Learning to Delegate

Managers need to focus on managerial work. Some first-level managers still do some technical work, but they cannot assign themselves to the critical path. The point where it’s no longer possible to do technical and managerial work depends on the span of management responsibility and the amount of technical work. Giving up technical work is difficult for many technical people because technical work fuels a sense of competence and satisfaction. It’s easier to know when technical work is complete than to know when management work is complete.

If you’re not sure whether to delegate any of your technical work, review this table to see how much time you could devote to technical work.

images/MgmtTaskTime.png
Figure 8. Management task time
Decide what you can delegate.

Delegating is a primary skill for managers.The New Manager’s Survival Guide: All the Skills You Need for Success, 2nd Edition [Car95] Consider delegating technical tasks first. Once you’ve delegated the technical work, look at management tasks: decide which tasks are strategic and which are tactical. For example, selecting the metrics to include on a management report is strategic; gathering the data is tactical. Tactical work is ripe for delegation.Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency [DeM01]

Understand who has the skills to do the work.

Look for a match between the skills and aspirations of your staff and the tasks you consider delegating.Responsible Managers Get Results: How the Best Find Solutions—Not Excuses [FLP98] Consider development opportunities: if someone on your staff wants to move into a leadership role, those tactical tasks may be a great opportunity to begin to understand the management role. (Much of management is strategic work, but starting with the tactical work and moving toward more strategic work can help reduce the learning curve for aspiring managers.) If no one on your staff has the skills or interest to do the work, consider whether you need more people.

Consider delegating an investment.

The payoff for delegation isn’t always immediate. Don’t expect the other person to be 100% productive on a new task. Unless someone has had experience, he or she may not know how to do all aspects of the work. You may still need to coach.A Real Go-Getter [Der04] Eventually, the investment will result in increased capability and lower risk, because another person understands the task.

Consider the specific results you want.

You may have specific deliverables in mind. Or you may be willing to accept a range of results. Communicate the task parameters including time and quality to the person to whom you’re delegating. Focus on the results rather than methods.Tips for Passing the Baton [Rot02] How-to direction is micromanagement.

It takes courage to delegate.Principle-Centered Leadership [Cov91] It also requires trust. You must trust that other people can do a good enough job, even if they don’t do the task quite as well or exactly the way you would.

Decide how the two of you will monitor progress.

Establish periodic checks on progress.The New Manager’s Survival Guide: All the Skills You Need for Success, 2nd Edition [Car95]Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenge of Leadership [Hil92] Use frequent checks with less experienced people, and use fewer with those who are more experienced. Provide encouragement, feedback, and help as needed.

How Many People Can You Manage?

Many newly minted managers live in two worlds: they still have technical work, and management responsibilities. Inevitably, the new manager squeezes in management tasks between technical work. And that’s creating a high possibility of failure—for the manager and the team.

A minimum list of management tasks for a hypothetical new manager with three or four direct reports is shown in Figure 8, ​Management task time​.

Plus, there is time spent on organizational issues (probably in meetings), and ongoing work such as budgets, status reports, email, phone messages, requests for information, and the inevitable task switching. These represent the minimum management tasks, and the estimates are optimistic; the minimum management tasks may take more time (unfamiliar tasks always take more time), but they seldom take less time.

If there aren’t too many organizational problems, the manager with three people on her team may have time for some technical work. We strongly recommend managers avoid technical work that’s on the critical path—it’s a no-win situation. When the manager attends to management work, their technical work suffers; when attending to technical work, the team proceeds without a manager.

With four people in her group, the balance between technical work and management work shifts. In the best case, that leaves a whopping sixteen hours to deal with organizational issues and complete technical tasks. That’s not enough time to do either well.

Maybe you’ve mastered the technical/management juggling act. You’re doing both and even have some slack. It won’t last long—people who perform well are asked to do more, and soon have more people and responsibilities.

In our experience, most people don’t master the juggling act. Unfortunately, when push comes to shove, technical work trumps management work. For new managers, technical work is more familiar and the consequences of dropping technical tasks are more visible. But dropping management tasks has consequences, too.

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