What you keep
You identify what must stay in your hands and you tell the agent so explicitly.
ObjectiveBy the end of this lesson, you will be able to mark out what stays in your hands and write it into the request, for example with a [TO DECIDE] note at the right place.
Delegating also means deciding what you do not delegate. Some things remain yours, not because the agent could not do them, but because they engage your judgement, your relationships or your responsibility.
What stays in your hands
- Decisions that affect people: an appraisal, a hire, a disciplinary measure.
- The final choice of messages: what your organisation wants to say, and what it refuses to say.
- Sensitive relationships: the reply to an unhappy client, a condolence message, a negotiation.
- What only you know: the unwritten context, the history of a case, the balance within a team.
- Anything you could not explain if someone asked you why.
Keeping does not mean doing everything alone. For a delicate reply, the agent can prepare a draft, suggest two tones, list every point raised by the other party. You write the final version or rework it extensively. Work is shared within the task, not only between tasks.
Reply to this client and send it.
Read this client’s email and prepare a draft reply. Address each of their complaints, propose a solution for the first two and leave a [TO DECIDE] note where the goodwill gesture goes. Do not send anything.
The agent does the structuring work, the commercial decision and the sending stay with you.
In Learnya, sending an email goes through your approval in any case. But deciding in advance what you will keep spares you rereading an entire text for a single paragraph you are not happy with. It also prevents the agent from taking a position on your behalf that you would then have to undo.
Keep what is hard to undo
A good rule is to keep what would be hard to undo. A failed draft can be fixed in two minutes. A sent message, a deleted file or a social media post cannot be taken back so easily. The more irreversible an action, the more you need to be present when it happens.