delegation debrief
One anticipated benefit of delegation is that when you assign a task or decision to someone and entrust them with its responsibility, you no longer have to be involved. However, as mentioned in the previous blog, Delegating with Details, check-in meetings can provide support to those you have delegated to, and helps ensure tasks go as planned. Another key—yet often overlooked—component of effective delegation is the debrief.
Once a delegated task or decision is complete, it is beneficial to not only debrief about the outcome, but also the delegation process itself. All participants should take the time to consider their roles, their perception of how the process transpired, and opportunities to improve delegation processes as well as overall results. Setting aside time to reflect and debrief helps ensure that delegating tasks in the future will progress more smoothly. If you can establish the debriefing meeting as a norm, or a routine part of the process when delegating, it creates a sense of continuous quality improvement rather than a tone of assessing mistakes or what went “wrong.”
“Any group too busy to reflect about its work, is too busy to improve.” Robert Garmston
The following resource, Delegation Debrief Questions, can serve as a reflection tool and a conversation guide during a debriefing meeting. There are two forms, one for the delegatee and one for the delegator, both could be completed individually prior to the meeting to support a more thoughtful discussion. Keep in mind that your responses to the questions and your perceptions of success may vary based on the individual needs of who you are working with at the time. For instance, as delegator, one of your reflections might be that you were too involved and micromanaged a task. Your perception of this might be negative—perhaps you suspect the person responsible for the task felt confined by your involvement. Maybe you felt your involvement caused them to hold back more than they normally would have done. However, in another situation you may reflect that you should have been more involved based on that individual’s needs.
©Bella, J.M. (2025 August 12). Delegation Debrief. bella mattina. Retrieved from https://www.bellamattinaconsulting.com/blog/delegation-debrief. This document may be printed, duplicated, and distributed freely with attribution. Permission for the inclusion in publications must be obtained in writing from the author.
