Working with others
Decide how much freedom to give
A simple worksheet for agreeing which calls are theirs, which come to you, and how they move up over time
For each piece of work you've handed to someone, sort the decisions into three levels (they decide, they recommend, or they check in first) and agree it with them.
- 15 minutes
- You and one report
- Quarterly
- Worksheet
Why this can work
Delegation often goes wrong because the line between their call and yours was never drawn. Agreeing the level for each kind of decision, together, draws that line on purpose and gives them a clear way to earn more room.
Read moreHow to set delegation levels with your team
You’ll come away with three short lists, agreed with your report, of which calls are theirs.
- Pick one person and one project.
Start where the confusion is costing you: someone who checks everything with you, or someone whose call surprised you last month.
- Fill in where each decision sits today.
Sort the decisions in this work into three levels. Be honest about where you'd actually want to hear from them, not where you think a good manager should.
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Tip: Calls that are cheap to undo can usually sit higher than your first instinct.
- Talk it through with them.
Share your draft as a proposal, not a ruling, and ask where they'd put things. Their sense of what they're ready for is information you need.
You“Here's where I think each of these sits right now. Where would you move things, and what would you need to take more on?” - Keep the lists where you can both see them.
When a question comes up, point to the list instead of deciding again. It saves both of you a conversation.
- Revisit, and move one thing up.
On the date you set, look at what went well and hand over one more decision. Levels that only ever stay put, or shrink, tell people something too.
Good times to repeat it: when you hand off a new projectwhen someone joins or changes roleonce a quarter, to move something up
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Someone can be fully trusted with clients and still need to check in on spending. Sorting by decision keeps it from reading as a verdict on them.
What might make this harder
Ask what they'd do with it and agree what would change your mind. A clear path up is easier to accept than a flat no.
Questions people ask
What are the levels of delegation?
Frameworks vary. Jurgen Appelo's Management 3.0 describes seven, from the manager deciding alone to the team deciding alone. A simple working version has three: they decide, they recommend and you approve, or they check with you first.
How do I know how much autonomy to give an employee?
Look at the decision, not only the person: their experience with it, the cost of a mistake, and how easily it could be undone. Then agree the level with them.
How do I stop micromanaging my team?
Say out loud which decisions are theirs and agree how they'll keep you informed. A lot of micromanaging comes from never having agreed where the lines are.
Why this works, and where it comes from
Delegation usually fails in one of two directions: a manager hands something over and then hovers, or hands it over and disappears. Both tend to come from the same gap, which is that nobody said how much of the decision was actually theirs. So the report guesses. The careful ones check everything, which looks to you like a reluctance to own it. The confident ones decide everything, which feels like being blindsided. Neither is doing anything wrong; each is filling in a blank you left.
Jurgen Appelo's Management 3.0 treats this as a spectrum, with seven levels of delegation running from the manager deciding alone to the team deciding alone, and suggests agreeing the level separately for each area of work rather than once for the person. This worksheet keeps that core idea and trims it to three levels, which tends to be enough for a working conversation.
For your report, a clear level is a relief. They know when to just go, when to bring you something, and when to wait, and they can see what they'd need to show to get more room. Freedom with no stated edges feels like a test; freedom with clear ones feels like trust. And when something does go wrong, you both have the same agreement to look back at, instead of two different memories of what was meant.
Skip it for small, familiar work, where the level is already obvious to both of you and a worksheet would feel like bureaucracy. It's also a poor fit when the real issue is that you don't trust someone's judgment at all; that deserves a direct conversation about why, and this can follow once you've had it.
Other simple things to consider
What to do next
More in Working with others
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Written by Truest, based on Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders (Jurgen Appelo). Last updated September 25, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.