{"id":26592,"date":"2021-02-13T09:20:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T13:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=26592"},"modified":"2021-02-14T23:42:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T03:42:31","slug":"steps-of-delegation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What are the steps of delegation? How can you be a more effective delegator?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Delegation can be a challenge for managers. Learning these steps of delegation can help you streamline your process and delegate in a useful way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about the steps of delegation and how they work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Steps of Delegation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To give yourself time to do the valuable and high-leverage actions in this chapter and the previous ones, you\u2019re going to have to stop doing low-leverage activities. You can do this by delegating\u2014many lower-leverage activities do need to be done, but not necessarily by you. But first you need to learn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-delegate-effectively-covey-7-habits\/\">how to delegate<\/a>. Here are the steps of delegation: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. You and the person you\u2019re delegating to need to know the same information and be in agreement<\/strong> about how to do the task. If the person you\u2019re delegating to can\u2019t do the task without you giving them step-by-step instructions, you\u2019ll need to spend a lot of time giving directions, and the leverage of this time will be low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. You can keep the tasks you like doing as long as you\u2019re consciously aware<\/strong> of what\u2019s motivating your decisions to delegate or not to delegate. If you give away a task but can\u2019t let go, you\u2019ll spend time on it regardless, and your leverage will remain low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. Monitor the person you\u2019ve delegated to.<\/strong> Even if you\u2019re not doing the task yourself, you\u2019re responsible for it getting done, so you can\u2019t completely step back. To monitor:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Check tasks at early stages (draft rather than a polished final report), so that people don\u2019t spend a lot of time finessing something with substantive problems.<\/li><li>Monitor people more often if they\u2019re doing something new or unfamiliar, but less often if they have experience with the specific task you\u2019ve given them. (Monitor based on task-relevant experience, not experience in general.)<\/li><li>Take samples of the work you\u2019re monitoring instead of inspecting everything. You only need to check enough work to make sure things are going well.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>(For more on monitoring, see the \u201cTesting\u201d section in Chapter 6.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4. When possible, delegate the tasks you\u2019re familiar with<\/strong> rather than the ones you aren\u2019t because it will be easier to monitor something you already know how to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5. If you\u2019re delegating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/methods-of-decision-making-crucial-conversations\/\">decision-making<\/a>, monitor the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rational-decision-making-process\/\">decision-making process<\/a>.<\/strong> Ask the person to reflect before presenting a decision. Then, ask a question to monitor how well she reflected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, at Intel, when someone decides to purchase new capital equipment, she prepares a presentation and requests approval. After the presentation, her superiors ask her about her decision to confirm that she\u2019s thought through everything.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowing how to delegate can make you more effective and help you build a stronger, more productive team. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are the steps of delegation? How can you be a more effective delegator? Delegation can be a challenge for managers. Learning these steps of delegation can help you streamline your process and delegate in a useful way. Read more about the steps of delegation and how they work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":15929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,14],"tags":[205],"class_list":["post-26592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-management","tag-high-output-management","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What are the steps of delegation? As a manager, you&#039;ll have to delegate some tasks. Here&#039;s how you decide what to do, and who does what.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What are the steps of delegation? As a manager, you&#039;ll have to delegate some tasks. Here&#039;s how you decide what to do, and who does what.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-13T13:20:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-15T03:42:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-13T13:20:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-15T03:42:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/\"},\"wordCount\":479,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"High Output Management\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Management\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/\",\"name\":\"The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-13T13:20:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-15T03:42:31+00:00\",\"description\":\"What are the steps of delegation? As a manager, you'll have to delegate some tasks. Here's how you decide what to do, and who does what.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\",\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Carrie Cabral\"},\"description\":\"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity - Shortform Books","description":"What are the steps of delegation? As a manager, you'll have to delegate some tasks. Here's how you decide what to do, and who does what.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity","og_description":"What are the steps of delegation? As a manager, you'll have to delegate some tasks. Here's how you decide what to do, and who does what.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-02-13T13:20:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-02-15T03:42:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carrie Cabral","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carrie Cabral","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/"},"author":{"name":"Carrie Cabral","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56"},"headline":"The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity","datePublished":"2021-02-13T13:20:41+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-15T03:42:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/"},"wordCount":479,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg","keywords":["High Output Management"],"articleSection":["Communication","Management"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/","name":"The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2021-02-13T13:20:41+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-15T03:42:31+00:00","description":"What are the steps of delegation? As a manager, you'll have to delegate some tasks. Here's how you decide what to do, and who does what.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steps-of-delegation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The 5 Steps of Delegation: The Key to Productivity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56","name":"Carrie Cabral","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Carrie Cabral"},"description":"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Nudge-campaigns-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26592"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27070,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26592\/revisions\/27070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}