One of the most difficult and discussed questions in management is when to delegate and when to do things yourself. I once found a model, which proved very useful to me.
1) The situation is critical and your staff does not have the right skill set:
In such a case you have no other choice than taking the initiative and do things by yourself. The criticality of the situation does not allow mistakes and you do not have the time to coach and educate or exchange the people. However, such situations should be the exception.
2) The situation is critical and your staff has the right skill set:
You should be involved since the situation is critical but as a member of the team with your special set of competence. Listen to the others and only act as the final decision maker. Together you can get through the critical situation and everyone in the team is a great contributor including yourself.
3) The situation is not critical and your staff does not have the right skill set:
This is a good environment where you should not do things by yourself. It is a good opportunity to coach and educate your direct reports. Let them go to make their own experiences but make sure you have a few controls in place so that no serious damage can occur.
4) The situation is not critical and your staff has the right skill set:
In this case you have nothing to worry about and the best you can do is to let the people do their job. On request you might help or assist. If you try to get too much involved you might rather reduce motivation.
I used these four cases to also determine how many meetings and how much control I wanted to dedicate to each of my direct reports. It worked out quite well and it also gives you the flexibility to reduce or increase your attention depending on how the business and the people develop.
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