413: Effective Delegation of Authority, with Hassan Osman

Hassan is a project management office leader at Cisco, where he leads a team of over 150 project and program managers on delivering complex projects across the world. He’s also served as a management consultant at Ernst & Young (now EY), where he led projects and programs for the largest enterprises.

He’s the author of Effective Delegation of Authority: A (Really) Short Book for New Managers About How to Delegate Work Using a Simple Delegation Process. In this episode, Hassan and I discuss the three stages of delegation, the critical importance of planning, and how to leverage delegation as a development opportunity.

Also impressive is the ten books Hassan has published while working full-time as a manager at a Fortune 100 company. He teaches others how to do it on his Writer on the Side podcast.

• Before you begin the delegation process, decide on the outcomes you need and the right person to get you there.
• Set expectations for goals, not actions.
• Use checkpoints to ensure progress and adjust frequency for experience and visibility.
• Summarize delegation meetings in writing after they occur.
• The real work of managers is to define the work, before it starts.

• Effective Delegation of Authority: A (Really) Short Book for New Managers About How to Delegate Work Using a Simple Delegation Process* by Hassan Osman
• Writer on the Side podcast

Download my highlights from Effective Delegation of Authority in PDF format (free membership required).

• Start Influencing Virtual Teams, with Hassan Osman (episode 234)
• The Way to Stop Rescuing People From Their Problems, with Michael Bungay Stanier (episode 284)
• Five Steps to Hold People Accountable, with Jonathan Raymond (episode 306)

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