4 ways managers can build stronger teams by handing off work

In the final weeks of the regular season, there was intense grumbling by sports broadcasters about the practice of NFL teams resting their starters and giving their back-ups a turn. Shouldn’t teams always do their best to win, regardless of the stakes?

On the other hand, a strong second string is critical to a team’s success in the long run. And it’s much harder to learn by watching than it is to learn by doing. Perhaps coaches are ahead of the curve in understanding the power of delegation in building their players’ skills.

Managers are told that delegation is a critical skill for them. “Empower your team” is easy to say, but much harder to do. Since managers earned their role by being good at the work, it’s a challenge to start handing it off to someone else. They worry, “What if my team member underperforms or fails? I’ll just get blamed for it anyway.” Or they assume, rightfully so, it will be faster and easier to do it themselves.

Ultimately, that line of thinking stalls development across the whole team. The manager doesn’t build their delegation muscles, and the team remains dependent on the manager for direction and (micro)management. Not a winning gameplan.

Here are four ways managers can ease into delegation.

1. Assess the difficulty, novelty, and urgency of the task: For high-stakes tasks, you’ll want to engage a team member as a ride-along rather than the driver. Walk them through how you will tackle the task and your logic in handling it yourself. Get their feedback on your work-in-progress (in service of their learning) and explain each evolution of the final deliverable.
2. Set clear expectations for the final product: If there is sufficient time for multiple iterations and feedback, it’s appropriate to delegate. Set expectations for the output right at the start. If possible, provide examples of similar deliverables. Point out what you expect to be the hardest part of the assignment. And most importantly, define the level of rigor you want to see from any analysis, e.g., “We expect to see a full profile for each of the competitors including their value proposition, share of market, and strengths and weaknesses relative to us.
3. Schedule frequent checkpoints, especially in the early stages: Often, the hardest part of a new-to-you project is getting started. As a manager, you’ll want to establish a series of checkpoints over the course of the work with associated work-in-progress milestones. For example, tell the employee, “Let’s get back together in three days after you have reviewed the examples and thought about your approach. I can answer any questions and give you feedback on how you’re tackling this.” Another classic mistake is waiting too long to look at work-in-progress materials, either because of schedules or because the employee wants to get it “just right” –and then discovering that you’re miles apart on the intended output.
4. Praise the effort, not just the outcome: No one should be expected to produce an A+ result the first time around, especially for a challenging project. You can improve an employee’s willingness to take on more stretch assignments in the future if you provide sincere, positive feedback. For instance say, “I really appreciate you raising your hand for this piece of work. I could never have gotten it done without the leverage you provided.” In doing so, you are fostering a growth mindset and signaling that this is a team where effort counts too.

Final thoughts

It’s scary to put your results in someone else’s hands. Think how a coach feels every time their players take the field! But the team can’t grow and evolve, and neither can you, without intentional delegation.

If you’ve set clear expectations, provided feedback and support along the way, and matched the level of risk to the player, you’ve made the winning choice.