Delegate tasks
One of the most difficult tasks a leader faces is arguably learning to delegate tasks. Giving up some of your responsibility never comes easy. At the beginning, we want to deal with everything ourselves, which causes a lot of nerves and consumes hours of our time. Failure to transfer responsibility can easily result in a team that’s completely passive and lacking initiative.
On the other hand, it’s easy to fall into the loop of micro-control for example by meticulously holding the team accountable for every single task. There’s a certain type of people who think that being a leader means being in control of everything. Result? Our colleagues will feel like slaves watched over by the master’s eye. By that, we will not build trust in the team, but an atmosphere of fear instead.
Fortunately, there is a number of resources that describe different ways to delegate tasks. I found 7 Levels of Delegation from the book “Management 3.0” the most interesting. The author provides a very understandable description on how we can divide the delegation methods into seven different categories, depending on the level of responsibility we want to give to our team members.
In addition, it is worth knowing which methods to use, depending on the stage of team maturity. Hersey – Blanchard’s diagram describes when it is worth using methods such as “do this, do that”, and when the team is at such a level of maturity that it will easily select its own tasks.
Develop shared standards*
People tend to work effectively in different ways, each based on their strengths and weaknesses, experience and habits. This may sometimes create a feeling of misunderstanding in the team: why a given functionality is written in X way, the tests do not meet all use cases, and someone posted the code without a code review. A team without established work rules will operate in a disorganized manner, which will lead to disagreements and conflicts in the team in the long run.
To avoid this type of situation, as a leader, you and your team should establish common standards that both people in the team and you should adhere to. Describe clearly what you want to achieve and in what form. Explain why everyone should act in a particular way and what results it will bring. What metrics should the team meet and what should it consider important? And above all – what is your goal? Those rules will help you get along better and share information with each other. It will also be easier to give feedback - you will formulate your opinions based on mutually understood standards.
From a broader perspective, the common standards can also act as a set of practices that the team refers to every day. It’s easy to think of examples such as a joint code-review, triangle with a tester and analyst or maintaining order in the project management system. It may seem that those are insignificant details but, if ignored, can destabilize the team’s functioning and make everyday work unbearable.
