Johnny once came to me to volunteer for a project assignment. I knew Johnny quite well and knew that he would fail miserably at the task, as both his skills and personality were not suited for that specific assignment. One part of me, the coach and mentor side, screamed to give Johnny a chance – let him learn and, with practice, he might just master the skill needed to succeed in the project. The other part, the efficient manager and someone who will ultimately be responsible for Johnny’s certain failure, saw the risk and cost attached to the noble act, and struggled to see the wisdom in such folly.

This is a rather common situation which all leaders are faced with at different times. Though the certainty of failure may not be as stark as in the case of Johnny, nonetheless there is always a risk attached to delegating responsibility to staff with questionable skills depth.

And I’m afraid there are very few black-and-white guideposts to ease in the leader’s decision. Some make it on the basis of a risk/reward calculation specific to their way of managing resources. Others decide based on past experience, team recommendations, or other heuristic factors but ultimately the effectiveness of the leader is closely tied to their ability to smartly delegate.

Delegation is one area which every leader must master. Throughout my career I’ve developed a few guidelines which, while they should not be interpreted rigidly, may offer some directional support when facing a delegation decision.

Priority. Ambition and competence do not always travel in pairs. In fact, I would argue there is a general divergence between the two where most competent people are modest and subtle in promoting their skills, while the ambitious ones crank up the volume of self-promotion. Exhaust the pool of reserved, quietly competent folks on your list before you reach out to those with amplitude in expressing their competence. Competence is usually self-evident and seldom requires promotion.

Eye Contact. Revert to your Psych-101 training – it can save your hide when choosing your delegate. It’s not that difficult to read intentions from the person’s eye movements. Eyes, unlike our mouths, cannot lie. For example, expanded pupil size indicates increased interest – if your delegation candidate’s eye pupils do not expand when being presented with the opportunity to do something significant and consequential, no matter how they respond verbally, they are likely not that excited about it and will, at best, do a mediocre job of it. Also watch their blink rate. If they start to blink fast, this could signal heightened interest and increases the odds of success. If their blinking is delayed, this could signal concern, but that may also be a sign of thoughtfulness, so interpret it correctly.

Megabytes vs Megahertz. Depth or Speed. I will fall on a stereotype, but a proven one. Older, more experienced individuals will bring to the task a richer database of expertise, but they will take longer to process the data to arrive at a decision. Younger professionals carry less data in their experience portfolio, but once presented with sufficient information will make rapid decisions and move the process along more expeditiously. It is good to consider this in the framework of making a decision on who to delegate a given type of responsibility to – one that needs deeper analysis but slower decisions, or one where speed of action is paramount.

Grin or Frown. Happy or Sad. I think most observant leaders can easily distinguish between individuals who are generally optimistic and welcoming of challenges from those who see problems first, explode them in their mind to the size of a cataclysm, and only when pressed to act do so reluctantly. You may find this surprising, but I’ve always appreciated the later over the former as far as delegating difficult tasks to. The rationale behind this approach is that the pessimist, by trying to find faults and anticipating failures, will be substantially more thorough in reviewing scenarios and will likely uncover things which the optimist would miss. You may not get a happy emoji at the end of the project report from your delegate, but you will be assured of a thorough performance.

In the case of Johnny, I did not delegate to him the project. However, a thorough and honest explanation of my rationale motivated him to pursue improvement in those areas where I identified he had weaknesses and we continued to work together on several other projects. Leaders leed best when they are able to turn an uncomfortable situation into one of hope and motivation.

Mastering the skill of delegation can elevate a leader to their peak performance. Neglecting the skill will inevitably anchor them to a role where they will have to clean up their own delegated mess.