Issue #26: Delegation Has a PR Problem. Here’s Why You’re Part of It.

Before we get into delegation, it’s worth admitting something...

Most of us have gotten it wrong. Usually very, very wrong.

I’ve held on too tight. I’ve handed things off too loosely. And I’ve worked for the person who did both. (He knows who he is. He's definitely not reading this newsletter.)

Different versions of the same problem. And together, they’ve shaped the messy perception of delegation many of us have.

And it’s not just anecdotal.

DDI assessed more than 70,000 manager candidates and found that only 19% demonstrated strong delegation skills. Imagine how fun that assessment was.

This means most people — regardless of title — are either holding on to work that isn’t theirs anymore, handing things off without context, or passing things along without staying accountable for the outcome.

At the same time, Gallup found that people who delegate effectively drive 33% higher revenue growth. And who couldn't use more revenue? (Love me some capitalism.)

The challenge is that most of us struggle with delegation — one of the highest-leverage things we can do. And it isn’t primarily a skill problem. It’s a perception problem.

When most people hear “delegation,” they picture the same person—the one who hands everything off, does none of the work, and takes all the credit.

Nobody wants to be that person. Nobody wants to work for that person. And yet, somehow, we all have. (See above.)

So most high performers (aka, readers of this newsletter — wink, wink) overcorrect.

They hold on to too much. Stay too involved. Step back in at the last second to redo the work “just to make sure.” Load the dishwasher the right way.

There’s also a deeper misconception. Delegation gets framed as a management tool—something you earn once you have a big team, a deep bench, and the luxury of resources.

It’s not. It's a professional skill, and one you need now — regardless of title and team size.

In fact, if you’re on a team (and you almost certainly are on a few of them), you’re already making decisions about what stays with you and what moves elsewhere — to a colleague, a partner, a tool like AI, or simply the person whose job it actually is.

You’re already delegating...you’re just not always calling it that.

And then there’s the part nobody says out loud: Delegation is uncomfortable.

It means handing something over and accepting you can’t fully control what happens next. (As a still recovering control-freak, even typing this gives me the shakes.)

What if they get it wrong? What if you’re not in the room when it matters? What if something goes sideways—and your name is still attached to the outcome? What is those dishes needs to be run through the cycle again?!

That’s not a process issue. That’s status anxiety.

And while you can’t control every variable, you can control what you choose to own. What actually requires you...

🧠 You-Critical vs. You-Adjacent

If delegation feels messy, it’s usually because we haven’t been clear on one thing: What actually requires you?

Not what you’re good at. Not what feels safest in your hands.

The better question is sharper: In your role, at this company, right now—are you the best person to do this? (And the answer can't always be yes, because then you are either an egomaniac or Superman or both and we know you are not Superman.)

Strategy calls only you can frame. Relationships only you can hold. Decisions only you can make.

That’s your you-critical work.

If someone else could own it, grow from it, and do it just as well with the right context and support, it isn’t yours to keep.

That and everything else is you-adjacent.

Work that lives in your orbit because it always has… Because you’re good at it… Because no one ever questioned it…It feels productive. It might even be relevant. But it doesn’t require you.

Most of your week is you-adjacent dressed up as you-critical. (Mine was, for years. The dressing was excellent. The critical part, not so much.)

So why don’t we let it go?

Three reasons. And none of them are skill-related.

Identity: The work you most need to delegate is usually the work you’re best at. The thing that earned you the title. The thing you can still do faster and better than almost anyone in the room. (Mine is MS Paint. Absolute monster.)

Letting go, though, doesn’t feel like leverage. It feels like a loss. Like you’re giving up the proof of what made you valuable.

So you hold on. Not because you need to. Because it’s still part of how you see yourself.

The tell is the last 20%. You hand something off, give them room—and then, at 80%, step back in. To “check.” To “tighten it up.” Which, coincidentally, looks exactly like how you would have done it.

That’s not delegation. That’s delegation puppet theater.

The work moved. The ownership didn’t.

