What Others See When You Delegate Important Tasks

I was on a call with a client this week, and the topic of delegation came up. One of us happened to mention observing a situation where a leader deferred to the authority of one of his team members, asked them (in a full conference room) to take over on a topic since they knew more about it.

The scenario was spoken of as though we were discussing a mythical creature, rumored to exist but never seen. A merciful deity who graces us from time to time but can never make their presence known. Santa Claus. It was about more than just the logic of deferring to someone who might have more time, expertise, or experience to take something on. It was about what the act of delegating signals to the room, particularly to the women in the room, which is something very loaded, magical, and important.

Delegating is to leadership as protein is to your weight loss plan, or cold brew is to your busy day. It’s a tactic that supercharges your efforts, those of everyone you work with, so that everyone is learning while doing, working at a higher level, and putting effort into the most expensive part of their scope of work, that which is at the limit of their current abilities.

The practical advantages are obvious (to most leaders). Delegating frees up your time as a leader to focus on what’s next, to work at a higher level. It challenges the people being delegated to, improves their engagement in their work, and makes them feel badass and appreciated. One of my favorite positive byproducts is that it improves decision quality because you’re getting input from people who aren’t you, who probably are closer to a topic or problem than you are.

But you know all of that. If you’ve been part of a team or led one at any point, you’ve probably been stuffed with training and literature that all espouse the benefits of delegation.

I want to spotlight not the practicality of the leader who delegates, but more so, the deeper meaning that is signaled to those around that leader. The thing that my client was really saying to me when she said: “They’re a leader who delegates.”

Here are the even more important reasons to be a leader who delegates tasks, high-visibility moments, and important stuff to others.

1. Delegating builds trust: Instead of telling a team member what to do, you are entrusting them to decide for themselves, or to run with something. You’re literally telling them that you are leveling up your esteem of their strategic thinking or capabilities, giving them space to work at an equally higher level. And you know what they say about a rising tide…

2. You reinforce the importance of the mission: A leader who has to make every decision or center themselves holds their team back from operating at full capacity. And why do they do it? Because they’re more focused on themselves than they are on the outcome. Or because they don’t trust their team (see item 1). A leader who delegates signals that the outcome of the project is more important than their own ego. What is important is the goal, not inflating the feeling of importance of a leader. Benefits to performance, morale, and critical thinking naturally follow. Levels of BS, posturing, and politics, predictably, go down.

3. You feel “safe” to others: Why were my client and I sharing the story about the leader who delegates to his team? We were using it as shorthand to indicate a safe, self-aware, emotionally intelligent leader. This is a leader who already knows all of the above, so much so that they are walking the walk. Delegating signals to the team that they can trust you to notice what they are capable of, to put the right people on the right tasks, and to prioritize the team’s wellbeing over your own time in the spotlight. I’ve had bosses who always said my name in crowded rooms, and I’ve had bosses who didn’t even know my name. I’m sure you can guess who was better at delegating important work to me.

4. You set a good example: Have you ever worked on one of those teams where people hoard responsibility because they’re so thirsty to appear important? Gross, I hate that type of environment. If you do not want to foster that environment, you need to lead by example. Give away responsibility to the person who is the best fit for something, demonstrate that’s the behavior you want to see, not the reverse. Instead of hoarding, people will bring the right colleagues in, or do their own bit of delegating when it makes sense. The thing about the rising tide fits in here as well.

So how do you begin to delegate more often, more intentionally?

1. Ask your team about their goals: What are their short and long term career goals? Write them down. If they don’t know what their goals are (I didn’t have mine ready the first time a great boss asked me this), this exercise becomes even more useful. Now, try to offload tasks that help them get closer to their goals, especially if those tasks are NOT helping you get closer to your own goals. For example, I once let me team do large brand presentations on my behalf. I lead the brands, so the automatic decision was that I would present. But I had ambitious people on my team who wanted to be leaders, who wanted exposure. I also didn’t feel like doing these presentations, as I’d done something similar many times, to bigger audiences. I delegate to my team, they get more from it than I would have, they probably do a better job because they’re more enthusiastic about it, and I get to check one more thing off my list of tasks.

2. Get real about your own goals, too: As we saw above, the most obvious items to delegate are the ones that don’t do anything for you. This doesn’t mean kick every undesirable task off to some unlucky underling; that’s mean. But if there is mutual benefit, then why not? In the example I gave, it actually stung a little to delegate those presentations. I actually love presenting, building decks, answering questions. But I’d done it enough times that this particular presentation wasn’t additive; more isn’t always more. Meanwhile, the optics, authentic goodwill, and opportunity that my delegation provided far outweighed my feeling good about being on stage again.

3. Make it a policy: Imagine how good at delegating you’d get if you assigned KPIs to it. For example, for FY27, you have to delegate at least one project, report, meeting, etc. to everyone who reports to you. Those who shine get more stuff thrown their way, too. And the cycle continues.

And finally, for those of you who report to a leader who you would love to get assignments from, a leader who feels they need to have a hand in everything and, thereby, are mucking projects up, here is how to better get delegated to.

1. Be direct: What would happen if you literally just told your boss “I’m attempting to further my professional experience in the following ways… it would be a huge help if you could consider allowing me to take the lead on X, Y, or Z.” You’d probably surprise them with your candor, but ultimately, you’d get what you want. I’ve had direct reports come to me and say they want the results before they explain how they’ll get there: promotions, privileges, seats at tables. Far less often did they ask for responsibility first.

2. Make the business case: Piggybacking on the above, being direct is more powerful if you frame the responsibility you want to take off your boss’s plate in terms of the benefit to the business. Bosses can’t always prioritize your career growth, but they do have to prioritize the business. I once had a direct report explain the added responsibility she’d like because she wanted to become a manager. She was pissed when I told her that we were in the middle of a hiring freeze, and the business didn’t need a manager of her function. I had a different direct report explain why restructuring a process and putting her in charge of it would streamline the process, remove redundancies, and save time. She was on track for a promotion before the organization started laying people off (completely unrelated to our efforts and function, of course).

3. Define the boundaries: If you have trouble getting true delegation from a leader, if they can’t hand over a project and get TF out of the way, have a conversation about check-in cadence. Simply say that, as you’ll be running with this on your own, but you want to keep the leader in the loop, what would be a good check-in cadence so that you can update them on your work? Communication as a Trojan Horse for boundaries.

Thanks for reading and supporting Just Work. Learn about my fractional brand advisory services and executive coaching; let’s get you feeling better at work.

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