Here's how you can maintain technical expertise while balancing delegation as an IT professional.

Agreed to certain points but not overall. While we look at the company success as a whole, sometime we overlook personal success. While some of the team may be able to understand certain projects due to their capability, we shouldn't be just assigning the task to them coz indirectly there is an opportunity cost of getting this person to perform his own role. An example, a technical presales has deep technical knowledge of his domain but his primary role is to sell solution, and not to build them. Just becoz he can build them as he need to have these knowledge does not means we just use him to build them. Just my two cents of worth.

As an IT professional, I believe everyone on the team should take initiative for self-learning. Continuous learning enhances our knowledge and skills, allowing us to engage in hands-on practice. As a lead, I go beyond my responsibilities to support my team's technical growth through guidance, motivation, corporate events, and team-building activities. Avoiding micromanagement, practicing effective time management, and fostering an enthusiastic environment are key to successful mentoring and teaching. I believe this approach helps in achieving a balanced and productive team.

According to the technical understanding figure out what the project needs and what skills your team members have. - Decide which tasks you need to handle yourself and which ones your team can manage. - Tasks to team members based on their skills, so you can focus on what you do best. - By doing this right, you’ll boost your team's productivity and help them grow their skills.

Absolutely agree on this. Do the assessment of the requirement with the team ,prepare the list of user stories adding the complexity index to each of them, ask the team to come up with high level approach by dividing the stories among team,so that most suitable approach is followed and same time it is delighted wisely with out over seeing any of it.

Maintaining technical expertise while delegating effectively involves strategic planning and continuous learning. Allocate time for personal skill development through courses, workshops, and hands-on projects. Delegate routine tasks or those outside your expertise to team members, ensuring clear instructions and expectations. Foster a collaborative environment where knowledge sharing is encouraged. Stay updated with industry trends and technologies to guide decision-making and mentor team members effectively. Balance hands-on involvement with oversight to maintain technical proficiency while empowering your team to excel.

Estabelecer uma parceria inteligente com os parceiros é fundamental, avaliar bem o que é passível de terceirização e o que não, preservando e focando ainda mais no "core" da Organização. Como alguém que já foi terceiro e também cliente, vejo que se cada um focar na sua estratégia, entendendo bem o poder da cocriação da maioria dos trabalhos, deixando os guardrails claros para ambos os lados, é sucesso certeiro para a parceria ser próspera para ambos os lados, mantendo o conhecimento técnico preservado.

I would like to add a point that before delegating, the requirement should be brainstormed along with team on the high level approach and can come to one common ground,be in same page and publish the same in the tracker,which will help in dealing with pros and cons, changes , many more

Delegation is important to avoid duplication of works. However, mentoring is also important so as to share experience along the way. By delegation does not means just offloading works. There must also be some check and balance in case it runs off track.

It is always found to be useful to be up to date with what’s happening in the industry, while keeping a good follow up on what’s happening in the business too and have a relative understanding. This would not only help us be updated on the industry trends but will also help us help our clients informed and motivated about the future trends! A regular run through of the leading blogs, listening to podcasts on the topics of interest that are relevant to the industry, presenting those ideas in various forums to get the feedback and also feeding it back to our clients, helps in being up to date with the ongoing technology developments!

Agree with this totally, one should be investing in getting updated on the latest technology trends so that we can be value add to our team as a lead.

Cannot agree more. Constant upgrading is really important but just having the technical know how is not enough. In todays world, environment and maturity of an organziation is important. Not only we need to focus on cross practice learning, we also need to understand the industry to better position and apply these knowledge. As the saying, different strokes for different folks.

You don't need to remain an expert in all technical domains. I used to be a SME on various retails and POS systems. This covered hardware, LAN, WAN, OS, applications, databases, etc. Although systems evolves, the basic concepts remain. Don't forget that. They matter and continue to apply. Make the time & spend the time attending relevant (recordings of) webinars. Ask your team to suggest topics that typically cover high-level overviews or executive briefings. 1 hr/wk Read executive summaries. Read the introduction chapters and/or chapter 1 plus the last chapter. 0.5 hr/wk Speak with your vendor's account managers and ask them to provide an overview of the products your organization purchased from them. 1 hr/month. That's 1 day / month

Mentoriingship is not one way. It is a good avenue to have 2 way communication and feedback. The mentor can also learn from their mentee. Knowledge is best when shared as everyone understanding of it might be different. Its like concept vs application.

Engage in mentorship and peer learning. I regularly exchange knowledge with colleagues and mentor junior team members. This practice not only helps me stay updated with new techniques but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement within the team.

If you are in a management position and still need to execute or meet your team's execution needs, then something is wrong. In the management role, your focus must be on the future, and your role is no longer operational. For these activities, you must be able to form an efficient team or multiple teams. One of the biggest challenges when building strategies and ensuring their execution is role confusion. Role schizophrenia occurs when a director continues to engage in operational tasks, which can undermine both strategic vision and operational efficiency. Directors need to focus on long-term goals, strategy development and leadership, while their teams must take care of day-to-day operations.