Visibility: There’s a quieter fear underneath: if I’m not doing the work… do I still matter? If your name isn’t on the deliverable, does anyone know what you contributed?

That’s not paranoia. It’s rational. (And okay, maybe a light touch of paranoia._

In many organizations, people still get rewarded for the doing, not for the building of the people who do. So the instinct is to stay visible by staying involved.

But the best performers make a different shift. They become visible through outcomes — not output.

Your fingerprints don’t have to be on the work. They have to be on the people. (Figuratively speaking, per HR.)

Capacity: Sometimes the constraint is real. The team is maxed out. There’s no one to hand it to.

That is very real. That is also almost always going to be the case at most companies. There are never enough resources. So we need to get over it. (And if you know a company that is always overflowing with resources, please let me know where to send my updated resume.)

Too often, “I have no one to delegate to” really means: “I have no one who can do it the way I would.” Which brings you right back to the Identity section from earlier.

Because delegation and development are the same act. Every time you hand something off, you either build capability—or expose where it’s missing.

And if you consistently have no one to delegate to, you’ve built a team that can’t replace you. (Good for the ego, bad for the business.)

What delegation actually is

Most people think delegation is about moving work. And while that is sort of true, it's really about shifting ownership of thinking.

Your job is less about doing the work — especially with the advances of AI — and more about defining it: The context. The outcome. The standard.

Then let the best person or machine own the execution. (Let's be honest. It's machine. We had a good run, people.)

Doing feels productive. Defining feels slower—and less visible.

But when someone comes to you with a question, that’s the moment that matters. And you have two options: Answer it… Or return it.

Most people answer. The better move is to reset the context and give the decision back to them. When you answer, you solve the problem. When you return it, you build the person.

And if you’re on the receiving end, it works the same way. When work lands without context or clarity, that’s not delegation. It’s dumping. (Easy joke here, and I will take the pass.)

You’re allowed to ask: “What does good look like here?” “What outcome are we actually trying to achieve?”

That’s not pushback. That’s professionalism. And usually growth.

🍴 Try a Bite This Week

Three exercises. Start with the one that makes you flinch. (If none of them make you flinch, do it tied up and underwater. That should do the trick.)

• Run the You-Critical Audit. Pull your last two weeks. For every recurring meeting, deliverable, or decision, mark it: C (you-critical) or A (you-adjacent). One question: in this seat, right now, can only you do this? If the A column is bigger than the C column, you don’t have a calendar problem. You have a delegation problem in a calendar costume.

• Move one. Keep the accountability. Pick one piece of you-adjacent work—ideally one you secretly enjoy—and hand off the doing. You still own the outcome. No Sunday night rewrites. No “light edits” that quietly become a full redo. That gap—between handing off the doing and owning the outcome—is where your leadership actually lives.

• Tell them why. In your next handoff—today, this week, the next thing you assign—add one sentence most people skip: “I’m giving you this because I think you’re ready—and because I want the people above me to see what you can do.” Then stop talking. That turns a task into a chance.

💡 A Final Thought

Delegation feels uncomfortable for a reason.

It’s supposed to.

You’re giving up control. You’re risking imperfection. You’re letting someone else represent you.

But over time, something shifts.

The work gets better. The team gets stronger. And you stop being the bottleneck.

Bad delegation creates distance. Good delegation creates trust. And trust compounds.

If it feels a little messy, a little inefficient at first—you’re probably doing it right.

Just don’t confuse this with checking out.

The difference isn’t how much you delegate. It’s whether you’re still willing to roll up your sleeves when it actually counts—and whether your people know you would.

One delegates to avoid the work. The other delegates to make space for better work.

That difference is everything.

Just ask the new dishwasher I hired.

🌶️ Add Your Spice

What’s the one thing labeled you-critical in your head that — if you’re being completely honest — is actually you-adjacent? And who on your team should be doing it, while you stay on the hook for it?

Drop it in the comments. Bonus points if naming it out loud makes you a little uncomfortable. Those are the ones worth saying.