You wake up with a list of things you want to accomplish. Maybe it’s a new strategy, a client pitch, or a long-overdue one-on-one with a team member. But by mid-morning, that list has vanished.
Emails flood in. Calls stack up. People line up at your door—or ping you on chat—asking for approvals, signatures, decisions. One small fire after another, until the whole day is filled with smoke.
By the time you pause, the big work—the work that matters—hasn’t even started.
This is the frustration of many managers. They want to lead. They want to coach, strategize, and grow the business. But instead, they’re stuck running errands inside their own company.
And the more they try to hold on, the worse it gets.
Why Leaders Stay Stuck
In The Delegation Game, we described the invisible trap:
“Most managers think their job is to get things done. The truth is, your job is to build people who get things done without you. Anything else is a disguised dead end.”
That’s why you’re frustrated. You’re working harder than ever but not seeing the results you hoped for. Instead of scaling, your team stalls. Instead of freedom, you feel chained.
If you keep going this way, here’s what happens:
- Burnout becomes your baseline. Your health pays the price.
- Your team stops growing. They wait for instructions because that’s what you’ve trained them to do.
- Your business becomes fragile. Without you, nothing moves.
That’s the cost of firefighting. The house may stand today, but it weakens with every blaze you refuse to prevent.
A Story of Collapse
Paolo was that kind of manager. He was talented, energetic, the kind who could do a dozen things well. His team loved that he always had answers.
The problem? They stopped looking for their own.
Every report came back to his desk. Every problem bounced to his phone. Every customer issue ended up with him driving across town to “fix things.”
Paolo thought he was indispensable. In reality, he was just in the way.
One Friday night, he didn’t make it home. He collapsed from stress and ended up in the hospital. For two weeks, the company scrambled. Clients were upset. Staff were lost. Projects piled up, untouched.
Paolo thought he was the hero. But he had made himself the bottleneck. The ugly truth: when he broke, the business broke with him.
The False Start
Now compare that with Mia. She saw Paolo’s collapse and promised herself she wouldn’t be the same. She told her team, “I’ll start delegating.”
So she did—sort of. She began handing out tasks left and right.
But here’s what happened:
- She didn’t define what “done” looked like.
- She gave authority in name, but not resources in practice.
- She still interfered mid-way, changing directions without notice.
Her team grew confused. Deliverables came back wrong. Clients complained. In the end, Mia had to redo everything herself.
Her people became frustrated: “Why give us the work if you’ll just take it back?”
This is what we call bad delegation. It looks like freedom, but it’s just chaos. It doesn’t multiply results—it multiplies mistakes.
The Turnaround Story
Then there’s Arnel. When he took over a new department, he made a decision: he would not be the bottleneck.
His rule was simple: No task leaves my desk unless I can say, in one sentence, what “done” means.
He started small. Instead of micromanaging, he said: “This report is done when it compares last quarter’s numbers to this quarter’s in one page with three recommendations.”
That clarity changed everything. His team knew the destination, not just the directions.
Arnel used the Delegation Matrix from The Delegation Game—mapping risk versus readiness. For risky tasks with new hires, he co-piloted. For seasoned staff, he handed full ownership.
He set boundaries upfront: “These three things are non-negotiable. Beyond that, it’s yours.”
He gave his people authority and tools. He told other departments: “If Ana asks, it’s as if I asked. She has my full authority.”
In three months, projects started finishing without his chase. Meetings became shorter. His calendar opened up.
The real magic? His people started to shine. They weren’t waiting for his approval anymore. They were solving, creating, delivering.
That’s when Arnel realized: delegation isn’t about getting work off your plate. It’s about getting your people into the game.
The Core Shift
Delegation is not about freeing your time. That’s just the side effect. The real purpose is building a team that delivers without you.
When you play the Delegation Game, three small wins appear almost immediately:
- People ask better questions instead of begging for permission.
- You stop chasing tasks because they’re already moving.
- You finally have time for the real work of leadership: vision, coaching, strategy.
These are the wins you’ve been craving, hidden under the smoke of firefighting.
Stop Firefighting
If you don’t change, nothing changes.
Stay in firefighting mode, and you will eventually hit the wall Paolo hit. Or the frustration Mia felt. Or worse—the quiet resignation of a team that gives up trying.
Your people want to grow. Your business needs to grow. The question is: will you keep holding on, or will you finally let go the right way?
Start Leading
Playing the Delegation Game is not complex. It’s a series of small, clear moves:
- Define the result in one sentence.
- Match the task to the person’s readiness.
- Set boundaries that protect without choking.
- Give resources and authority.
- Agree on check-ins.
- Document it.
- Debrief and upgrade.
This is the 7-Step Delegation Play. It’s not theory—it’s the playbook.
As we wrote in the book:
“A manager’s greatest product is not the work they finish, but the people they grow. Delegation is not escape from work. It’s entry into leadership.”
Your Move
Here’s your challenge this week:
- Spot one recurring task that keeps landing on your desk.
- Write the “done” statement in one sentence.
- Hand it off with boundaries and resources.
- Schedule a check-in, then step back.
Don’t wait for a perfect moment. Try one play. Watch the shift.
Where We Go Next
This is only the opening move of the Delegation Game. In the coming articles, we’ll explore:
- How to define “done” in one line.
- The Delegation Matrix: choosing the right style for the right task.
- How to stop reverse delegation—keeping the task with the owner.
- Why building a delegation culture multiplies results across your team.
You don’t have to keep firefighting. You don’t have to burn out.
You can start leading—today.
Frequently Asked Questions
👉 I guide leaders to move beyond plans into practice. My book, The Delegation Game, and my consulting work help managers align strategy, people, and culture.
