Task Delegation Mistakes IT Leaders Need to Avoid

When it comes to business and technology tasks, many IT leaders believe they can do anything. While this may be generally true, it also opens a potential trapdoor. Actually, no leader can work effectively and efficiently without delegating specific tasks to qualified team members. Over time, failing to offload routine tasks to subordinates will prevent the leader from focusing on other, critical priorities. 

Even when an IT leader recognizes the need to delegate tasks, failing to provide sufficient guidance can lead to delays, warns Pavlo Tkhir, CTO at digital transformation company Euristiq, in an email interview. This includes failing to set deadlines, task priorities, and project goals. “It causes confusion, which slows down the process and kills motivation,” he explains. 

Failure to Communicate 

Clear communication is essential, says John Kreul, CIO at insurance firm Jewelers Mutual. He advises IT leaders to spend time with team members in small group meetings, one-on-ones, and town halls to build trust and confidence. “The goal is to create an environment where the leader can listen to feedback, take and answer questions, and, ultimately, drive clarity and transparency,” Kreul states in an online interview. 

If goals aren’t effectively communicated, team members will be prone to making incorrect assumptions. This can lead to trouble when the leader realizes that project outcomes aren’t aligning with broader enterprise objectives. “It obviously causes delays, because the team will need more time to figure out what they need to do,” Tkhir says. “On top of that, it can really undermine your authority as a leader and damage overall team dynamics due to lost trust.” 

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Customer-Centricity 

A major mistake many IT leaders make is failing to develop an Agile customer-centricity plan, whether it’s for internal or external customers. “It’s the starting point and the North Star when there’s a question about direction or next steps,” says executive team coach Keith Ferrazzi, via email. 

There’s a difference between what’s urgent, what’s important, and what’s both, Ferrazzi says. “Being able to focus attention on the most pressing and high-value tasks that make up a sprint — a practice of breaking-down complex projects into smaller, simpler sprints of work — is essential.” This is the key attribute in the most successful Agile teams. 

Intelligent Delegation 

The ultimate goal should be seeing team members self-assign tasks, identify potential roadblocks, and allocate support, Ferrazzi says. He also believes that IT leaders should allow their teams to hold fellow team members accountable. “In this way, the team adopts ‘teamship,’ with a contract of peer-to-peer accountability.” 

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Without driving individual and team connectivity, and getting close to what’s happening, it’s impossible to understand how the team really feels, Kreul says. Actively listen, assess how well team members understand current priorities, provide feedback and, finally, self-reflect on your performance as a leader, he advises. “The ultimate harm is low employee engagement, which leads to poor customer experiences, inconsistent execution, and regrettable turnover.” 

All Aboard 

Logical task delegation is essential. “You should provide context on tasks by outlining the ‘why’ of it and articulating main requirements and goals,” Tkhir says. “You need to set clear deadlines and expectations, including key metrics.” It’s also important to create a check-ins schedule throughout the task completion period, allowing team members to know when they will have an opportunity to have their questions addressed. 

A leader should set guardrails yet allow the team to own their tasks and drive execution. “Empowerment will drive ownership and foster a curiosity to learn versus being told what to do,” Kreul says. “Task ownership will allow personal and team growth through learning by doing — critical experiences for growth.” 

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An effective way to ensure successful task delegation is to encourage feedback and rapidly act on necessary changes or improvements. A post-task analysis can also help team members feel engaged. “Run a review session, where the team can share their perspectives on how the project went in terms of task delegation and completion,” Tkhir says. “This is also a good way to facilitate open communication within your team or company.” 

Ferrazzi says that IT leaders shouldn’t micromanage Agile teams, but ask strategic and reflective questions at review points, such as: What did we achieve in the last two weeks?  Where did we struggle and why? What will we achieve in the next two weeks? 

Parting Thoughts 

Let go of the perceived need to control — trusting your people is often hard, but it will lead to engaged and empowered teams, Kreul says. “Recognize and put your people first,” he advises. “Recognition reinforces the value of your team’s work and motivates future contributions.”