As part of a client’s leadership program, I recently delivered a course on Delegation skills.
A common challenge with delegating is that often we are not sure whether the person has understood what’s been requested. This can lead to the incompletion of a task or task not being completed in the way that we intended. Sometimes this is due to not checking for understanding. Below are some suggested questions to generate buy-in and confirm understanding when delegating a task…
To gauge buy-in:
- How do you feel about doing this task?
- Would this task be of interest to you? If so, in what way?
- What concerns do you have about completing this task?
- What support do you require to help you achieve this task?
- When have you solved similar challenges in the past?
To gauge understanding of the task:
- What is your understanding of the task?
- What will be your first three steps? What are the next steps that you will be working on?
To monitor progress:
- Could you show me an example before you move onto the next stage?
- How are you finding this task? What are you finding particularly challenging in being able to complete this task? What’s working well so far in being able to complete this task?
If the delegated task is not going to plan/ employee’s not completed the task:
- What is preventing you/ getting in the way of you being able to complete this task? How can you address that/ what could be done to address that?
- What is the real issue here?
- What options do you have to address this? How would you like to progress with the next steps?
To acknowledge effort/ provide positive feedback
- Well done! How did you find doing the task?
- Thank you for completing the task, what did you enjoy most/ least?
- How do you feel this will help you in your role/ future role?
- What did you find particularly challenging? What could you do differently/ how could you approach that differently the next time?
- (Share your observation) I particularly like the way that you …
- A suggestion for the future might be …
Here is an interesting article on the 3 magic questions Leaders should ask when delegating
For further details regarding the course delivered, take a look at Delegation skills
