How to Delegate More Effectively
The secret is to do better prep work before the delegation conversation. Here is a worksheet.
The act of delegating work is a practice. It is one of those things that is equal parts a science and an art.
People learn the mechanics easily enough, but then applying them in real time, with real humans, across a variety of situations – well, that looks a little different every time.
Expert delegators know that secret to a successful delegation is taking the time to thoroughly collect their thoughts before starting the delegation conversation with the delegee.
Answer the following prompts every time you prepare to delegate some work. Some areas will be more important than others, depending on the nature of the work to be delegated. Delegation also looks different when you are handing off whole projects versus discrete elements of a larger scope of work.
Delegation Prep Worksheet
1. In 1-2 sentences, describe the work to be delegated.
2. How does this piece of work fit into the overall project/scope (if applicable)?
3. What does a successful outcome look like for the delegated work? Be specific in the quality, form, and nature of the deliverable that you expect. Are there any specific things that must be included or have to occur? Are there any pitfalls to be avoided or things that cannot occur?
4. What requires your review/feedback/approval along the way before their work is finalized?
5. What is the timeline for the work to be completed, including any soft and hard deadlines? Are there any dependencies to consider?
6. What conflicts/challenges could impact this delegated work, since you’re not the one doing it?
7. At what frequency, and via what channel (email, meetings, chat, etc.), do you want updates?
8. Who might you delegate this work to? Why are they your choice?
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9. Are you asking them to take on the work, or telling them they must?
10. How should that delegee prioritize this piece of work, within their current workload? Is it the most important thing and takes precedence over all else? Is this on top of their existing workload? Can something come off their plate, or be deferred, while they are working on this piece of work?
11. What kind of decision-making authority does the delegee have regarding the work? When do you want them to confer with you and when can they exercise their judgement?
12. When the delegee has questions, do you want them to figure it out on their own? Approach you (via what channel)? Ask someone else?
13. If it looks like the delegated work won’t result in a successful outcome (for a variety of unforeseen factors), how should the delegee inform you? Do you want to know ASAP or do you want them to wait as long as possible?
14. Besides the delegee, who else might you want/need to inform that this work has been delegated?
15. What else is on your mind about delegating this work?
Behind the Scenes of MOTIVATED AF
A glimpse into what it takes to write, publish, launch, and perpetuate this book.
Exciting news – my MOTIVATED AF manuscript has been sent out to beta readers! This is a huge milestone for me.
I decided to use BetaBooks (not an affiliate link) as the platform to host the manuscript and to collect and organize the readers’ feedback. I had looked into several subscriptions and chose this one since it allows both line-item feedback as well as end-of-chapter. So far, it seems to be delivering as advertised. It was easy to upload my chapters (though most of the formatting gets stripped out) and generate invitations to my readers. I’ll report back on how easy or not it is to manage the feedback.
If you’re interested in being a beta reader, with feedback due by August 17, 2026, reach out via email to hello(at)katherinesauer(dot)com.
Katherine ✨
