Once leaders know how to delegate , it's time to figure out what to delegate—and to whom. This is part two of our three-part series on effective delegation.
When delegating tasks is unsuccessful, it's sometimes because the wrong task has been assigned to the wrong person at the wrong time.
Delegating strategically starts with clarity and facts about:
- the value of your time.
- your team's capabilities.
- the risk involved with the work to be delegated.
Here's how to make the call about delegating tasks using facts and logic.
Start with data, not vibe
Before delegating tasks, a bit of analysis is in order.
Track your time for a week—or review your calendar if you keep a detailed daily schedule—to see what you spend most of your time doing.
Research highlighted in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) recommends using a time log because leaders who keep track of their time can accurately identify time-consuming, repeated tasks that don't require their unique expertise.
What you're looking for are tasks such as:
- Recurring meetings that you don't need to chair (or attend).
- Reports or projects you review—but don't have to build.
- Operational tasks that interrupt strategic work.
- Activities that feel draining rather than energizing.
When you find these patterns, they inform your decisions about delegating tasks with data rather than impression. This is important because data removes ego from the decision.
Delegation filters that work
Once you've identified possible tasks to hand over to your team members, there are some practical filters to apply that will help confirm your decisions about delegating tasks.
1. The 70 percent rule
If someone on your team can do something 70 percent as well as you, delegate it—and coach them up. Perfectionism manifests as not relinquishing control, which is expensive and exhausting. Delegating effectively also saves your time and prevents burnout. Helping someone grow in skill compounds. Remember that the short-term drop in efficiency because you're not doing it yourself, this time, is worth the long-term gain of building capacity in a team member.
2. The Skill/Will Matrix
Restaurateur Danny Meyer, founder of the Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality Group, used this powerful yet simple tool for delegation. Essentially, this matrix evaluates team members on their Skill (ability) and Will (motivation). This helps leaders determine who is the best candidate for a delegated task and how to help ensure success.
The four quadrants are:
High Skill / High Will
Star Players: Delegate and empower. Provide autonomy.
High Will / Low Skill
Learners: Coach and guide. Invest in training.
Low Will / High Skill
Disengaged Experts: Motivate. Help them see the WHY, reconnecting them to purpose.
Low Will / Low Skill
Under-performers: Direct closely. Clarify expectations. Decide quickly if improvement is unlikely and reassigning the task is required.
3. The 80-20 percent lens
Which subset of your work (generally about 20% of the work) contributes the most value (generally about 80% of your value)? This is the work that you need to safeguard and protect your time to accomplish. It can help to consider, which tasks are the ones that require my expertise alone and drive disproportionate results? For most leaders, this is usually the territory of strategic thinking, forging key relationships and vision-setting. The top 20 percent of tasks/work is what you keep and the rest is what you delegate.
4. The Eisenhower Matrix
This tool has helped leaders who are contemplating delegating tasks determine what is the most important and/or urgent (so they can focus on the important). It's simple to use the Einsenhower Matrix quadrants to sort tasks into:
- Urgent and Important: Do it now or delegate to someone with high skill and high will.
- Not Urgent but Important: Book it into your calendar and spend time on it.
- Urgent but Not Important: Delegate it.
- Not Urgent and Not Important: Delete it.
A practical delegation decision-making tree
Before delegating tasks, run them through this checklist:
- Is this task mission-critical to my leadership role? Is there anyone else who can do this at least 70% as well as I can?
If yes, keep it. If not, continue.
- Is there a Skill/Will match on the team?
If yes, delegate it. If no, is it a possible development opportunity for someone who is almost a Skill/Will match?
- Is the risk manageable? Could mistakes be reversible?
If mistakes can be corrected, then this could be delegated with the right supports.
- Is this a good professional development opportunity for the delegation candidate?
If yes, then delegate it. If it's too much of a stretch, consider how to develop their skills for the next opportunity. A professional development plan integrated into the performance review process builds capacity with intention (and—bonus—is critical to retaining your top talent).
- Is the outcome clear? Can you determine check-in points?
If you can articulate what success looks like and define a pathway to achieve it, this could be delegated.
When you can answer yes to most of the points on the checklist, you should delegate the task.
Matching the task to the person
Here are three examples of how to apply the Skill/Will Matrix when delegating tasks. In addition to determining the right delegation candidate, you decide how to set them up for success with the right task to tackle.
- High Skill / High Will
A senior analyst on your team consistently delivers strong insights, proves capable of meeting deadlines and is looking to help the team in new ways.
Delegate: Ownership of financial modelling for a new product launch.
Your role: Set outcome expectations with due dates and step back.
- High Will / Low Skills
A new manager is eager but inexperienced in client negotiations.
Delegate: Lead a lower-risk client meeting.
Your role: Provide pre-meeting coaching and post-meeting feedback (consider using a feed-forward approach). - High Skill / Low Will
A technically skilled team member doesn't seem to be engaged.
Delegate: A visible, strategically relevant project that aligns with their skills and interests.
Your role: Clarify why this project matters, provide a clear deadline and give them autonomy in how to complete the task, while checking in to ensure it is on schedule. - Low Will / Low Skill
Under-performers: Direct closely. Clarify expectations. Decide quickly if improvement is unlikely and reassigning the task is required.
Safeguards to prevent boomerang work
Many leaders hesitate to delegate because too often, the work they assign to someone else comes flying right back at them.
Here are five safeguards to prevent the boomerang effect:
- Provide clarity: Define what successful outcomes will look like.
- Hold Capable: When/if there are gaps in the product, resist the urge to fix it yourself. Work with the team member who is taking on the task to ensure they have the tools and knowledge (and your expectation) to fix it themselves.
- Empower decisions: Specify what they can decide independently and what has to be approved.
- Give resources: Ensure they have access to and understanding of the budget, tools and resources available to them.
- Set check-ins: Make sure to schedule interim milestones that should be met prior to final delivery of the task.
- Be supportive: Find the right balance between taking a coach approach for success and hovering.
Most delegation breakdowns are the result of ambiguity, not incompetence.
This week's challenge for delegating tasks
Pick two tasks to delegate to someone on your team this week.
No more, no less.
Try delegating these two tasks as an experiment or exercise, using the filters we suggested above.
In part three of this series, we'll explore the deeper blockers to effective delegation. We'll examine why delegating tasks that you've carefully planned can fail and how to break the cycle.
Coach's Questions
Looking at how you've delegated in the past, what will you stop doing? What will you keep doing? What will you start doing? What milestone will reassure you that delegating tasks is working? What risk still worries you? What can you do to mitigate this concern?
