“I know I need to delegate more, but…” – I’ve heard this a lot in coaching conversations recently. It often comes up when someone’s feeling overloaded or frustrated that they can’t find enough time for the more strategic work they want and need to do to enable their own progression.
My own delegation journey was mainly influenced by a combination of two main factors – a love of people development and my own career ambitions. One particular role really accelerated my need to make this work – when I had the opportunity to become the COO of Avanade UK, while also wanting to work part-time hours to spend time with my boys who were aged just 2, 5 and 7 at the time. The role had never been done part-time before, and many said it couldn’t be. My only way to be successful was to excel at delegation – there was simply no other way. This forced me to really master letting go, build a strong team, and focus my time where it was really needed and could add unique value.
Of course it wasn’t always smooth sailing especially in the early days, or when the curve balls came such as acquisitions or challenging times for the business. I did at times create bottlenecks, exhaust myself, and definitely missed some opportunities to better develop my team’s capabilities especially when we were really trying to accelerate the business growth alongside juggling all the day-to-day. However, it did work – the business grew, I received great feedback and former team members have gone from strength to strength in their careers.
Why Delegation is a Struggle
Through both my own journey and supporting others, I’ve seen how delegation challenges can show up in different ways, sometimes even for very experienced and otherwise successful leaders:
- The Expert Trap: Often we’ve built our reputation on deep expertise in our field. Letting go of the detailed work that got us noticed can feel counterintuitive, even risky. One leader I worked with really struggled with letting her team meet with key stakeholders without her – she’d been the expert for so long she couldn’t imagine not being the one to answer their difficult questions directly.
- The Time Paradox: When you’re already overwhelmed with a heavy workload, investing time in teaching others can feel impossible. Add in the possible challenge of needing to make a case for additional resources or training and it can feel easier to just keep struggling on – however not breaking the cycle can really limit that longer-term growth potential.
- Trust and Control: Sometimes it’s about confidence – in ourselves as leaders, in our team’s capabilities, or in our ability to manage the risks. One person I worked with was struggling to trust her team to provide direct updates to her peer leaders, and concerned that key feedback would be missed – what unfolded was that this wasn’t really not trusting team members but more about improving communication channels and checkpoints.
- The Responsibility Weight: In senior roles, the stakes can be high – the feeling of accountability can sometimes make it tempting to keep too tight a grip on decisions. This can be really weighty during downturns and tough business periods when pressure it high, however that can also be when it’s most advantageous to have the team step up and to have more of your time freed up to focus on the strategic direction.
The Costs of not Delegating
Not delegating effectively can create a cycle that’s hard to break:
- You become the bottleneck for decisions and progress
- Your team misses development opportunities and may become disengaged
- Strategic thinking time gets squeezed out
- Work-life boundaries become increasingly challenging
- Career growth stalls as you can’t take on any more
I’ve seen talented leaders both suffer from stress and also slow down their own career progression and limit their opportunities through not breaking this cycle. For example, someone I worked with found her need to keep completing tasks herself wasn’t enabling her to focus on developing new business for her team.
Making Delegation Work
Here are some lessons I’ve learned about delegating effectively:
1. Start with Honest Self-Reflection
Reflect on what’s holding you back from delegating effectively. Are you clinging to tasks out of habit, or because you believe no one else can do them as well? Consider the bigger picture: what could you achieve with more strategic time, and how is your current approach affecting your wellbeing and career growth? How is it affecting your team and their growth and development?
2. Be Strategic About What You Delegate
Not everything can or should be handed off. Think analytically about which tasks others could do as well as (or better than) you, and those that offer valuable growth opportunities for your team. Meanwhile, identify key relationships or responsibilities that should stay with you. Is there any potential to eliminate or streamline low-value activities. Is there room for creativity even if the readiness in some areas isn’t there right now?
3. Set Everyone Up for Success
For effective delegation, clear communication is key. Outline expectations, boundaries, and success measures. Make sure the bigger picture of the impact of the work is well understood. Think through the tools, training, and guidance your team needs to succeed, and establish robust governance with agreed purposeful checkpoints so you can stay aligned without micromanaging.
4. Create a Supportive Team Culture
Foster an environment where your team feels confident to step up and try new things. Ensure that delegation is truly an opportunity for their growth and visibility, rather than simply extra work – and make sure this is explained well. Two-way feedback is vital – listen to their ideas about what they can take on and what support they need. Also make sure you have your own support network in good shape.
5. Let Go of Perfectionism
Recognise that “good enough” is often just that, and that someone else’s way might be different but also just as effective as yours, and perhaps even bringing its own added benefits of trying something new. Perfectionism can lead to overwork as well as stifling your team’s creativity. Encourage experimentation and celebrate learning from different approaches – even if they don’t always work quite as planned!
6. Build Trust Progressively
Start small to build mutual confidence – delegate lower-stakes tasks first and grow from there. Encourage an environment of safety for constructive feedback from you to the team and vice-versa and between team members. Celebrate successes, jointly learn when things don’t go as planned, support your team through challenges, and use these experiences to strengthen trust and teamwork over time.
Making It Sustainable
How can you more systematically embed delegation into your leadership approach:
- Regularly review your task list for delegation opportunities
- Build teaching, coaching and two-way feedback into your team and 1:1 meetings
- Keep adjusting your approach based on what works for you and the team
- Stay focused on the strategic space it creates and the impact you have as a result
- Be creative with solutions and learn continuously both within the team and from others
Effective delegation isn’t just offloading work to others – it’s about enabling growth for both yourself and those you delegate to, and maximising collective impact. When done well, it creates a positive cycle of development and success. It also has a ripple effect as those you delegate to are then inclined to delegate to others – even if not now, in the future as their own careers grow.
If you’ve already handed work over but are still more involved than you expected, You delegated it. Why are you still quite so involved? looks at how to adjust your involvement.
Moving Forward
If you’re finding delegation challenging, start small:
- Choose one task you could delegate this week
- Identify someone who could grow from the opportunity
- Plan how you’ll support their success
- Take that first step of letting go
- Review, adjust, repeat
What could you delegate this week to create space for something more strategic?
If you’re struggling with delegation or other leadership challenges, I’d love to explore how we might work together. Sometimes having an objective thinking partner can help you see new possibilities and build confidence in letting go. Just send me a message if you’d like to arrange a complimentary discovery call.