Management 3.0 sells a deck of Delegation Poker Cards and they are a great illustration of how delegation is not a boolean.
The scale they propose goes from:
- Tell
- Sell
- Consult
- Agree
- Advise
- Inquire
- Delegate
You can think of this as another perspective on the Skill-Will Matrix.
Your goal as a leader is to get to 7. Delegate.
Some leaders tend to either stick to 1. Tell and retain control or just jump to 7. Delegate without considering if the person is being set for success.
You can use this tool to develop a shared language about delegation expectations.
Try to identify the ideal delegation level for a specific task now and ask yourself "what would need to change in this person's behaviour/performance so that we can move to the next level?"