Ask HN: Any recommendations on building a team and delegating?

Re:Ask HN: Any recommendations on building a team and delega... by caw on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @09:04AM (#6051556)

While I haven't any book recommendations, I think one of the key things for delegation is to understand that you don't have to do everything. If you believe that you have to do everything because otherwise the work won't get done, then you either don't trust your team to be able to execute, or you want to be the "hero", neither of which are good things.

For more inexperienced delegates, you'll have to spend more time forming the task into something concrete for them to work with. However, over time you're building them up to be a productive member of the team that will need less and less instruction. I'm not sure a book can teach that, because I believe it's knowing your team, what they're capable of, and making the most out of their talents.

I'm assuming for this response that you have someone to delegate to. You also have "building my own team" as a discussion point, and I can't help there.

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Re:Ask HN: Any recommendations on building a team and delega... by martin-adams on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @09:33AM (#6051720)

Thanks! Very helpful. I can certainly see both the lack of trust and "hero" traits in me. I've known this for many years and realising this is going to be a very crucial factor in being able to scale up my business.

I've got a couple junior people on a part-time/freelance basis who I can delegate to.

I think one of my biggest challenges is learning how to progressively disclose the level of complexity about the task and not bombard them. But also providing them with clear measurable goals for them to work on.

Right now I feel like I'm too much in the teaching role because the people I have available are learning, but I can't yet afford anyone with more experience (yet).

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Re:Ask HN: Any recommendations on building a team and delega... by caw on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @11:12AM (#6052390)

> I think one of my biggest challenges is learning how to progressively disclose the level of complexity about the task and not bombard them. But also providing them with clear measurable goals for them to work on.

I agree with this. It's not an easy problem to tackle. You could manage other people for years and still not have a good handle on it, but hopefully it gets easier to feel over time, as to what's too much for them. How well you know the other person is also a factor in this.

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