The role of a leader is to convert the potential of his or her teams into performance and to achieve this he or she needs to transfer decision-making power to them. Leaders gain authority by transferring authority, but only confident leaders are able to do this as delegation is a process that generates fear of loss of control. It would help them to know that it is not a binary process but a progressive one.
Jurgen Appelo defined in Management 3.0 up to 7 levels of authority, which are shown in the infographic, ranging from the null level “say” to the maximum level “delegate”, where the person or team functions with full autonomy. With this model he developed the “delegation dashboard” tool for use with the team.
This tool is based on the premise that good delegation models need direction and boundaries. Many delegations fail because teams lack boundaries and have to find them in trial-and-error processes that leave them exhausted, testing the limits of their capacity to act and generating a lot of friction.
In addition, Jurgen Appelo proposes working with the system and not with individuals. It is about making the process of transferring authority a process of discussion in the team. On a list of key decision areas, a manager in team discussions should make clear what level of authority individuals (or sometimes the team) have. It is important to note that these are not tasks, but broad decision areas. The appropriate level of delegation is a balance that depends on the maturity of the team and its members. The challenge is to take delegation as far as the system allows.
In many training sessions we practice the “delegation poker” discussion dynamic between managers introduced by Jurgen Appelo. In it, and inspired by the “planning poker” methodology of the scrum framework to reach agreements quickly, various decision areas are raised where managers discuss how far to take them in the 7 levels. In the exercise, many of them discover unfounded inhibitions when it comes to transmitting authority that, in the end, can take their delegation further.
The set of decision areas and the level of authority transferred in each of them are reflected in a “delegation board”. Like all Kanban-type boards, it brings teams together in clarifying conversations and gives everyone visibility of “who is leading what and to where”. Delegation boards also make public the different levels of delegation of team members in key areas according to their maturity, generating recognition or visibility for some and an emulation effect for others.
Moving from a system of centralised authority to one of distributed authority has clear advantages in complex environments, such as greater decision-making agility by avoiding bottlenecks in one person, better decisions by integrating all voices and an empowered team capable of making its own decisions in a process where the manager has the ability to define the devolved areas and clear boundaries in each area.
The infographic shows an example of a real team where the team members reflect the levels of decision-making in key areas of the team using avatars.
How far can you take delegation in your team?