Delegation
Delegation is handing over the outcome, not just the task - giving someone the authority and room to own it, which is how leaders free themselves and grow others at the same time.
Five steps run left to right, from defining the outcome to reviewing what comes back.
Reach for this when…
- You are the bottleneck and everything routes through you.
- You delegate tasks but keep taking them back.
- Someone is ready for more and you are holding them back without meaning to.
How to run it
- Define the outcome you want, not the method. Be clear on what done looks like.
- Pick the person by stretch as well as fit - delegation is also development.
- Agree the authority explicitly: what they can decide alone, and what needs a check.
- Set the checkpoints up front so you can let go between them without hovering.
- Review honestly afterwards - what worked, what felt uncomfortable and why.
A worked example
Situation. Chidi Okafor had built his design agency in Lagos, Nigeria, from nothing and could not let a single job go.
Applied. Starting with one project, he defined the outcome and then did the step he always skipped: agreeing exactly what his designer Ada could decide alone.
Result. The work came back different from how he would have done it, and good enough. The discomfort was the point.
The catch
Delegation fails most often at the authority step - handing over the task while keeping the decisions, so the person cannot actually move. Done badly it becomes dumping. And letting go means accepting the work will be done differently, sometimes worse before better.
If you would redo it yourself the moment it comes back, you delegated the task but kept the ownership.
Origin: Composite delegation practice (draws loosely on Blanchard's Situational Leadership and Oncken & Wass's 'Who's Got the Monkey?')