Stop Doing Everything: How to Delegate Effectively

I have a confession to make: delegation doesn’t come naturally to me. For years, whether I was leading a team or managing household tasks, I was reluctant to let go. It was one of the factors that contributed to my burnout, as the work piled on and I couldn't keep up.

And now, as organizations are demanding more and more of their employees, I see this resistance to let go every day while coaching high-achieving leaders and managers: they’re exhausted and overwhelmed, dealing with ever-increasing demands, yet they cling to tasks that others could be handling.

The reality is, you can’t scale your impact without mastering the skill of delegation. Before diving into the practical framework to overcome the fear of delegation, let’s define what true delegation means and how it differs from simply handing off a chore.

What is Delegation?

Delegation is a critical skill for leaders who are looking to grow and focus on more strategic areas. It fosters the growth, confidence, and teamwork vital for professional advancement and successful organizational outcomes. In order to do this while still achieving their ambitious operational goals, leaders assign responsibility to others, empowering and trusting them to act on the leader’s behalf. In practice, it means requesting help or asking someone to complete a task that may fall outside of their normal role, but is still aligned with the scope of their practice or training.

Delegation differs from simple task assignment, because you’re not just asking someone to execute on a task. You are handing over responsibility, authority, and ownership as you give them permission to act on your behalf for a specific outcome, and you expect them to think and make decisions independently.

Effective delegation has benefits for your broader organization, your team, individual employees, and of course you, the leader.

Why Delegation is a Critical Skill

At the organizational level, delegation allows you to leverage diverse strengths and expertise, giving you and your team a broader range of impact and skills. It also reduces organizational risk when you are unavailable or if you leave by creating backups. It helps you retain top talent by promoting professional development and growth: learning, engagement, and opportunities to contribute more.

It creates a positive culture of trust in teams and empowers employees when your role as leader shifts from control to guidance. Your employees feel a greater sense of meaning in their jobs when they have challenging, complex tasks. It boosts their self-esteem when they can work on high-stakes tasks, making them feel trusted and important to the organization, and elevated in status. With the confidence that comes with delegated authority, employees are also more likely to actively seek your feedback to further improve their performance.

Finally, the leader is able to create additional time and energy to focus on things only they can do, which are usually strategic in nature. This is important because leaders and managers are often required to take on more than they can handle alone, so they need to be able to step out of the day-to-day minutia. They are able to shift their identity from skillful executor to strategic developer, making the most of the team’s collective abilities.

Sounds great, right? But why are so many execs still holding on to work that they should be delegating?

Why It’s So Hard to Do

There are numerous psychological factors that hold us back from delegating. I hear these frequently from my clients, and can personally relate to many of them:

It’s easier to do it myself: 

The thought here is that delegation introduces a “time tax.” It will take too much upfront time and effort to teach someone how to do the task, not to mention the ongoing work of monitoring their progress and managing mistakes. The anxiety of delegation—and more specifically the perceived risk of error reflecting on the leader—is more threatening than burnout from an impossible workload, and thus outweighs the reduction of operational load.

I’m the only one who can do it: 

This is about control and aversion to uncertainty. Leaders want things done a certain way, and since they already have the necessary expertise, they know it will be done right. This mentality also drives a common pitfall in delegation: micromanagement and emphasis on process instead of outcome.

This mindset resonates for me as a recovering perfectionist, both at work and at home. However, the practice of delegation has taught me it’s okay if things are not done my way as long as they get done, and the saved time and cognitive load make it a worthwhile tradeoff.

At work, while I considered myself a skillful program manager, both the process and outcomes were almost always better when I delegated them to someone else who brought their own unique perspective and approach. (This is why they say to always hire people who are smarter than you!)

The next reason is similar in spirit.

It’s my neck on the line:

This reflects a lack of trust and the fear of accountability. Since leaders are ultimately accountable for the outcomes, they worry that mistakes will reflect poorly on them, leading them to question employee capability and intentions.

I’m a doer:

Leaders are high achievers, so their identity is tied to being a doer. They may be concerned about becoming irrelevant or losing the sense of competence or indispensability, or that delegating would be a sign of weakness.

I feel bad pushing of this task on my employees:

Leaders sometimes feel guilty about burdening others with a task that they might not want to do, or that might be overwhelming. However, what’s easy for the leader might be a stretch opportunity for the employee, and it’s possible they might enjoy the tasks, so it’s worth at least giving them a choice. If you don’t ask them whether they can take on the task, the answer is always no.

All of these concerns can be managed by delegating effectively.

How to Delegate

The key is to ensure your delegate has what they need by setting up the tasks, having a two-way conversation, and following up for support and accountability.

Prepare

1. Identify the Right Task: 

   • Look for opportunities such as long-range projects, detailed work on projects the leader is managing, recurring decisions, or pressing priorities that others can handle. 

   • Things not to delegate: Core strategic functions should rest exclusively with leader, such as confidential personnel matters, high-risk decisions, and tasks specifically assigned to the leader.

2. Match it to the Talent: 

   • Determine who is best suited, considering skills, availability, appetite for challenge, and current workload. 

   • Avoid over-reliance on your ‘superstar’ employees; consider your entire team and key partners. 

Now you’re ready to meet with the individual.

Discuss

3. Inspire Ownership by Explaining the ‘Why’: 

   • What are their strengths that you believe make them well-suited for the task, and what opportunity does it provide them for professional development and visibility? Why is this work important? 

   • Ask what they think the value would be to them.

4. Empower with Autonomy and Context: 

   • Give them authority by providing the important details like strategic context and constraints so they can assume the sole responsibility.

5. Be Clear: 

   • What does success look like? Focus on the outcomes and goals, not the process, providing a sample of success. 

   • Set clear timelines and deliverables, including milestones. 

   • Establish clear boundaries and describe the authority they have.

6. Discuss: 

   • After you’ve shared expectations, confirm understanding and put it in writing. 

   • If the employee is concerned about bandwidth, discuss potential tradeoffs if the and revisit their priority list together to see where they might have room to shift things. 

   • Discuss what resources they need, including access, approvals, systems, equipment, etc.

Follow Up

7. Create Accountability: 

   • Conduct periodic check-ins with your delegate to monitor progress and support them along the way: review the work, provide feedback, and celebrate success.

   • Expect and account for mistakes and failures, using them as learning opportunities.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that my employees were excited at the chance to work on something new that gave them visibility or expanded their skills. Very often, they did things differently and even better than I would have. It was a win for both of us: they gained confidence and exposure, and I got back some much-needed bandwidth.

While the psychological resistance to delegation is real, it’s a skill that you can hone. Think of it as an investment in your team’s future competence and ability to lead strategically through empowerment.  Start today by identifying just one task you can delegate this week.