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    • Action plan

    Setting expectations during delegation

    Low effort

    High impact

    There is mounting evidence to suggest that delegating responsibilities increases productivity, morale and even revenue, yet it takes some finetuning to get right. It isn’t easy to hand over the reins or quell the feeling that you could do a better job yourself. Clearly setting expectations can alleviate your anxiety and give your employees the best chance of succeeding.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline
    What's involved? Ways to use this action plan Measuring impact
    1

    Plan the task you want to delegate in advance, considering what you want to delegate and how and when you’ll communicate it to your employee

    Impact: low

    Why will this help?

    Planning what you want to delegate in advance will help you get what’s required clear in your mind, so that you can explain it in a way that’s easy to understand.

    Building your mindset to trust your team

    Business leaders need to be able to delegate with confidence, which means it’s essential that they can trust their team. If you can develop that mindset, you’ll be able to work more effectively and empower the people around you.
    2

    Establish the level of authority you’re giving your employee and if or when they should check in with you

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    Deciding how much authority your employee will have is crucial when setting expectations. Should they check in with you before spending money or contacting customers, or are you expecting them to deal with the process single-handedly?

    3

    Meet with your employee face-to-face and set out your expectations, including the task, deadline and how you will determine whether or not it’s been a success

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    While smaller activities can be explained over email, meeting with an employee face-to-face will give you a better sense of how confident they’re feeling and whether they need extra support.

    Check employees have everything they need when delegating

    Successful delegation is all in the preparation. Work through our checklist when delegating tasks to make sure employees have everything they need to complete the work to a high standard.
    4

    Confirm your employee understands what you’re delegating and the expected results by asking them to give a brief outline of what’s required

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Checking what they’ve understood from your instructions takes less than a minute, but it’s key in preventing problems later on.

    5

    Be specific about what you want your employee to learn from the task and how it relates to their career within the business

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    If you’ve delegated a task to someone based on their skills or career development plans, letting them know that will provide context about why they were chosen and will likely increase motivation.

    What can I do with this Action Plan?

    Start this Action Plan

    Add some extra information to this plan and we’ll help you get it done.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline

    Download and print

    Get a printable template for this Action Plan, fill it in with some target dates, and share it with your team. Pin it on the wall where everyone can see it.

    Get the printable Action Plan

    Learning Groups

    We also run Learning Groups on these topics where you can join other leaders tackling the same challenges.

    Find a Learning Group

    How will I know if my action plan is working?

    Feedback at follow-up meeting

    Check in and see if the process worked

    Why this metric?

    Following up with your employee at a later date allows you to check that they had all the information they needed.

    How do I start tracking?

    Arrange a meeting once the task has been completed and make any notes about how you could delegate better in the future.