The levels of delegation answered a question I asked myself far too rarely as a young team lead: how much am I actually handing over when I say “Could you take care of this?” To me, the answer was obvious. To the person across the table, it often wasn’t. In the end, someone made a decision differently from what I had expected, and both sides were disappointed. Nobody had done anything wrong. We had simply never talked about the how much.
There is a simple model from the Management 3.0 world for exactly this: seven levels between “I decide on my own” and “You decide, I don’t even need to know”. On top of that, you get two tools that make the levels visible in your team, the delegation board and delegation poker. In this guide, I’ll show you both in a way that lets you try them out next week.
In short
Delegation is not a switch with “on” and “off”; it has seven gradations from “I tell you” to “You handle it”. If you openly agree on a level for every important decision area and write it down where everyone can see it, you avoid disappointment on both sides. The biggest pitfall is a level that only exists on paper because the leader takes the decision back as soon as it gets serious.
What you will learn in this article
- Which seven levels of delegation exist and how to recognize them
- How to build a delegation board with your team in 60 minutes
- How delegation poker reveals different expectations
- Which questions help you clarify delegation in a one-on-one
- Which five mistakes make delegation fail quietly
Why delegation so often goes wrong
Most delegation problems are expectation problems. A team lead says “Please take care of choosing the new monitoring tool” and means “Prepare two options for me, then I’ll decide.” The developer hears “You decide.” She compares, tests, makes a choice and signs the contract. Two weeks later, the team lead overturns the choice, and a small misunderstanding turns into real damage to trust.
The opposite case is just as common. A team has long had the authority to choose its own tools, yet it still asks about every little detail. That costs time, turns the team lead into a bottleneck and signals that nobody really knows where the boundaries are.
Both situations share the same cause: delegation is treated as a yes-or-no question. Either I do it, or you do it. In practice, there are many shades in between, and those are exactly what gets lost in a quickly spoken sentence. By the way, the idea of seeing leadership behavior as a continuum isn’t new. Back in 1958, Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt described in the Harvard Business Review that leadership can take many forms between authoritarian decisions and a large degree of freedom for the team.
The seven levels of delegation at a glance
Management 3.0 turned this idea into a handy model with seven levels. With each of the seven levels of delegation, a bit more decision-making authority moves from the leader to the team or to an individual. The names come from the original English model, and they are the terms you will meet in workshops and on card decks.
The seven levels of delegation: with each level, more decision-making authority moves to the team.
| Level | Name | Who decides? | What it sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tell | The leader alone | “I’ve decided, this is how we do it.” |
| 2 | Sell | The leader, who also argues for the decision | “I’ve decided, and I’ll explain why.” |
| 3 | Consult | The leader, after listening to the team | “I want to hear your opinion before I decide.” |
| 4 | Agree | Leader and team together | “Let’s decide this together.” |
| 5 | Advise | The team, with advice from the leader | “Here’s my view, but the decision is yours.” |
| 6 | Inquire | The team; the leader asks about it afterwards | “You decide, and tell me later how it went.” |
| 7 | Delegate | The team entirely | “That’s your call, I don’t need to know.” |
One distinction is easy to miss in the table. On levels 1 to 3, the leader makes the final call, even if they listen to the team. From level 5 upwards, the team decides, even if the leader shares an opinion. Level 4 is the only true joint decision, and it is more demanding than it sounds: both sides have to agree, so either side can block.
No level is better than another
Many people read the levels of delegation as a staircase you should climb as fast as possible. That’s a misunderstanding. The right level depends on the topic, the risk, the experience of the people involved and the question of who bears the consequences. A security vulnerability in production may call for level 1, because someone has to give clear instructions quickly. Choosing the retro format, on the other hand, can easily sit on level 7.
It only gets difficult when the level remains unspoken. Level 3 is perfectly fine as long as everyone knows it’s level 3. If the team believes it is on level 5 and then sees the leader decide anyway, the conversation is damaged before it has even started.
Spotting levels of delegation in everyday team life
Before you build a board, take an honest look at the status quo. Spend ten minutes writing down the decisions from the last four weeks that you were involved in. Then assign each decision the level at which it was actually made, regardless of what officially applies.
