Delegating and handing over responsibility
Many managers delegate the task and keep the responsibility. The result is double work: the task runs with someone else and still occupies you.
How you notice it
- You ask for a status more often than you would like
- Tasks come back with a question and then stay with you
- You rework in the evening what was handed out during the day
- Your team waits for your sign-off, also on small things
What is missing in the handover
Delegation usually fails on three gaps: the goal is described, the result is not. The decision latitude is unclear. And there is no agreed point at which both of you look at how it is going.
Without those three, the other person keeps asking back, and the task travels to you step by step.
A handover that works
- Describe the finished result, not the route to it
- Name the decision latitude: what is decided alone, where you come in
- Say which resources and rights come with it
- Agree an interim date instead of asking without occasion
- Hand the task over visibly in the team so everyone knows who owns it now
What you let go of
When you delegate, you also hand over your own route. The task gets solved differently from your way, and often more slowly the first time. Your leadership work lies in sitting with that difference.
The result is the measure. Where it is right, the route belongs to the person who owns the task.
How we work on this
In executive coaching we look at your concrete tasks: what sits with you, what sits there rightly, and what sits there out of habit. Then we prepare the handovers, one after another, and look at the outcome in the next session.
Does that sound like your situation?
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