As a manager, you’ll often hear people saying you need to delegate more, as if it’s a switch you flick once and that’s that. But what that ignores is the responsive nature of management – that some people will need more support at different times to perform well.

Rather than an all-or-nothing process, the art of delegation is subtle. It fluctuates depending on the person and situation and often needs repeating over and over with each employee and each task to get results.

Your job is to work out what kind of management you need to apply to each employee and task to take them from micromanagement to delegation.

Stage one: micromanagement

Micromanagement gets a bad rap, but it’s an essential part of the journey towards delegation. It’s only a negative behaviour when the situation doesn’t actually call for it.

So, before you set an employee a task, assess their skillset and experience. How likely are they to be able to complete the task without direction or support? If the answer’s ‘very unlikely’, they need a bit of micromanagement.

Here’s where you give them detailed, step-by-step instructions on what to do, how to do it, and why. Then, because you’ve hired good people and are supporting them with clear frameworks and expectations (I hope!), their skills will naturally grow, taking you to the next stage on the journey to delegation.

Stage two: coaching

As your employee’s skills grow, they’ll need less direction and more support – in other words, coaching.

At this stage, you’ll slacken the reigns and hand things over to them. Rather than telling them what to do, you’ll be asking a lot of questions. ‘If I give you this task to do, how will you go about it? What will you do if XYZ happens?’

Now you’re giving them space to make their own decisions while still being there to help them course correct where necessary before they actually get started.

Stage three: support

After a while, you’ll find that your employee doesn’t need you to course correct any more – they’re making the right decisions with little input from you. Now, instead of you asking questions of them, you can wait until they come to you with their own questions if they need to.

Stage four: delegation

As time goes on, your employee’s questions will drop off, and they’ll get on well without direction or support from you. They’ll be able to complete tasks with a high level of independence and competence. Congratulations! Now you’re delegating.

Remember, this is not a one-off process. For every employee and every new task, you’ll need to audit their skills and make the call as to which stage is most appropriate to start with. Often, you’ll complete the whole thing again from the beginning. 

It’s also worth noting that this process only works if you’ve hired the right people with the right values and competencies. If you’re ‘surrounded by idiots’, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and look at your recruitment process. But that’s another subject for another day. 

If you want to take your management skills to the next level, check out my 12-Week Management MasterCLASS.