Mastering Delegation: Essential Tips for Young Associates

Published on 19 December 2024

Today I’d like to talk about receiving delegation. And my comments today are primarily focused to the young attorney, perhaps an associate, who is now responsible for accepting delegation. And I thought I would talk about it from this perspective, because I think there are a lot of associates who would benefit from improving their ability to receive delegation.

You may work in a firm where the partners are not particularly good at teaching delegation skills. And even if they are, there are lots of things that you can do to improve your ability to take advantage of whatever training exists, because as a young associate or associate at any level, you want to improve your ability to learn the job, to learn the skills, as quickly as possible.

And also, the way in which you accept delegation impacts the perception that others will have of you, particularly the partners, the people who have some authority over your advancement in the firm, the people who can be your support and help promote you. So we want to do whatever you can to improve your ability to be an effective lawyer and accept delegation. And there’s some tips that I’d like to share with you on how to do this.

Tip 1: The Checklist

The first tip is the checklist. I believe that every project should have a checklist, even though some projects may seem different than other projects. In the vast majority of cases, most of the things you do share a lot of similarities, and it is remarkable to me that a lot of people do not use checklists. They look at each project and you have to reinvent the wheel each time and rely on your memory. But a lot of what you do is just simply things that you can write down. And I would recommend that you create a checklist for all of your projects. And this is going to help make sure that you include everything that you need to do and do it in a timely manner.

You might even consider having a shared checklist. Use your firm’s shared software so that when you’re getting the delegation for the first time, you bring up the shared checklist and you both, you and the partner, fill it out together. Make sure that everything that you need to do is on the checklist.

We have some wonderful forms on our website that can give you examples of the kind of checklists that you might want to use. So feel free to go to our website, which is kohncommunications.com and look for the Task Manager. And you can either use that independently or put it on a shared screen technology and fill out the checklist.

You may also want to take the opportunity of creating the checklist as you’re doing the work. This is a very effective way of making sure that you remember everything and you document every step as you do each thing. You make sure that, do I have this on my checklist?

Then you can use that checklist for all future projects. You might even want to offer it to other people in the firm to use. So the first tip is to use a checklist.

Tip 2: Take the Initiative

The second tip is to take the initiative to suggest next steps. I like this idea because it’s been my experience the people who accept delegation tend to just accept what the partners tell them. But I like this idea of demonstrating that you’re thinking about what else might need to be done and what needs to be done next. So take the initiative to suggest what you do rather than just waiting to be told what you do next.

Tip 3: Understand What is Expected

The third tip is to make sure that you understand exactly what is being expected of you. Make sure that you’re clear about all of the steps. This entails paraphrasing what you believe the partner is trying to explain to you. When you paraphrase in your own words, it helps you understand what is being requested, and it also confirms that the partner understands and that you and the partner have the same idea in mind.

Tip 4: Ask What Else

A fourth tip is to ask if there is anything else that the partner wants to cover, to make sure that they are giving you everything that they need to give you.

Tip 5: Negotiate the Next Conversation

The fifth for accepting delegation is to always negotiate the next conversation. One of the frustrations that partners have is not being clear when the associate is going to have the work done. It’s frustrating from the partner’s perspective to have to track down the associate to find out what is happening.

So you solve this problem by negotiating the next conversation. Once you know what the timeline is for each step, then you can recommend when you should discuss the project next and get that in your calendar. This will make sure that the project moves along at a good pace, that everything is being done in a timely way and that the partner will be available to have the next conversation. So the tip is to always negotiate the next conversation.

Tip 6: Collaborative Delegation

And the sixth and final tip that I’d like to share is to suggest that delegation be done in a collaborative manner. The typical model for delegation is for a partner to hand the work to the associate. The associate does the work and then sends the work back to the partner who looks at it. The partner then may make some revisions. And then sends it back to the associate and the associate takes a look and makes those revisions and sends it back to the partner. Ultimately, though, the partner is going to finish the project and send it out. And this really harms the training process because you don’t get to see the final project. A better technique is to do the work collaboratively, so that you’re online together, making the edits together. In this way, you get to see how the partner is thinking and this aids in the training process.

So those are some thoughts about how you can improve your ability to receive delegation. It will help you learn the information more effectively and it will help position you and basically shape the perception of the partners who are in a position to help you in your advancement and further your career.

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