trust the person or team that is being delegated to that they know what they are doing. You wouldn't delegate a task to a person that you are not sure if they are capable of delivering on the task. So choosing the right team/person is very important.
Another thing is, we often feel the need to be involved. Being involved in a task that is being delegated is not delegation. If we are constantly butting in on the work and decision making then we are working on the task through another person or team. And with doing that we are not focusing on the responsibilities that require our focus and the reason we wanted to delegate in the first place.
There are multiple reasons why we feel like butting in and to be involved - ego, fear of the undesired result, deadlines… All of these issues can be handled by being more open-minded and making sure that we have processes in place so that we know what is happening without interfering too much.
Followups are crucial
Even though we said that we need to let the delegatee figure out the best way to execute the work at hand, it doesn't mean that we should just push and forget about it. Doing that is asking for trouble. The delegatee should be the person figuring out how to do the work the best way possible but we should make sure that the end goal is clear and that the project is going on the right path.
To make sure that things are going in the right direction one good idea is to agree on status updates. They can be in any shape and form that is acceptable for both parties from timelines to update formats. Doing these updates is important as they can surface any issues that the delegatee has and it allows us to act on those in time.
You don't want to be caught off guard when it's the project deadline to find out there has been a misunderstanding on the deliverables. In these updates, we have the opportunity to give guidance, advice, and anything that we think will improve the outcome of the work.
Don't be a blocker
An interesting thing about blocking is that quite often it happens that people delegating are the blockers themselves! By trying to be involved in the project and by constantly questioning the judgment of the delegatee. Whenever we feel like jumping in we should remember why we chose the persons taking lead on the work and trust in their decision making.
Instead of being a blocker, we should strive to unblock our delegatee whenever possible. We should enable them by believing in their ideas and advocating for those when discussing them with stakeholders.
Encourage learning
Sometimes people make mistakes. Especially when they have to do something for the first time.
That should not discourage us from giving those people the opportunity again. On the contrary, a person that has made a mistake before is unlikely to make the same one again.
As a person delegating we should set the stage for those mistakes to make them a learning opportunity. We can set up retrospectives where we dig deeper into why certain things happened the way they did so that we can avoid those in the future.
Conclusion
Delegation is a very powerful process to have. It ensures that we achieve the goals we strive for, it helps people grow, and helps us to think about what is important. For all of the above to work though, we need to build the right team. That topic deserves a post on its own which I will cover as a follow-up post and you can read the first link posted below.
Article links and some recommended reading on the topic:
[1] https://medium.com/walmartglobaltech/building-a-platform-team-d915221d5654
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6367993-the-busy-manager-s-guide-to-delegation
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16718755-delegating-for-business-success