Delegation is a sign of trust, which leads to improved morale, collaboration and accountability. It also helps growing teams and organizations to grow and develop from within rather than hire. Many people join a team to learn and grow and delegating tasks is a great way to help them do that one step at a time. That freed time will enable you to tackle bigger challenges and tasks as well. This leads to creating a culture of growth and learning. Moreover, it leads to new eyes and new ways of getting things done, which can lead to improved productivity and efficiency. Lastly, it'll help you step out of the day to day and reallocate your time how you see best fit.

Leveraging the principles of the Eisenhower Matrix even before knowing its formal definition is a testament to your instinctive grasp of effective task prioritization. The proactive approach in categorizing tasks based on urgency and importance indicates a strong sense of strategic thinking. This structured approach, combined with the support and collaboration of your team and peers, creates a robust system where everyone’s strengths contribute to the collective success. It’s not just about delegating tasks; it’s about fostering an environment where everyone’s contributions align cohesively with the shared goals. How have your subordinates and peers impacted your approach to task delegation and achieving collective objectives?

First question is: does it need to get done? (alternatively, what's the cost of not doing this task?). Second, what's the definition of "done"? How do we know this task is complete? Third, is there someone who can get it done with the quality it's expected? or is there someone (even AI) who can be trained/educated/guided to get it done to that level or close enough that you can only polish and finish? and do they have bandwidth? Lastly, will the task be repeated enough to justify the training/education? If all of the questions above lead to delegation, you may want to delegate the task. Being aware of your biases towards our overestimating your own capabilities and defaulting to the path of least resistance (doing it yourself).

Clearly defining what "done" looks like is the best service we can do to the team we delegate too. Brene Brown, in Dare to Lead, talks about "paint done"; clearly, laying out the expectation, the outcome, the purpose, and timelines, and formats and maybe even providing an example from the past can be very helpful in guiding the person in getting it done properly. Checking in with them or setting expectations around milestones and help both sides in reducing surprises

I work with founders and entrepreneurs and have noticed that because startups and growing businesses are so "fragile" and the cost of mistakes can be so high, founders err on the side of doing more for longer until they start dropping the balls, team members become so frustrated or outspoken that the founders considered a bottleneck; the exact opposite of what they want to be. This is usually detected months, if not years, after it first starts to happen. Being proactive about delegating with "trust and verify" mindset early on will enable founders to facilitate growth for their companies, themselves, and their team.