Most delegation problems aren’t people problems. They’re clarity problems. When a request has no owner, no deadline and no finish line, even a great team ends up guessing. These five rules fix that.
1. Give every task one owner.
“Can someone…” means no one. Name one person who is responsible. Others can help, but one person owns the result.
2. Set a real deadline.
“Soon” and “when you can” mean different things to different people. A date and time removes the guessing and lets people plan their day.
3. Say what done looks like.
Describe the result, not just the activity. “Send the proposal” is an activity. “Send the final proposal to the client and copy me” is a result.
4. Keep the conversation with the task.
Questions, photos and updates belong next to the work they’re about. When they’re spread across calls, chats and emails, decisions get lost.
5. Review the result.
Delegation isn’t finished when the task is sent. It’s finished when you’ve checked the result. Approve it, or send it back with a note. That’s how standards stay high without micromanaging.
Make it a habit
Start small: one team, one kind of request, these five rules. In Please Do It, every task already has an owner, a deadline, its own chat and an approval step, so the rules are built in.