Delegating to your direct reports is straightforward. Since they report to you, when you assign them work, they know it’s part of their job and are more likely to follow through. But with peers, the power dynamics can get complicated.

Take what happened to Anika, who had recently stepped into a VP role leading Client Strategy at a SaaS company. Her first major initiative involved restructuring workflows across Marketing, Product, and Engineering – all overseen by fellow VPs with aggressive quarterly targets of their own. "I used to just guide my team on what to do," she told me. “But now I spend half my day convincing colleagues to prioritize my projects alongside theirs.”

The higher you rise , the more your success depends on delivering results through people who don’t report to you , including your peers. Sometimes you need specialized expertise, like a forecast from Finance or a contract from Legal. Other times, you simply need more hands to deliver at the scale, which requires you to delegate sideways.

It's hard to ask for time and attention from colleagues who have demanding roles just like yours. Delegating across means managing egos, politics, and invisible dynamics . So here's how to enlist the help you need , without making colleagues feel like you're dumping work on their desk.

You’re essentially asking your peer to redirect members of their team, shift resources, and possibly push back their own deliverables. So you need to be intentional about what you ask them to take on.

Before approaching a peer, gauge which tasks belong with their team. Say you’re running a client-facing initiative that needs analytics support. It's far more effective to ask your peer in Data to lead the reporting than to cobble something together yourself and bring them in after the fact. When the work advances their goals, raises their visibility, or simplifies their workflow down the road, they're much more likely to view it as a shared win rather than an imposition.

The best candidates for sideways delegation are tasks that:

  • Align with their team's existing expertise
  • Use tools or systems they already have
  • Stand to benefit them as much as (or more than) they benefit you

Frame It As A Partnership

Avoid the directive tone you'd default to with your own team ("I need you to handle this") and lead with context that sets the stage for collaboration instead. You might open with, "As we look at upcoming training priorities, I want to make sure we're being efficient…" or "Thinking about where this process should live long-term…"

Make it clear you see them – or their team – as the right fit for the job. That might sound like, "Given the client relationships you've developed over the years…" or “With your team's history running similar implementations…”

Then connect the ask to a shared benefit and invite their input. For example, "This would give your team more direct say in how we approach X. Would it make sense for your department to take ownership going forward?" or "I think this could eliminate duplicate effort for both of us. I'd love to hear how your team might want to tackle it."

Getting the initial "yes" from a peer is only part of the equation. Making sure the work actually moves forward once everyone returns to their own priorities is another challenge entirely. Let them propose the milestones where possible and keep the tracking process simple:

Questions are useful for establishing ownership without being heavy-handed:

  • "Could we set up checkpoints that work for both our schedules?"
  • "What's a realistic timeline your team could commit to?"
  • "I think syncing every other week would help us both stay aligned. Does that cadence work for you?"
  • “What if we set up a shared document so either of us can check in without scheduling extra meetings?”

When a deadline isn't flexible, be upfront: “I want to flag this early – we need this wrapped up by March 1st for the board presentation. If that timeline is a problem on your end, let's work through it now rather than hitting a wall later.”

Then document your agreements. Send a brief follow-up email confirming what you discussed – deadlines, check-ins, and each person's role.

Address Pushback With Curiosity

If your peer says they’re at capacity, get specific: "Walk me through what your team has on their plate right now." There may be room to adjust the timeline, break the work into smaller pieces, or handle more of the groundwork yourself before handing it off.

If your colleague seems uncertain about committing, ask directly: "What’s giving you pause about taking this on?" Their hesitation might come from a previous experience, unclear scope, or competing priorities – all things you can work through together once they're on the table.

And if the response is, "I'm not sure this belongs with our team," stay open. Try, "Help me understand which parts feel outside your wheelhouse." If you still believe they're the right owner, don't back away from saying so: "I hear that. The thing is, your team is already the go-to for this kind of reporting. Splitting ownership would add more confusion than it solves."

Follow Up Without Overstepping

Tracking progress on work you've handed off to a peer calls for a lighter touch than with your own team. Instead of "Where do things stand?" – which can read as checking up on them – try "Is there anything you need from us to keep this on track?" or “What obstacles can we help remove?”

Rather than "Is this finished?" try, "I’d be curious to hear what you're finding in the data so far" or "How is the new process landing from your team's perspective?" You're signaling that you value their judgment while still getting a sense of where things stand.

If agreed-upon updates go quiet or responses stay vague, circle back to your original agreement: "When we kicked this off, we set up weekly recaps – those have been really useful on our end. What do we need to do to keep those coming each Monday?" Or simply: “You mentioned things are progressing – can you help me understand what phase you're in?”

Delegating sideways can feel slower and more effortful at first than handing work to your own team. But as trust grows and the process becomes second nature, it opens the door to results neither team could reach alone.