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Delegation is an assumed competency for lawyers: if you were to ask any lawyer whether he is a good delegator, without much thought he would probably answer, “Yes,” or at least, “I’m good enough.” Given a little more thought, most attorneys can remember too many times when a delegated project has gone askew, revealing miscommunication, insufficient direction, or incomplete understanding of the project. These problems are often the consequence of less-than-stellar delegation skills.
Delegating well pays immediate dividends through work product that is completed according to the assigning lawyer’s request. It also opens coaching and mentoring opportunities, whether implicit (the lawyer to whom you’re giving an assignment learns by example how she should delegate work), or explicit (you coach or mentor her on some aspect of the assignment).
Avoid Five Common Mistakes
To delegate effectively, begin by eliminating these five common mistakes:
1. Rushing. Many lawyers first define the scope of a delegated project as they’re making the assignment. When you rush into delegating, you’re likely not to get what you need. You end up frustrated over the time you lost rather than saved. In the end you have to do the work yourself (or re-delegate it), with the added stress of bumping into a deadline because of the wasted time.
2. Delegating too little. Lawyers are highly skilled and self-reliant, and too many of us believe that we should be in control of every aspect of our practices. But here’s some news: you are not the Lone Ranger. Failing to delegate costs you time. What’s worse, if you don’t give your staff and junior colleagues stretch projects that challenge and engage them, they won’t advance professionally. They’ll get bored and probably move on to another position; worse yet, you’ll find yourself surrounded by “zombies” who show up at the office every day but are completely disengaged from their work.
3. Delegating too much. The first problem with over-delegating is, of course, that it presents numerous ethical issues. You cannot delegate legal work to non-lawyers without adequate supervision, and you should not delegate legal work to other lawyers without appropriate supervision.
Even when you’re delegating administrative tasks only, over-delegation results in poor practice management. You should not perform the day-to-day administrative tasks required for your practice, but you must be able to do so if you find yourself short-staffed. This doesn’t mean that you should be as skilled as your assistants at everything from filing to document formatting to mail room procedures, but you should know enough to muddle your way through when necessary.
4. Micromanaging. Micromanaging produces problems similar to those encountered with under-delegating, though the problems arise even more quickly and tend to be more acute. Micromanagement undermines the confidence and morale of the person to whom you’ve delegated because it sends the message that you don’t trust his or her judgment. That person may leave or become a zombie as previously described, but more likely he or she will become frustrated and resentful. Micromanagers often have a reputation as being impossible to please, and those who cannot be pleased often find that those who work with them quit trying.
Equally troublesome, micromanagement prevents people who are doing the work from exercising their own judgment and expanding their professional development. Those who are micromanaged don’t have the opportunity to bring their perspectives and ideas to the table, which means that the micromanager doesn’t have the chance to be wowed by what those who’ve been assigned the work could do if only they had the freedom.
5. Not managing enough. Failure to manage results in the same problems that rushing and over-delegation can produce. You may encounter ethical issues that could have been avoided with proper supervision, and you may not receive the work product that you wanted and expected.
Become An Excellent Delegator In Six Steps
Fortunately, learning to become an excellent delegator requires only two habits: forethought and repetition. Think through the key aspects of any assignment and delegate using the answers to six classic questions: Who, what, when, where, how, and why?
Who has the skills necessary to complete this assignment? Consider not only the most capable candidates, but also how taking on the assignment will affect the candidates’ professional development. Depending on the task at issue, if a potential delegate has been doing the task flawlessly for an extended period of time, perhaps it’s time to give her a more challenging assignment and to pass the task on to someone else.
What needs to be done, precisely? What work product do you want to receive? Describe your desired outcome in detail. Phrasing the assignment and the desired result clearly will ensure that the person doing the work knows what you want to receive.
When is the deadline? One of the key problems in making assignments is the temptation to resort to a non-specific deadline. “Friday” is not an adequate statement of the deadline unless Friday at 11:59 p.m. is acceptable to you. By the same token, “ASAP” is subject to so many different interpretations (from “drop everything and do this now” to “make sure this is done today”) that it’s best avoided. Instead, specify the deadline (“Wednesday, no later than 3 p.m.”) and confirm that the person doing the work expects to be able to meet the deadline you set.
Where and How should the project be completed? “Where” is generally less important than “how,” though if you know that research must start in the library rather than online, be sure to mention that, especially to newer lawyers. When you describe how the assignment should be completed, tread carefully to avoid the risks of micromanagement and insufficient management, and consider the experience level of the person completing the work when you make the assignment.
Why is this work necessary? Sometimes it’s beneficial to provide context and background to orient the person doing the work as to how the project fits into the larger picture. Context and factual issues may change everything—from strategy to the answer to a specific research question. Providing the background is not always necessary, but consider it in each assignment so that you’ll be sure to include the extra information when doing so would be helpful.
Ensure That The Plan Is Being Followed
Thinking through each of these aspects of an assignment increases the chances that you will get the work product that you want, when you want it. You might also consider two additional steps to ensure that those to whom you have delegated work understood the assignment correctly and that it’s going according to plan.
First, ask the person to restate, using his own words, what he understands the assignment to be and what kind of work product he expects to produce. Consider how you phrase this request: “Let’s be sure we’re on the same page” sets an entirely different tone from, “Ok, I want to be sure you understand what I want.”
Second, ask the person doing the work to check in with you a few days into the project. You’ll have an opportunity to be sure that the work is going in the right direction and to clear up any questions. And please note that saying, “Check with me if you have any problems” is not sufficient to accomplish this. Instead, arrange a time (even if it’s just a specific morning or afternoon) for a short conversation.
The check-in conversation also offers an opportunity for coaching or mentoring the person to whom you’ve delegated work. If, for example, you asked a junior lawyer to contact a witness and get certain information, you might find that the questions she asked were narrowly drawn and lacked follow-up—as a result, you got only part of the information needed. Rather than giving in to frustration and venting at the junior lawyer, take the extra five or ten minutes to ask questions to help her understand what information she should have elicited and how she should have done so. Asking questions such as, “What information will we need to support our position?” and “What questions might you ask to get to that information?” will ensure that the assignment is completed properly this time and will also help the junior lawyer understand how to approach the next assignment.
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