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Have a Game Plan

Rarely is any endeavor successful without a plan. Christopher Columbus may not have known the final outcome of his voyage when he left the shores of Europe, but he certainly had a plan for making the journey nonetheless.

And delegation requires no less of you. All great achievements require thinking, analyzing, and preparing. When delegating, you’ll need to assess your team; determine to whom you will delegate what tasks, responsibilities, and decisions; how you will get your team’s buy-in and commitment; how you will set expectations and measure performance; and how you will keep your team motivated until the mission has been accomplished.

Also, if it’s the first time you are delegating to an employee, plan for it to take time. You will likely need to give detailed direction the first time around, and the employee may have a number of questions up front and throughout the process.

You will also need to plan for possible failure. After all, delegating is a risk. What will you do if a team member is not performing up to expectations? How will you adjust course if delegated decisions move the project offtrack? How will you provide feedback and realign expectations, resources, and so on?

But you will also need to plan for success. How will you recognize and reward your team members? How will you build on their experience? How will you harness the team’s success and use it to drive future projects?