TheFieldGeneral

Errors Inexperienced PMs Make: How to Delegate(Part 2 of 3) March 17, 2013

You’ve finally decided to delegate something. However, you are still worried about the task. How do you make sure they understand what you are asking? How do you make sure you send things in the right direction? How do you cleanly hand it off to the people that are executing the work?

Thanks to Philo Nordlund @http://www.flickr.com/photos/philon/

In order to delegate a project, put together a clear written charter with scope, timeline, and authority defined. Nothing is worse than going to the first project review and realizing that the team just got it wrong.

Here are some guidelines:

1. It should be a document, spoken directions are just too easy to misunderstand.

2. Define the Goals. Goals are the desired end state of the project with time frames. They differ from scope in that they are usually broader. You need to define goals because sometimes your scope is wrong. Your delegates should be closer to the project than you and understanding your goals will allow them to notify you when described scope conflicts with the end goals.

3. Define the Scope. Scope should define what the team needs to do. This can be as broad or as narrow as you like. The key thing is to make sure the detail matches the skill level of those you are delegating to. A highly skilled team might require only broad strokes. (“Find a way to sell this property for $200K more than we bought it for.”) A more inexperienced team might require additional direction. (“Get a property value assessment. Solicit local realtors to find our how we can improve value cheapest. Suggest the improvements, I will approve. Execute the improvements. Put the property on Sale and execute the sale. Report back to me every two weeks.”) If you use a broad plan, you can also require the persons accepting the responsibility to take the broad goals and break them down into a detailed, actionable plan. This is a good strategy as it reduces your prep time and gives them a stake in the project while maintaining your control.

4. Define a Timeline Timeline is really a part of the scope, but it is important enough that I want to mention it separately. Every person has a weakness that might prevent them from completing the project in a timely manner. Some people just don’t work well without a deadline. Others will procrastinate. Others will freeze seeing the work as monumental unless there is an established end date. I personally like to establish several intermediate goal dates as it lets the team know I will be periodically checking up on the project. One key item here, set the dates then allow the team to talk about them and adjust them. If they agree to the time frames, they are committed to them.

5. Define Project Authority When you define project authority you will indicate if other designated resources have been assigned to the project and how much control the responsible leaders have over them. You will also describes when the leaders need to come to you for approval. With very inexperienced resources you may only allow them to execute exactly to the charter with no variation. With other resources you may find that allowing them to bring you solutions to approve is more efficient. With your most trusted and experienced team members you may only ask to be informed of decisions, giving them partial or complete decision making power. Knowing the amount of ceded authority gives your delegates the confidence to act. Michael Hyatt talks about The Five Levels of Delegation a good structure for defining delegated authority.

Below is a sample Charter. It’s only a piece of a larger document. It could have been improved by having a clearly and separately stated goal from the scope.

Sample Charter

One  thing you will notice, is that all of this charter preparation takes time. I have had initiatives languish for weeks because I just couldn’t carve out the time to put together the charter. Despite this, I would encourage you to stand fast and complete the written charter before trying to delegate a responsibility. The consequences of not doing so are a project that travels in the wrong direction. The wasted effort is bad enough, but the real cost is the frustration of your engaged resources who often have to throw away some or all of what they’ve already done.

Tell me about your experiences delegating.

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Errors Inexperienced PMs Make: When to Delegate (Part 1 of 3) March 13, 2013

Delegation is a hard skill to learn and most newbie managers do it wrong. They over-delegate or under-delegate. They micromanage or abandon responsibility entirely. Ultimately they lose the most important resource, time. Whats the right way for a new manager to delegate?

Thanks to duex-chi @http://www.flickr.com/people/deux-chi/

So you’re a brand new minted manager. The sword has just left your shoulders and you have been sent into the world to slay dragons. Pint-sized firedrakes are not the only lizards on your hit list. There are also huge ancient beasts that make Tolkein’s Smaug look like a gecko. You need troops to accomplish the tasks before you. However, troops do you no good if you don’t deploy them properly.

Here’s a quick guide in three parts to delegating the fight:

When (and why) to Delegate
I think there are several key reasons to delegate.

1. If someone else can do the job better than you, delegate it to them.

A lot of sources will say if they can do the job 80% as well as you, you should give it up. That’s fine, but if you are short on troops you may have to settle with keeping more of the grunt work.

2. If you can’t get enough concentrated time to execute the tasks of a project, delegate them.

I often find that my day is consumed by meetings. Even the time I do have is in 30 minute to 1 hour spots. This often makes it impossible for me to progress on efforts that require concentrated 2 or 4 hour segments of work. I usually have to turn these items over to subordinates even though I might be able to do them better. Their schedules tend to be more free than mine and they can execute these longer tasks because they can fit them in. The nice thing about this is that you can still review the finished work. This ensures quality and in the end increases your subordinates skill if you coach them properly.

3. If you consistently, despite your best efforts, fail to achieve a task, consider delegating it.

The most likely reason for this failure is lack of priority. You may think it is lack of skill (in which case see item A) or lack of time (in which case see item B), but the most likely reality is that you have the skill and time, you simply cannot get it high enough up the priority list to do it properly. If this is the case you need to first consider how important it is. You have three options: Decide not to do it, Decide it is important enough to do this instead of other things, or delegate it.

My organization does time tracking and one item I have consistently not done well is open new “buckets” for projects. It only takes a few minutes, but I rarely go into the application that does this. It’s only a priority when it hasn’t been done. But it’s ultimately critical to our financials. When I didn’t do it, my people felt neglected. At one time, I asked them to remind me if I didn’t get it done, but that felt wrong. I would certainly be upset with them if they didn’t do what I asked unless I reminded them. So in the end I trained several of my leads to do the work so that if I got tied up I could simply send the work out to them.

A note to servant leaders: Do not confuse delegating with not serving.

I am a proponent of servant leadership. Often times servant leaders want to help their followers so much they won’t delegate. Remember, delegation frees you up to serve more effectively. It gives your subordinates the chance to learn. It prepares the organization to operate without you when you move up to the next level or “win the lottery”. A servant leader serves his people and organization best when he learns to delegate.

When and why do you delegate?

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