Delegation as a Tool for Personal Productivity

"I'll delegate when I find good people." Translation: "I'll trust them after they prove themselves." Plot twist: They can't prove themselves until you trust them. Break the loop. Delegate to develop. Here's how: 1️⃣ What should you delegate? Everything. Not a joke. You need to design yourself completely out of your old job. Set your sights lower and you'll delegate WAY less than you should. But don't freak out: Responsibly delegating this way will take months. 2️⃣ Set Expectations w/ Your Boss The biggest wild card when delegating: Your boss.  Perfection isn't the target. Command is.  - Must-dos: handled  - Who you're stretching   - Mistakes you anticipate   - How you'll address Remember: You're actually managing your boss. 3️⃣ Set Expectations w/ Yourself  Your team will not do it your way.  So you have a choice: - Waste a ton of time trying to make them you?   - Empower them to creatively do it better?  Remember: 5 people at 80% = 400%. 4️⃣ Triage Your Reality - If you have to hang onto something -> do it.  - If you feel guilty delegating a miserable task -> delete it.  - If you can't delegate them anything -> you have a bigger problem. 5️⃣ Delegate for Your Development  You must create space to grow. Start here:   1) Anything partially delegated -> Completion achieves clarity.  2) Where you add the least value -> Your grind is their growth.  3) The routine -> Ripe for a runbook or automation. 6️⃣ Delegate for Their Development Start with the stretch each employee needs to excel. Easiest place to start: ask them how they want to grow. People usually know. And they'll feel agency over their own mastery. Bonus: Challenge them to find & take that work. Virtuous cycle. 7️⃣ Set Expectations w/ Your Team  Good delegation is more than assigning tasks:  - It's goal-oriented  - It's written down  - It's intentional When you assign "Whys" instead of "Whats", You get Results instead of "Buts". 8️⃣ Climb The Ladder Aim for the step that makes you uncomfortable:     - Steps over Tasks  - Processes over Steps  - Responsibilities over Processes  - Goals over Responsibilities   - Jobs over Goals  Each rung is higher leverage. 9️⃣ Don't Undo Good Work Delegating & walking away - You need to trust. But you also need to verify. - Metrics & surveys are a good starting point. Micromanaging - That's your insecurity, not their effort. - Your new job is to enable, motivate & assess, not step in. ✅ Remember: You're not just delegating tasks. - You're delegating goals. - You're delegating growth. - You're delegating greatness. The best time to start was months ago.  The next best time is today. 🔔 Follow Dave Kline for more posts like this. ♻️ And repost to help those leaders who need to delegate more.

Great delegation isn’t trust. It’s translation. “Hire great people and give them room” gets repeated like gospel in tech. But in my experience, most early-stage founders don’t struggle because they micromanage. They struggle because they hand off decisions without giving enough context for anyone else to succeed. When you delegate, you’re not just handing over a task—you’re teaching someone how you think about it. What good looks like. What tradeoffs matter. Where your instincts land, and where you want to be surprised. It might sound like: “I care most about X and Y. Here’s how I’ve made this decision before. I want your take—but bring me options shaped by these principles.” The best delegation creates leverage without letting go of clarity. And done well, it does more than scale your time. It scales your judgment. Because over time, your team starts to make calls the way you would—even when you’re not in the room. That’s real leverage. And that’s what great delegation actually looks like.

HOW TO MANAGE YOUR STAFF WITH CONTEXT, NOT CONTROL Are you really delegating or just creating very expensive assistants? "Can you handle the client presentation?" sounds like delegation, but if you're still dictating exactly what slides to include, how to structure the agenda, and which talking points to hit, you've just outsourced your typing. You now have the world's most overqualified PowerPoint intern! Real delegation isn't about offloading tasks. It's about offloading decisions. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TASK DELEGATION AND OUTCOME DELEGATION: TASK DELEGATION: "Please create a customer onboarding checklist with these 12 specific items." OUTCOME DELEGATION: "New customers are confused by our platform. Can you design an onboarding experience that gets them to their desired outcome faster?" One creates a very expensive copy-paste machine. The other creates a problem-solver. HOW TO DELEGATE DECISION-MAKING AUTHORITY, NOT JUST TASKS: Instead of "Run all pricing by me first," try "You own pricing decisions under $50K. Here's our margin framework and competitive positioning. Make the call." Instead of "Run all social media posts by me first," try "Our brand voice is professional but approachable. You decide what to post but run strategy changes by me quarterly." THE "CONTEXT, NOT CONTROL" APPROACH: Give people the background information that informs your decisions, not just the decisions themselves. "I usually prioritize enterprise clients because they pay us 10x more than small businesses, but if a smaller client could become a case study for a new market we want to enter, that changes the math entirely." Now they can make good decisions without you peeking over their shoulder. WHY EXPLAINING YOUR REASONING IS MORE VALUABLE THAN GIVING INSTRUCTIONS: When you explain the "why" behind your thinking, you're not just delegating the current task—you're teaching someone to think like you would about future situations. THE FINAL TEST: Can this person make good decisions about things you haven't specifically discussed yet? If not, your system still needs improving. What's one decision you could teach someone else to make instead of making it yourself? *** I’m Jennifer Kamara, founder of Kamara Life Design. Enjoy this? Repost to share with your network, and follow me for actionable strategies to design businesses and lives with meaning. Want to go from good to world-class? Join our community of subscribers today: https://lnkd.in/d6TT6fX5 

