You will be able to decide how closely to supervise someone based on their experience with this particular task.
Pick one task you have handed to someone this month. Next to their name, write how many times they have done that exact task before and how it went. That count is a better guide to how you should manage the handover than their job title or how long they have been with you.
The idea comes from Andy Grove's book High Output Management. Grove called it task-relevant maturity: a person's experience and track record with the specific task in front of them. It is separate from seniority, age or general ability. The same person can be highly experienced at one task and brand new at another, so the right way to manage someone changes with the task they are doing.
Take Hui Min, eight months into the job. She has low maturity for most client work. She did spreadsheet analysis for three years in her last job, so for that work her maturity is high. Calling her "junior" misses this. Labelling people "senior" or "junior" in general misses the differences in their experience from one task to the next.
Grove matched management style to maturity. At low maturity the person needs structure: a clear brief, defined steps for the parts they have never done, and frequent check-ins early on. At moderate maturity the focus moves to two-way discussion and support, because they know the basics but still benefit from talking decisions through. At high maturity the person needs a clear goal and space, and you check only on results.
Wei Ling manages Arjun. She gives him one of the two top-tier client accounts. Arjun has handled difficult clients for six years, so his maturity for client handling is high. The account goes well from day one, and he needs almost nothing from her.
Encouraged by that, she asks him to prepare next year's team budget and tells him to "use his judgement". She means "draft something reasonable for me to review". Arjun, whose maturity for budgeting is very low, hears "this is yours". Wei Ling does not check in for three weeks. The draft that comes back assumes two new hires the company never approved, and Daniel is due to see it that afternoon.
Arjun was the same person on both tasks. Wei Ling managed both tasks the same way, even though his experience with each was completely different.
The mistake can go either way. Supervising an experienced person closely feels like micromanaging, and it is micromanaging. Leaving a new person alone with an unfamiliar task feels like trust but is closer to neglect, and the person is the one who pays when it goes wrong.
For the budget, Wei Ling should have started with a working session to walk Arjun through how the budget is built. She should then have checked after his first draft of the headcount section and reviewed the whole thing before anything went to Daniel. For the client account, a monthly chat about how the account is going would have been enough, and nothing more.
How much authority to give is a separate decision from how often you check in. It helps to think in levels of authority, and four are enough for most work:
Level 1, look into it and report back: the person gathers the facts and you decide. Level 2, recommend: they gather the facts and propose what to do, and you approve or reject it. Level 3, decide and tell you: they make the call and report the decision, so you are never surprised. Level 4, decide alone: you only need to hear about it if something goes wrong.
The level can differ within one task. On Arjun's client account, level 3 suits most decisions, with level 2 for refunds above the team limit. On the budget, level 1 or 2 fits: he drafts and recommends, and Wei Ling decides what goes up to Daniel.
Levels can also change during a task. Someone can start at level 2 and move to level 3 once you have seen two or three of their recommendations and agreed with them.
Most managers skip saying the level out loud. Most delegation fights come from two people assuming different levels of authority. The manager assumes "recommend", the team member hears "decide", and both feel let down when the decision comes back already made. Neither side is necessarily being unreasonable, because the level was simply never said.
State the level in plain words at the moment you hand the task over. For the budget, Wei Ling could have said: "Put the numbers together and tell me what you'd suggest, and I'll decide what goes to Daniel." For the Changi account: "You make the calls and tell me what you decided at our one-on-one, but check with me first on anything over the refund limit."
Then write the level in your shared one-on-one document so neither of you has to rely on memory. Lesson 2.3, "A shared document that makes each meeting count", covers that document.
Every delegated task involves three decisions: how much experience the person has with this task, how often you will check in, and what level of authority they will have. The three answers should line up. Low experience usually means more check-ins and a lower level to start with. High experience usually means fewer check-ins and more authority.
Go through your team one person at a time and make those three decisions for one task each.
For each person on your team, pick one task and write down their experience with it, the authority level you will give them and how often you will check in.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).