Delegating vs. “Passing it Off”

As a manager, business owner, or entrepreneur, learning how to delegate effectively can make a profound difference in your level of productivity, your organization’s culture, and your experience of being at work.

One of the fundamental keys to delegating effectively is understanding the difference between delegating a task or responsibility, and simply “passing it off”.

The difference has to do with accountability, or more specifically, whether or not you continue to relate to the task or responsibility as something that belongs to you, even when you no longer perform that task or responsibility yourself.

“Passing it off” implies that you will no longer be responsible. The movement is lateral. The task was on your plate, but it’s not anymore. It’s on the plate next to yours… someone else’s plate. You don’t have to think about it anymore and you’re not at all concerned about the outcome. You’re not accountable anymore.

In contrast, when you delegate something, you remain accountable. You give away the task but not the responsibility for completing it. You don’t do the work yourself, but you have a reliable way of making sure it gets done, and you are both interested in and invested in the outcome.

Flying a kite is a good analogy for delegating. If I remember right (it’s been a while), you start off holding the kite in your hand. It’s not flying yet. You have to launch it, usually by throwing it up into the wind and running against the wind to create tension on the kite string.

It’s the tension that allows the kite to stay aloft, even though you’re no longer physically holding it up there. Delegating is the same way. The task itself is given over, much like the kite to the wind, but you have to keep tension on the string or else the kite will crash.

Working with managers, executives, and entrepreneurs, I come back to the difference between delegating and “passing it off” all the time. As a leader, I’d wager it’s way easier to hold 300 kite strings than to hold 300 kites, although I’ve never personally tested this theory.

The reason why this topic comes up so often, and why the distinction is so important, is because as business owners and leaders, what we WANT to do with stuff is pass it off. What we NEED to do is delegate it. In the moment, passing it off always seems easier and less time consuming. Passing it off is deeply seductive. The problem is that it’s unsustainable, and it ultimately causes more work for us.

The bottom line is, when you’re in a position of leadership, you’re never off the hook, so don’t act like you are! When YOU pass something off, it ends up affecting YOU more than anyone else. When YOU let go of the string, the kite is almost guaranteed to fall on YOUR head!

When you delegate effectively, you increase your capacity for producing results, you decrease your work load and stress level, and you provide an example of accountability and sustainability for those you lead and manage.

Learn how to “Delegate Like a Pro in 10 Easy Steps”

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