Delegating to a project coordinator: what they run and what stays with you
The project manager tells a new coordinator to run submittals, RFIs and minutes. The coordinator starts sending reminders but is unsure who can promise answer dates or accept a response. The manager still checks every entry because the instruction transferred a label rather than a usable responsibility arrangement.
Agree the actual work split with the coordinator and the people receiving their contributions. Titles do not establish a universal division in which every register belongs to the coordinator and every forecast belongs to the manager. Define bounded outputs, competence, workload and authority. Tracking an answer, communicating an agreed date and approving a technical or commercial matter are separate responsibilities.
Make the office-side handover usable
- List outputs and interfaces rather than labels. Identify the actual information the coordinator prepares, maintains or distributes and who needs it next. Locate deadlines, source records and dependencies. Distinguish maintaining status from verifying technical adequacy. Review the proposed scope against current staffing and project arrangements instead of assuming every coordinator must own the same four systems.
- Confirm authority, access and support. Check competence and available capacity with the responsible manager. Agree which requests the coordinator can send, what commitments they may communicate and which matters return for a decision. Arrange approved record access and suitable assistance. Authority to request a status update does not itself authorize changing a required date or accepting a deficient answer.
- Demonstrate the work and receive the handover. Walk through representative current items, including a missing input and a conflicting response. Confirm the source, actual status, next receiver and escalation route. Let the coordinator demonstrate the expected output and questions. Inform affected participants of the agreed arrangement so they know who receives information and who retains the relevant decision.
- Review results and adjust the work split. Check actual outputs, unresolved exceptions and complete effort at an appropriate point. Clarify requirements or provide support before expanding scope. Keep the manager's remaining decisions and receiving duties explicit. A maintained log can help the meeting, but it cannot ensure every consultant answer arrives or make a manager's consequential review unnecessary.
Common mistakes
- Delegating system names without defining their outputs.
- Confusing status chasing with technical acceptance.
- Adding work without checking capacity and access.
- Assuming a maintained log removes the manager's receiving duties.
Checklist
An agreed coordinator handover identifies
- Bounded outputs, current sources and actual receivers.
- Deadlines, dependencies and available capacity.
- Request, commitment and decision-authority limits.
- Demonstrated handling of exceptions and conflicts.
- Required manager inputs, review and scope changes.
Check your understanding
The coordinator owns the status output. Can an incomplete technical response be marked accepted to clear the list?
