One of the challenges that I face as I progress through my career is how to delegate effectively.

Sometimes, it is easier to draft than to review others’ drafts. Putting my own thoughts into words may be easier than reviewing others’ work and trying to understand their flow of thoughts.

When under time pressure, it may be easier (and sometimes necessary) to do a task myself than to explain to an associate how to do a task, review the associate’s work, get the associate to amend the work and review the revised work. Depending on the complexity of the task, the review-amend-review process may happen a few rounds before the amended draft is sent out.

These are what I have been trying to do to delegate effectively:

– brief the team on the overall process for a corporate exercise (instead of getting them to do piecemeal work without them understanding the entire process)

– give clear instructions on what and how to do a task and explain what we are trying to achieve

– have a specific person accountable for a task (instead of a general ask to a group of people)

– build system and process

– understand the team members’ strengths and weaknesses and adapt my approach to them

– have a consensus with the team on the timeline and outcome

My approach is not perfect. It is always a work in progress.

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This post was first posted on Linkedin on 11 August 2022.