A fictional example: a product team builds the booking platform for a bike rental company. Within a month, these are some of the decisions that come up. The library for date calculations was replaced, and the team lead noticed it in the pull request (level 6). The release date for the new map view was set together during planning (level 4). For an open position, the team lead invited two colleagues to the interviews and then decided alone (level 3).
Even this short list shows you two things. First, you probably already use several levels, just without noticing. Second, you will quickly find places where the team would have assumed a different level. That is exactly where the delegation board comes in.
Creating a delegation board step by step
A delegation board is a simple matrix. The rows list your team’s decision areas, the columns show the seven levels of delegation. In each row, a card or a cross marks the level that currently applies. The board can be a whiteboard in the team room, a table in the wiki or a board in your online whiteboard tool. All that matters is that everyone can find it.
Prerequisites
- 60 to 90 minutes with the whole team, ideally as part of a retrospective
- Cards numbered 1 to 7 for each person, printed or digital
- Your own willingness to move levels upwards when the team has good reasons
Steps 1 to 3: collect areas and estimate levels
- Explain the model (10 minutes): Briefly introduce the seven levels of delegation, ideally with one sentence each from the table above. Stress that no level is better than another.
- Collect decision areas (15 minutes): Everyone writes down topics where they have wondered who actually decides. Typical candidates are tool choices, working hours, vacation planning, hiring, training budget, architecture decisions and release dates. Cluster the notes and pick the five to eight most important areas.
- Play delegation poker (30 minutes): For each area, everyone secretly picks a card from 1 to 7 that shows the level they think is right. Everyone reveals at the same time. Whoever played the highest and the lowest card briefly explains their view. Then you discuss and agree on a level.
Choosing in secret is the real trick. If you as the leader named your number first, most of the team would place theirs right next to it. Revealing at the same time puts the actual expectations on the table, including the uncomfortable ones. Management 3.0 also describes a scoring system in which a lone highest card doesn’t count. Many teams skip the points, though, and use the game purely as a conversation starter. I recommend the same for your first round.
Steps 4 to 6: record the board and keep it alive
- Record the board (5 minutes): Enter each area with the agreed level. Add a second column “Target” if you agree that an area should be delegated further later on.
- Make it visible: Put the board where the team looks anyway, for example next to the Kanban board or at the top of the team page in the wiki. A board nobody can find won’t help in the decisive moment.
- Review it regularly: Look at the board every two to three months, for example in a retro. If areas have worked well, you can move them up a level. If there was trouble, discuss whether the level was wrong or whether context was simply missing.
What a finished board can look like
For the fictional bike rental team, the result after the first workshop could look like this. The “Target” column shows where the team wants to be in about six months.
| Decision area | Level today | Target | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Libraries and tools in our own code | 6 | 7 | License check remains mandatory |
| Retrospective format | 7 | 7 | Facilitation rotates |
| Release date of a new feature | 4 | 5 | Clarify dependency on marketing |
| Vacation planning among ourselves | 5 | 6 | Agree on minimum staffing first |
| Hiring for the team | 3 | 4 | Team runs its own interviews |
| Conference budget | 3 | 5 | Make the annual budget transparent |
| Cross-team architecture | 2 | 3 | Involve the architecture group |
Notice the “Note” column. It describes the guardrails under which the level applies. A level without guardrails invites misunderstandings. Level 6 for tool choices does not mean you can add a library with an unclear license.
Clarifying delegation in a one-on-one: questions to ask
The board covers the big, recurring areas. For individual tasks you hand over to one person, you need a short conversation. It fits best into your recurring one-on-one, or into a separate 15-minute slot for urgent topics. These questions help you agree on the right levels of delegation:
- What exactly should be decided or done at the end?
- At which level am I handing the decision over to you, and does that work for you?
- Which guardrails apply, for example budget, deadline or dependencies on other teams?
- What information are you still missing to make a good decision?
- When and how would you like to report back, or do you need no feedback from me at all?
- How will we both notice that we should change the level?
The second question matters most. Feel free to say the number out loud: “For me, this is a level 5. I’ll tell you my opinion, but you decide.” After a few weeks, the team will start using the numbers on its own, and many misunderstandings can be cleared up in a single sentence.
