Delegation

The act of entrusting tasks, authority, or decisions to someone else, typically from manager to team member.

Delegation is the transfer of responsibility for a task or decision from one person (typically a manager) to another (typically a team member), along with the authority and resources needed to complete it. Effective delegation is one of the most important and most commonly underdeveloped management skills — the ability to get things done through others rather than by doing everything yourself.

Poor delegation comes in two forms: under-delegation (the manager does too much themselves, doesn't develop their team, and creates a bottleneck) and over-delegation (the manager hands off without enough context, support, or accountability, setting people up to fail). The difference between effective delegation and abdication is that delegation includes clarity about the goal, the constraints, the available resources, and the expected check-ins.

For individual contributors, understanding delegation matters too. Being delegated to — especially stretch assignments above your current level — is one of the primary ways you develop new skills and demonstrate readiness for promotion. If your manager rarely delegates meaningful work to you, that's either a signal that they don't trust you yet (actionable) or that they're poor delegators (a structural problem).