Mastering delegation in engineering

Effective delegation is crucial for engineering managers to empower their teams and focus on strategic tasks.

• Why it matters: Delegation allows managers to optimize their workload and fosters team growth, leading to a more efficient and skilled engineering team. Three key steps that can make you an effective delegator:

1. Prioritize: Identify non-essential, time-consuming tasks. Separate routine tasks from strategic ones. Hold onto the tasks that require close managerial oversight.
2. Empower: Delegate tasks that offer development opportunities. Give your engineers the space to learn and make mistakes, and support them either directly or with the aid of a peer to successfully complete a task.
3. Set expectations: Be explicit in a task’s requirements. Touch base with the engineer to ensure they’re on the right track. Close out a task with feedback or acknowledgement of a job well done. The bottom line: Delegating is tough and feels unnatural, but committing time and energy to the practice will set you apart as a skilled manager. Bon courage!

Diving deeper

As an individual contributor transitions into engineering management, delegation is one of the first challenges faced by the new manager.

• Your success as a manager is measured by the completion of your team’s work. You can’t do all this work yourself; that’s why you have a team.

Start by recognizing why delegation is crucial yet difficult to get right.

• Leverage your team so they can deliver on what needs to get done while you focus on more managerial and strategic tasks.
• Guide your team on tasks, but don’t get prescriptive. You want to give your team the space they need to learn, not micromanage them.
• Allow your team is to approach task completion the best way they see fit; they may get it wrong, and that’s okay. We learn from our mistakes. Next, understand which tasks should be delegated and to whom.

Evaluate tasks to be delegated through three different viewpoints:

• Non-essential but time-consuming tasks: Is this the best use of your time, or can these tasks be handled by your team?
• Development opportunities: What tasks can be passed onto your team to help build their skills?
• Routine vs. strategic tasks: Routine tasks can typically be delegated; strategic tasks that require managerial oversight should stay with you.

Understand your team’s skillset, goals, and capacity to determine who should work on which tasks. See delegation as a growth opportunity for your team. Know the goals of your team and use delegation to help them work towards those goals. You might still need to handle some tedious, time-consuming tasks based on availability.

Finally, ensure tasks you delegate are carefully handled.

Delegation still requires your involvement as a manager. Here’s what to do:

1. Set the stage. Be descriptive upfront. Ensure the engineer assigned to the task understands what the task is, what is and is not in scope, and when it’s due.
2. Provide support. Make sure you’re available to support engineers with new ideas, or identify another team member who can provide technical guidance if you can’t do so yourself. Your product manager should play an active role here too.
3. Follow up with feedback. Check in with the engineer regularly to ensure they’re making progress. Provide guided feedback but avoid being prescriptive. Round out a completed task with acknowledgement or recognition of a job well done where appropriate. Provide meaningful feedback; don’t offer superficial praise for every task.