Delegation is important if you want your employees to be effective, productive, and useful for your business.

Here is how to do it right:

1/ Delegate clearly and set expectations

Tell what outcomes are expected.

Show what good looks like.

And when it should be done.

If there are any questions about how it is to be done, discuss them early.

Also, set expectations about how you’ll measure early on. For example, will you do 1-on-1 feedback or do an audit once everything is done?

For qualitative work like writing, early 1-on-1 feedback works great. But you can also combine numbers with qualitative feedback, like you can set a word limit for daily output. But the number-based measurement alone may not be effective because the output may not match the quality standard you set, so add qualitative 1-on-1 feedback, or through the document the writer is working on.

Decide the level of overlight and share that. But, again, it will vary depending on how critical something is and how confident you are about a person’s ability to who you are delegating to.

2/ Do feedback right

The most important part of this is giving feedback often.

To avoid this, do not accept anything that is below standard.

Keep feedback focused and objective.

Don’t just give critical feedback. Share praise where it is due.

Don’t just say, this is not good. Instead, tell them how they can improve it and bring it up to the standards you shared in the beginning while delegating.

Offer to help and any training that may be needed to match the style you expect.

3/ Reset the expectations 

Depending on how well the person you delegated to executed what you delegated, reset expectations.

If expectations were not matched, give more feedback.

If they were met, reduce feedback.

Ideally, you’ll want later to happen, and if you hired well and delegated, as I shared above, the delegation will work well.

Once it starts working, set a cadence for feedback and reduce oversight. This will make life easier for both parties.

To learn more, check out my earlier posts on delegating like a pro!