In my experience, there are three ways in which delegation goes off the rails:
1. You delegate without knowing what good performance on a task looks like
If you do not know how to evaluate performance on a task, you are going to have a really hard time delegating it to someone. Most likely, you will choose someone incompetent for the task at hand.
But even if you manage to avoid that specific error mode, it is most likely that your delegee will notice that you do not have a standard, and so will use this opportunity to be lazy and do bad work, which they know you won't be able to notice.
Or even worse, in an attempt to make sure your delegee puts in proper effort, you set an impossibly high standard, to which the delegee can only respond by quitting, or lying about their performance. This can tank a whole project if you discover it too late.
2. You assigned responsibility for a crucial task to an external party
Frequently some task will [...]
The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.
---
First published:
November 12th, 2025
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rSCxviHtiWrG5pudv/do-not-hand-off-what-you-cannot-pick-up
---
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.