Mastering delegation for sustainable leadership

Delegation fails less on the framework and more in the two seconds right after you hand something off, where you either actually let it be theirs or you don't.

The test I give every executive

Go away for a day or two. Leave your phone. Tell the team you're gone. Then watch what happens.

It doesn't take long to see it. Some things get picked up on Slack without you. Some things don't. Some activities get handled exactly as you'd have handled them. That gap, between what runs without you and what doesn't, is the real map of what you've delegated and what you've just been holding.

The colleague who could do it just as well

I had one executive who was so worried about saying the wrong thing or making the wrong call that they never gave a close colleague access to their calendar or their inbox. Once they finally let go of it, they found out most of it got handled without them, because the person they'd been protecting themselves from trusting could do the work just as well as they could.

Outcomes, not steps

Tell someone what success looks like. Don't tell them how to get there. The moment you hand over the steps instead of the goal, you haven't delegated, you've just relocated the work.

Structure, not supervision

Give resources and context. Don't check in on every move. The difference is whether your team learns to solve problems or learns to wait for you to solve them through them.

Three questions before you hand something off

Is this actually worth their time and yours? Does it play to what they're already good at? And are you prepared to let the outcome look different from how you'd have done it?

If you want help finding where you're still holding on to more than you think, Find the Leak runs that exact check in 90 minutes.