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Work planning & delegation
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Work planning & delegation

Core & leadership

Work planning & delegation

Work planning and delegation is a leader's ability to turn the goals and tasks assigned to the team into a clear work plan that sets priorities, responsibilities and deadlines. The leader then assigns tasks and authority to the right people, with defined expected outputs, decision limits and follow-up points. For the organisation, this produces on-time delivery, a balanced workload, and better use and development of staff capabilities, without the manager becoming a bottleneck.

CE-D04-01 Type: Leadership

Foundational

Plans the team's work and delegates routine, defined tasks consistently in line with approved procedures, referring to their own manager when needed.

Behavioural indicators

  1. Breaks the work assigned to the team into tasks in a written weekly or monthly work plan. For each task, the plan states the owner, the due date and the required output.
  2. Checks each employee's current workload and experience with the task type before assigning the task.
  3. When handing over a delegated task, specifies the expected output, the deadline and the decisions the employee may take without referring back. Records this in a message or the task system.
  4. Follows up delegated tasks at the agreed checkpoints and updates their status in the plan or task system.
  5. Escalates to their manager, before the deadline, any task at risk of delay, together with the reason and a proposed alternative.

Learning journey

▶ Start the journey · about 11 minutes

Advanced

Plans and delegates in ambiguous or high-impact situations, adapts the delegation approach to risk and individual capability, improves the unit's planning method and guides supervisors in applying it.

Behavioural indicators

  1. Re-prioritises the plan when an urgent directive arrives or priorities change. Documents which tasks were deferred or reassigned and informs affected parties of the new dates.
  2. Maintains a delegation matrix for the unit that sets the authority level for each decision type: decide, recommend, or be informed. Links each level to the decision's risk and the employee's readiness.
  3. Assigns developmental tasks that stretch beyond the employee's usual role, with a written support plan that sets review and coaching points.
  4. At the end of each planning cycle, compares planned against actual delivery. Adjusts duration estimates and team capacity in the next plan based on the causes of variance.
  5. Reviews the work plans and delegation decisions of the supervisors reporting to them and gives them documented feedback for improvement.

Learning journey

▶ Start the journey · about 12 minutes

Positions that require it

Required by management tier

  • First-line (section head) Foundational
  • Middle (department director) Advanced
  • Senior management Advanced

Further learning

Chosen resources for those who want to go deeper after the journey.