Leading Up: How to Be Delegated To, Build Trust, and Win Autonomy

Lead with EASE – Special Edition - The Art of Gaining Authority

"Mastering the Art of LEAD with EASE" delves deep into the strategies and mindset shifts you need to realign your goals and reclaim your growth path, with EASE. This special edition is for those who are delegated to and would like more responsibility.

The partnership mindset

If delegation feels awkward, it is often because the two parties have not aligned on context, expectations, or trust. As a delegate your role is not passive, to be merely given things to do. You can help create clarity, offer structure, and demonstrate reliability. Over time, this builds the case for greater autonomy and authority to take action and report back.

Use the EASE Framework to shape your approach.

Explore: understand your boss’s world before you act

Curiosity first, action second.

• Pressures and priorities: What outcomes is your boss directly measured on this quarter. Who are their key stakeholders. Anticipate.
• Decision style: How do they prefer to receive information. Brief bullets, pre-read, visuals, or a short call.
• Risk tolerance: What must be escalated. What can be handled locally.
• Success indicators: What would “good” look like in this task. How will success be judged.

Try this: “Before I begin, may I confirm your top three priorities here, your no-go boundaries, and how you would like updates.”

Align: create shared intent, then confirm it back

Alignment turns effort into results. You can take the lead in shaping it.

• Backbriefing: After a short briefing, send a one-page summary of your understanding: intent, constraints, key steps, and checkpoints.
• Authority level: Agree what you can decide alone, what requires approval, and what must be surfaced early.
• RACI from below: If others are involved, propose who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.

Backbrief template:

• Intent: “My understanding of the required output is… and desired outcomes are...”
• Constraints: “Budget, timeline, non-negotiables are…”
• Approach: “I intend to…”
• Risks and mitigations: “The main risks are…, I will mitigate by…”
• Authority and cadence: “I will decide A and B, I will seek approval on C, I will update you every …”
• Agreement: Invite a simple “Yes” or “Adjust”.

Support: reduce surprise, increase learning, protect energy

Support is not deference. It is proactive care for the mission and the people.

• No surprises rule: Surface emerging risks early with options, not just problems.
• Decision support: Present two or three viable options with trade-offs and a recommendation.
• Psychological safety upward: Ask questions when clarity is missing. Courage is a service to the team.
• Time hygiene: Protect your boss’s focus. Batch non-urgent items. Provide pre-reads.

Useful question: “What is the one thing that would make this easier for you to approve or support.”

Empowered: earn trust, then ask for it clearly

Autonomy grows where clarity and competence are visible.

• Use “I intend to” language (Marquet). Move from “What should I do” to “I intend to do X because Y.” Improve consistency and reliability.
• Show your workings: Demonstrate how you weighed risks and trade-offs.
• Request a step-up: “Given recent results, may I take decisions up to £X or within Y scope, with a weekly backbrief.”
• Close the loop: Deliver, debrief, improve. Trust compounds when you finish well and learn openly.

A tool to move from reactive to proactive: the Eisenhower Matrix

Sort your workload with your manager, then delegate or schedule accordingly.

1. Urgent and Important: do now, resource properly.
2. Important, not Urgent: schedule and protect time, or ask to own this area.
3. Urgent, not Important: propose handover to the right executor.
4. Neither: recommend elimination, with rationale.

Team move: Share your matrix in the one-to-one. Ask, “What should I stop, start, or schedule to support your goals.”

Match task to talent: know yourself, know each other

Delegation works when work matches strengths. If your team has not mapped strengths formally, begin simply.

• List three tasks where you excel, and three where you learn fast.
• Share one strength you want to be known for this quarter.
• Ask your boss the same. “What work gives you energy, what drains you.”

Propose a small reallocation that plays to strengths and improves outcomes.

Delegation acceptance checklist

Before you say “yes,” confirm:

• Understand Inputs, Outputs, and desired Outcome: What success looks like, and why it matters.
• Boundaries: Time, budget, quality, non-negotiables.
• Authority: Decide, seek approval, or act and report.
• Support: People, data, tools available.
• Cadence: When and how to update.
• Debrief: When you will review learning and next steps.

Yes is a promise so a carefully considered “yes” is better than a rushed acceptance.

Bonus: when delegation goes wrong, learn together with a calm debrief

Mistakes will happen. Use them to build capability, not fear.

Principles: facts first, then feelings; curiosity over blame; short, respectful, and recorded.

Six questions:

1. What happened, in what order.
2. What helped, what hindered.
3. What was unclear: roles, remit, authority, expectations.
4. What signals did we miss, and why.
5. What will we change: one process, one clarity improvement, one support action.
6. Who owns the update, and when will we check it worked.

Update checklists or playbooks. Share the learning.

Learn, Educate Advise, Delegate - LEAD

Try this in the next fourteen days

• One backbrief: use the template on your next delegated task.
• One authority ask: request a small expansion of your decision space with clear guardrails.
• One debrief: run a ten-minute review on a recent task, even if it went well. Embed the habit while the skies are clear.

Referenced thinkers

David Marquet on intent and delegated authority. Amy Edmondson on psychological safety. Albert Bandura on self-efficacy. Deci and Ryan on self-determination. Dwight Eisenhower on urgency and importance. Marcus Buckingham on strengths.

Let us LEAD with EASE, wherever we stand.

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