Stop doing $10/hour tasks when you're worth $1,000/hour. Here's how Fortune 500 CEOs delegate. The reality? You can't scale by doing everything yourself. At some point, being the bottleneck becomes too expensive. Here's what effective delegation unlocks: ↳ Time for high-value strategic decisions ↳ A culture of trust and ownership ↳ Faster results with fewer bottlenecks It's not about passing tasks. It's about building a system that multiplies your impact. Here are 7 frameworks Fortune 500 CEOs use to delegate and scale: 1/ RACI Matrix ↳ Define clear roles: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed ↳ End confusion about who owns what 2/ SMART Goals ↳ Turn vague ideas into actionable plans ↳ Create crystal-clear expectations 3/ Task-Relevant Maturity ↳ Match your leadership style to team readiness ↳ Give support where needed, freedom where earned 4/ Pareto Principle ↳ Focus on the vital 20% driving 80% of results ↳ Stop wasting time on low-impact tasks 5/ Five Levels of Delegation ↳ Scale authority from basic tasks to full ownership ↳ Build trust systematically 6/ DELEGATE Model ↳ Follow a proven step-by-step process ↳ Handle even complex handoffs smoothly 7/ Why-What-How Framework ↳ Align on purpose, strategy, and execution ↳ Perfect for high-stakes initiatives Remember: Every hour spent on $10/hour tasks Is an hour stolen from $1,000/hour decisions. Which framework resonates most with you? ♻️ Share this to help other leaders scale And follow Mariya Valeva for more

“I know I need to delegate more, but some things are too complex to hand off.” Sound familiar? This mindset keeps many founders stuck in the weeds instead of leading strategically. Let me share a practical framework I use with clients: The Delegation Staircase. It transforms overwhelming handoffs into manageable steps: Step 1: Let them shadow you • You do the task while they observe • Debrief afterward to share your thinking process • Build understanding through observation Step 2: They observe and explain • They watch you again • This time, they explain your rationale • They articulate why you made specific decisions, and you provide feedback Step 3: They do, you debrief • They perform the task • You review together • You provide feedback on what you might have done differently Step 4: They take ownership • They handle the task independently • Optional: You give final approval before delivery • Gradually remove the approval step based on competence The key? You don't have to jump straight to full delegation. Each step builds confidence - both yours and theirs. This approach has helped dozens of founders successfully delegate complex tasks, from board presentations to client strategies. What else has helped you delegate complex tasks? Or what other delegation challenges do you have? #StartupLeadership #Delegation #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching

Delegation is a superpower. But only if you use these 5 rules.... Most leaders think delegation means "figure it out yourself." Wrong. That's not delegation. That's abandonment. Here's what actually works: Rule 1: Communicate the gaps Don't wait until your idea is perfect. Tell them what you want AND what you don't know. Your team can't read your mind. Rule 2: Give them the script Want someone to have a tough conversation? Roleplay it first. Give them your exact words. Let them practice. Then they own it. Rule 3: Offer support, never take it back "I'll coach you through this" = Good "I'll just do it myself" = You failed as a leader Rule 4: Set the deadline AND the result Vague: "Get this done soon" Clear: "Have 5 qualified leads by Friday at 3pm" Rule 5: Use YOUR communication style Stop adapting to them. If you think in audio, send voice notes. If you think in drawings, sketch it out. They adapt to you, not the other way around. The truth about delegation? It's not about getting work off your plate. It's about transferring skill and confidence. It's about creating leaders, not followers. Most entrepreneurs are terrible delegators because they think it means less work for them. It actually means MORE work upfront. More coaching. More clarity. More patience. But the payoff? Your team becomes an extension of your brain instead of a bottleneck in your business.