7 Levels of Delegation

See the attached pic depicting the 7 Levels of Delegation.?Often times when people delegate, they do so in extremes.?Micro-managers usually delegate assuming Level-1 delegation.?Hands off types of managers usually delegate assuming a Level 7.?The problem with delegation is that there is usually an assumption that leads to a misunderstanding as to what level of delegation is being expected between the delegator and the recipient.??For example, if you are delegating at a Level-7, but based on the receiver’s experience level, they actually needed a Level-5 type of delegation, then ultimately the results won’t meet your satisfaction because they didn’t get your expertise advice as input into the decisions.?Keep in mind that the more experienced that recipient is, the higher the level of delegation you can make to them and the more empowerment you give to them for independent decision making.??Lower levels of delegation is needed for those that are inexperienced.?Level-1 should be reserved for emergency situations?and fire drills and military. Level-7, on the other hand, is great for those that are very experienced.??Unfortunately, many top-down corporate leadership cultures default to this dictatorship Level-1 type of leadership style.?On the opposite end, many times I see in Agile transformations, management will say, I’ll empower the team, and jump straight to?Level-7 delegation, but the team is too immature for that level of delegation that soon.?So, the team fails, as they are waiting to be told what to do (Level-1) and leadership is waiting on the team to take initiative (Level 7).?The answer is usually to start somewhere in between based on the experience level of the team and gradually increase the level of delegation as the team matures over time.