In the last blog post, we looked at the risk of being a single point of failure in your business. Being that founder who still does everything themselves, or if they don’t do it, they definitely want to be all over it – know about it, decide about it, check it.
You know delegation is the answer. That you can’t grow the business and carry on doing everything in it. You’ve probably said as much to other people. And yet the task still sits on your desk. What’s that all about?
In this article we look at some of the reasons why that might be the case and, more importantly, how to get beyond it!
The interference getting in the way
There’s a simple idea from the world of coaching that helps explain things: Performance = Potential minus Interference (thank you, Tim Gallwey).
In this case, the interference getting in the way of you having a team that runs smoothly without you standing over it is most likely you: your worries, the second-guessing and the quiet anxieties that get between you and the thing you know you should do.
Yes, there might be capability issues as well – are they really skilled up enough to take what you need on – but more often than not, it’s what’s in our heads that gets in the way of letting go, not what’s not in theirs!
Three fears that keep founders doing it all themselves
In my experience (because you’re not alone in this!), the fears that stop business owners delegating typically fall into one (or more) of three categories.
- Control fears
This is the fear of losing your grip, and close behind it, the fear of becoming irrelevant. If I hand this over, what’s left for me? If the team can do it without me, what am I even here for?
Here’s the thing. You don’t lose control when you delegate well; you choose how much to hold, and you can hold as much or as little as the task deserves (more on that shortly). And your relevance doesn’t disappear, it moves up.
Your job stops being the person with all the answers and becomes the person who develops people who find their own. That isn’t a smaller role. It’s a bigger one.
- Competence fears
There are two types of worry here. The first: what if they turn out to be better at this than me? The second, quieter one: what if someone asks me how it’s done and I can’t answer any more?
Take the first. If a team member is better at a task than you are, that isn’t a problem to manage, it’s the whole point. Your value was never being the best in the building at every single job. It’s knowing who should do what, and growing the people who do it.
The second worry rests on a false assumption: that it’s your job is to have the answers. It isn’t. The most useful thing you can often say to a stuck team member is ‘how would you tackle this?’ Asking the question builds strength in your business. Answering it yourself doesn’t.
- Consequence fears
These are the fears about the work itself. It’ll go wrong. Or the one almost everyone admits to: it’ll be quicker if I just do it myself. I confess I’ve been guilty of that myself more times than I’m comfortable admitting.
But – ‘Quicker if I do it myself’ is true exactly once. Do the task yourself today and it’s probably finished faster. Do it yourself every time and you’ll still be doing it in a year, at midnight, wondering why nothing has changed.
The time you spend handing a task over properly isn’t lost; it’s invested, and it pays you back every time you never have to touch that task again.
And ‘it’ll go wrong’ is precisely what a good handover is built to prevent. You’re not throwing work over a wall and hoping. You’re setting things up so that if something does wobble, it’s small, early and easy to catch.
Trust isn’t something you need before you delegate
Which brings me to the mindset shift that can change everything.
Most people think they should wait until they trust someone before they hand over anything that matters. The trouble is real trust can’t really be built in advance. Of course, you can take sensible steps like hiring for experience, checking references and watching what people do in the job. But the leap of trust needed for delegation happens as you do it, not before. If you wait until you’re sure, you’ll never do it. Instead, test it out – take small, well-structured steps, watch what happens, and let the results build the trust.
Think of trust as a dial, not a switch
You’re probably thinking that all sounds a bit scary/risky. But here’s the thing. Delegation – and with it, Trust – isn’t all-or-nothing. It’s not a switch that can only be On or Off. It’s much better thought of as a dial that you can adjust to wherever you want/need it to be.
For any task or decision, you can choose how far to turn that dial. At the Low setting, someone checks in with you before every move. At the High setting, they simply get on with it and tell you how it went. In between sits a whole range of settings, and you can pick the one that fits the person, the task and the stakes. Then, as they show you what they can do – and what they can’t, you adjust accordingly.
That one idea can take the sting out of two of the biggest worries.
- You never lose control, because you set the dial.
- And things don’t go badly wrong, because you don’t jump straight to full autonomy on something that matters.
Setting the Dial
So how do you actually do it? Here are four steps that can make it feel safe(r).
- Turn the dial a little first. Start with something low-stakes, where a wobble costs almost nothing. You’re not testing whether you can trust the person with everything. You’re building a bit of evidence, cheaply.
- Get the task right before you blame the person. Most delegation that ‘goes wrong’ wasn’t a people problem, it was a briefing problem. Be clear about what good looks like: the outcome you need, by when, and where the edges are. A vague request almost guarantees a disappointing result. A sharp one sets everyone up to win.
- Set the guideropes. Freedom works best inside a frame. Agree the check-in points up front. Be clear about what they can decide on their own and what needs a word with you first. Name the point at which they should come back to you rather than plough on. None of that is micromanaging. It’s the safety net that lets you genuinely let go.
- Diagnose the decisions. This is where a lot of the real anxiety hides, because ‘delegating’ can feel like giving away every decision at once. You’re not. Go through the typical decisions in someone’s role and set the level for each:
- which ones they simply make and get on with,
- which ones they make but keep you informed, and
- which ones you want to talk through together first.
Then ask yourself the million dollar question: what do I need to see from them to trust them one level higher? Instead of a vague fear you now have a specific, measurable target, which lets you turn the dial up once you see it.
What you get back
Done this way, delegation isn’t a loss, it’s a win three times over. Your team grows, because people only develop when they’re trusted with real things. The business gets stronger, because it no longer depends on one person being available for everything. And you get your time, and your head, back for the work only you can do. That’s the real win, learning how to delegate when you can’t let go.
The cold hard truth…
All you have to do now is, … do it. And here’s the honest note to finish on.
You’ll read this, agree with it, and mean to act on it. Most people do because good intentions are easy. It’s follow-through that’s hard, especially when you’re busy, it feels scary and if you’re honest, you’re not convinced it will work.
This is when an outside perspective can help: someone to help you decide what to hand over first, work out how to set the dial in the right place, and someone to help you hold your nerve when the fears – and the old habits – creep back in.
PSA: That’s exactly the kind of work I do with business owners!
Rebecca Maxwell is the Founder and Principal Consultant with Perception Insights Ltd, a boutique strategy and leadership consultancy in central Scotland. She works with founder-led and mission-led businesses at their pivotal moments, coaching owners and their teams to build the confidence, structure and trust to grow beyond any one person. Her work spans executive coaching, board development and practical management development, all in service of one aim: creating impact, inspiring confidence. You can reach her at rebecca@perception-insights.com or www.perception-insights.com.