Pay attention to the fourth question as well. Anyone who is supposed to decide on level 6 but lacks half of the context will either hesitate or get it wrong. Delegation without information is just offloading with a friendly face.
Common delegation mistakes and how to avoid them
The level only applies while things go well
The team decides on level 5, you don’t like the decision, and you reverse it. You have just set the level back to 1 retroactively, and the team will remember. If you really can’t support a decision, say so openly and explain why you are stepping in this time. Afterwards, discuss together whether the level was too high for this area.
Level 3 is sold as participation
You gather opinions but then decide the way you had planned all along. That is legitimate as long as you announce it that way. It becomes a problem when the team believes it is deciding together. So say clearly beforehand: “I’ll listen to you, and I’ll make the decision.” Afterwards, explain how the opinions influenced it.
Level 7 as an excuse
“That’s your call” can express trust or indifference. If you fully delegate an area where the team lacks the necessary experience, that isn’t empowerment. For such areas, start at level 4 or 5 instead and move up as experience grows.
A board nobody looks at again
Teams change, people come and go, experience grows. A board from a year ago rarely reflects reality anymore. Therefore, schedule the review as a fixed item, for example in every third retrospective.
Delegating to the team instead of a person
Level 6 “for the team” sounds good, but it can lead to nobody feeling responsible. For bigger decisions, clarify who prepares them and who has the final say. Self-organization doesn’t need hierarchy, but it does need clarity about who takes the next step.
My take
I like the levels of delegation because they wrap an uncomfortable truth in a friendly package: leaders often delegate less than they think, and teams often dare less than they are allowed to. Both can be discussed surprisingly well with a number from 1 to 7. The number takes the edge off the conversation, because it’s no longer about “Don’t you trust me?” but about a factual question.
There is a limit, though. The board doesn’t replace trust; it only shows how much of it is there. If your team lacks psychological safety, nobody will play a 7 in delegation poker while the leader is in the room. In that case, to be frank, the result isn’t worth much. It then helps to work on the conversation culture first and do the board later.
I also like the parallel to Serverless. When you work with AWS Lambda, you hand over running the servers, but you define very precisely what the function may do: permissions, timeouts, limits. Good delegation works in a similar way. You hand over the decision, and the guardrails are clear. For me, people first means exactly that: giving people room and, at the same time, telling them where the walls are.
FAQ
What are the seven levels of delegation?
Tell, Sell, Consult, Agree, Advise, Inquire and Delegate. On levels 1 to 3 the leader decides, on level 4 both decide together, and from level 5 upwards the team decides.
What is the difference between a delegation board and a RACI matrix?
A RACI matrix describes roles for a task: who is responsible, who has to approve, who is consulted and who is informed. A delegation board describes how much decision-making authority is shared between the leader and the team. The two combine well.
How often should you review the delegation board?
There is no fixed rule. Every two to three months is a good starting point, plus whenever the team changes significantly or a decision has caused trouble.
Do I hand over responsibility along with the decision?
You hand over the decision itself, but you keep the responsibility for the framework. You make sure the team has the information, guardrails and skills it needs. If something goes wrong, you stand up for it together.
Your next step
Today, write down three decisions that come up regularly in your team, and note for each one the level at which it is really made right now. In your next one-on-one or retro, ask your team which number they would have chosen. The differences are your starting point for a first delegation board. If you run into critical feedback along the way, the guide Giving feedback that lands will help you.
I’d love to hear about your experience: for which decision in your team do the views on the right level differ the most? Feel free to share it in the comments.
Continue the series: Back to the “Leadership in brief” overview · Previous part: Strengthening psychological safety in your team. Next part: Leading remote teams with rituals that work.
Sources
- Management 3.0: Delegation Poker & Delegation Board
- Robert Tannenbaum, Warren H. Schmidt: How to Choose a Leadership Pattern, Harvard Business Review (1958, republished 1973)
This post was created with AI assistance.
👉 Next step: Preparing a first one-on-one? My question cheat sheet puts the best questions on one printable page.
Originally published on sascha-ms.de. More articles on serverless, AI in everyday development and leading tech teams: sascha-ms.de/en
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