I’ve been thinking about the hidden cost of the task lists lately.
When I was a new manager I was eager to be a good leader. And what do good leaders do? They delegate. At the time, I thought delegating meant handing over a checklist.
But if I was able to talk to that guy today I would point out that what I was doing had nothing to do with delegating. I was just outsourcing my own micromanagement.
The shift came when I stopped giving people things to do and started giving them things to own.
This isn’t a new idea. We all say we hire smart people to think, and then spend most of our time telling them exactly what to do.
When you assign a task, you remain the owner of the outcome. The person executing is only responsible for the motion. If the project fails, they can honestly say, “I did exactly what you told me to do.” They are safe, you are frustrated, and the project stalls.
When you assign responsibility, you are handing over the outcome itself.
I’ve seen this play out in my own teams over the years. Early on I spent countless hours reviewing minor tasks, and correcting work that was good enough, but not exactly how I would have done it.
I was exhausted, and my team started to get bored. Basically, I was building a team of order takers, instead of building a team of owners.
I had conditioned my team to wait for the next instruction, and when I went offline, everything stopped. And the worst part was that it made me feel like a hero, because I was deep in the work and everything still depended on me.
When you give someone serious responsibility, they almost always rise to the challenge. It forces them to acknowledge their own weaknesses, adjust the direction, and figure it out.
That way you’ll get less of “what do I do next?” and more of “is this actually the right move?”
The allure of keeping total control is high. Because control feels safe.
But if you don't let go, you’re encouraging your best people to run to a place where they are actually allowed to think. Leaving you with a support network that can’t support itself.
If you don’t let go when it’s small, you won’t be able to when it actually matters.
Good Luck,
-- Good Enough