Decide What to Delegate With Comparative Advantage
Last updated: October 28, 2021
Estimated reading time: 4 min
如果你像我们所知道的许多经理一样，授权可能会很棘手，尤其是当你授权你自己有能力完成的工作时。例如，作为开发团队的负责人，您可能有很多起草拨款提案的经验—也许比团队中的任何人都多。然而，作为团队的领导者和社区中关系最长久的人，培养主要捐赠者的关系是对你的时间和技能更有战略意义的利用(即使你真的很喜欢写那些提案)。你最好把时间花在管理你的团队中被雇用的人上，因为撰写拨款是他们的专长。作为管理者的一部分，你也可以支持他们建立关于捐赠者培养的技能，作为他们发展的一部分，并增加你工作的可持续性。
Spending your time and resources where you can make the greatest impact or get the best results is an economic concept calledcomparative advantage.
Use comparative advantage to decide what work you should own and what you should move off your plate, either through delegation or by deprioritizing completely.For managers, understanding your and your team members’ comparative advantage can help you craftrole expectationsandmust-havesfor hiring, designMOCHAs, figure out thedivision of laboron your team, andreprioritize.
To identify your (or others’) comparative advantage, think about everything that’s on your plate and consider the following criteria for each item:
- Impact:Will it have a substantial impact on furthering your organization or team’s mission?
- Role:Does it fit within your role expectations and position in the organization?
- Strengths:Are you excellent (not just good) at the thing? (Alternatively, are you the only one who is excellent or good at it?)
If you can answer yes to all three questions for an area of work, then it should stay on your plate. If there’s anything on your list that doesn’t hit at least two of the criteria, move it off (by delegating or deprioritizing altogether). For items that only hit two of the three criteria, consider whether you should delegate (if it doesn’t make sense to do as part of your role or if it’s not a strength), develop your skills (if it’s not currently a strength but is a must-have for your role), or reconsider entirely (if it’s not high-impact). After you’ve decided what to move off your plate, identify specific next steps.
Example:Let’s say you are a new Communications Director and your team needs to execute a full website redesign this year. A project of this scale and impact fits within your role. If you had skills in web design and management, this would likely fall within your comparative advantage. However, your strengths are in public relations, messaging, and earned media work, and you have a staff member who has managed web redesigns before. Using the principle of comparative advantage, you decide to delegate ownership of the project. Your next step is to think through the5 W’s, develop clear guidelines on the decisions that need your input and approval, and set up a delegation conversation with your staff member to get aligned on expectations and the MOCHA.
For more support on identifying your comparative advantage, check out ourComparative Advantage Worksheet.
Tips to keep in mind:
Only do what only you can do.
Consider this a rule of thumb for identifying your comparative advantage—what are the things that only you should do, by nature of your role, position, or your competencies? This tip is especially important if you’re managing someone whose job you used to have. It’s common and tempting to hold on to the work that is familiar and that you’re good at. But their job isn’t your job anymore—your job is to manage.
Be mindful about what you pass off (and to whom).
It’s tempting to use comparative advantage to pass off work that you don’t enjoy or aren’t good at. Sometimes, this is the right call, especially if the tasks are time-consuming and your energy would make greater impact elsewhere. However, make sure that you’re delegating intentionally and equitably. Women, and particularly women of color, often get burdened with the (often invisible) logistical and emotional work that make an organization run (consider who was assigned to be a notetaker at your last meeting). If you frequently find yourself delegating ongoing tasks (like fielding inquiries, scheduling, etc.) that become extra work for others, make it an explicit part of someone’s role.
You might not be good at everything (and that’s okay).
There may be things on your plate that only meet the “impact” and “role” parts of the comparative advantage criteria—they make sense for you to do given your role and they are mission-critical, but you’re not great at them and they can’t be delegated. In those cases, focus on developing your competencies (which may involve delegating more to free up time and energy for learning!).
Check out our Comparative Advantage Worksheet below!