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Hey there - it's Brian 👋

“I’ve been scammed!”

My friend paid a developer $8,000 for something he never made.

Then he ghosted her.

Would you have been scammed too?

There’s one reason this scam worked:
She trusted someone who hadn’t proven themselves.

But there’s a balance.

Trust too little and you’re micro-managing.

Trust too much and you get scammed.

So today’s issue is for you if you need a simple framework to make sure things are on track (without frustrating your people).

Introducing:
The 4 levels of delegation.

Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇

(Note: we’re making this issue FAST. Vote at the end if you prefer the bite-sized issue.)

So how do you avoid getting scammed?

Here’s how you find the right level of responsibility.

There’s 4 levels of delegation (I’ll share the details in a sec).

You start someone off at the lowest level that they’ve proven to you.

🚨 Important:
“Proof” means their behavior. Look at actual results not just what they say.

Once the person has proven they can do the task, then move up a level.

So here’s the 4 levels:

Level 1 – Investigation

“Just research and report back.”

Level 2 – Informed Progress

“Complete this task or project, but check-in as you make progress.”

Level 3 – Informed Results

“Complete this task or project. Just let me know when it’s finished.”

Level 4 – Ownership

“Take this project and run with it.”

So this means that as someone builds more trust and gets more reps they can move up the ranks.

While they haven’t proven themselves they’ll need more check-ins.

So how do you avoid getting scammed?

In my friend’s scam:
She trusted too quickly.

The scammer got away with it when she placed him at level 3 (but should have been a level 2).

So trust to the point that they’ve proven themselves.

And once they’ve shown they can do it, move them up a level.

It’ll thread the needle between micro-managing and getting scammed.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:

Hot take:
Micro-managing is just keeping someone at the same delegation level after they’ve proven themselves.

It’s not micro-managing to check in on them if they’re at the right level.

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See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
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