Delegating 101 – who should handle what? Why?

Greetings to all. Welcome to another topic I would like to explore with everyone: Delegating. My experience may be limited… I never had any direct reports, nor have I had the opportunity to be a manager (yet). However, as a team member / leader, I have had the opportunity to delegate tasks based on things that needed to get done and “those at my disposal”. In some occasions, those team members whom I assigned tasks to where overseas, and I had no prior knowledge of their work ethic. I simply had to trust them. In other cases, team members comprised of colleagues whom I dealt with on a daily basis and knew exactly what to expect. Whenever you know the team and their strengths, it can almost be intuitive to delegate tasks. However, what if you don’t know your team? What if the set of tasks do not fit into line with your team’s existing areas of expertise? What if you are not familiar with the team and there is urgency in getting the job done?