# The Delegation Scripts

The words matter more than the org chart. A task bounces because it was handed off vaguely, and it stays handed off because you said five specific things out loud. These are the scripts, verbatim, filled with a real example (Ridgeline Heating & Air: the owner, Renata the Service Manager, Dana in the office). Change the names and numbers; keep the shape.

There are five scripts here: hand it off, hand it back, turn a repeat into a rule, teach the team to escalate well, and hand a job to a role instead of a person.

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## Script 1 · Hand a task off

Use it once, at the handoff. It is the handoff brief, spoken. Say all five parts.

> "I am handing you the past-due follow-ups, start to finish. Here is the outcome: every invoice over 15 days gets a call the same day, and you keep calling until it is paid or on a plan. Here is one I did last week so you can see the standard I want. You can offer up to a 5% courtesy on a documented issue on your own; over that, it goes to Renata, not to me. Send me the aging list every Friday by noon; if it is on that list and moving, I will not ask about it midweek. Done looks like every 15-day account has a dated note and a next step, and the total is dropping. That is the whole deal, and it is yours now."

Why it works: the person leaves knowing the finish line, the standard, the line they can decide up to, and the one thing to send you. There is nothing left to come back and ask.

## Script 2 · Hand it back when it bounces

The first bounce is the test. The wrong move is to sigh and redo it yourself. The right move is to hand it back with the one gap named, in under a minute.

> "This came back to me, and I am handing it back to you, because it is a two-minute fix and it is yours now. The follow-up went out, that part was right. Here is the gap: three of the six were over $2,000 and got an email, not the same-day call. Same-day call on anything over $2,000. Re-run those three today and it is done. I am not taking this one back."

Why it works: you name what was right first, then the single specific gap, then the fix, then the boundary ("I am not taking this back"). You are correcting the brief, not the person.

## Script 3 · The second time, make it a rule

When the same question reaches you twice, stop answering it and turn it into a rule at the standup.

> "This diagnostic-fee dispute has come to me twice this month. That means it is not a question anymore, it is a missing rule. Here is the rule I want: first visit, first dispute, we waive the fee, note the account, and move on. A second waiver on the same account comes to you, Renata. Write it as a rule card and add it to the routing table. Nobody asks me this again."

Why it works: the second occurrence is the trigger. You convert it into a card and a routing row on the spot, so the third time it is the team's call, not yours.

## Script 4 · Teach the team to escalate well

Give the team this so an escalation arrives as a decision, not a shrug. Say it once, then hold the line by handing anything incomplete back.

> "When you bring me something, bring me the decision, not just the question. Five things: what is happening in a sentence, the one call that has to be made, the realistic options, what you would do and why, and when it has to be decided and what is at stake. If you bring me those five, I will answer in two minutes. If you bring me 'what do I do,' I am going to hand it back and ask for the five."

Why it works: it trains the team to think the problem through to a recommendation. Half of what used to be an escalation answers itself the moment they have to write their recommendation down.

## Script 5 · Hand it to a role, not a person

Delegate to the seat, so the system survives turnover. Say this when you hand off anything that should outlast the individual.

> "I am handing this to the office coordinator role, not just to you, Dana. That means it lives in a one-page procedure, not in your head. Write down how you do it as you go, so if you are out or you move up, the next person runs it from the page. You own it and you own the write-up. That is how this stops depending on any one of us, including me."

Why it works: naming the role, and requiring the one-page write-up, is what keeps the handoff from walking out the door when the person does.

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## The one rule under all five

You never silently take a bounced task back. You hand it back with the gap named, or you fix the brief, or you write the rule. The moment you quietly redo it yourself is the moment it is your job again.
