When it comes to managing employees, one factor I’ve seen repeatedly over the years is the confusion of abdication with delegation. It’s an easy growth-trap to fall into and left unaddressed can spell serious trouble for any ambitious entrepreneur.

As businesses grow, the need to get the most out of teams becomes paramount. I guess you could call this ‘leverage’ or what Robert Kiyosaki refers to as “organising other people’s efforts profitably”. Your individual efforts as the owner become less significant than managing the output of your team.

And once you go above 8-12 employees the need to delegate effectively becomes arguably the biggest determinant of success.

More than that, abdicating responsibility virtually guarantees more time spent fire-fighting and less time on fire-prevention. A particularly vicious circle that traps even the most talented of entrepreneurs.

The difference between Delegation and Abdication

Delegation is the organised and structured transfer of responsibility and authority with appropriate guidance and accountability.

Abdication is the act of dumping tasks on people in the hope that it’ll all be fine.

Delegation	Abdication
Clear, measurable expectations	Undefined, vague expectations
Includes necessary resources and authority	Limited resources and authority
Includes systems and training	Poor or non-existent systems – no formal training
Regular check-ins and feedback	Ad hoc demand-led communication
Focuses on outcomes & problem-solving	Focuses on completing tasks
Creates scalable processes	Creates owner dependencies
Develops team capabilities & confidence	Leaves team uncertain & frustrated

Why so many Business Owners fall into the Abdication trap

Like many things this isn’t a single-cause issue – or it wouldn’t be so much of a challenge. It’s likely to be caused by more than one of these factors:

Time Pressure

Businesses become more complicated the bigger they grow. More people, more moving parts. The owners are wearing multiple ‘hats’, jumping between the core functions.

You may logically understand that spending an hour to delegate a 10 min job that happens frequently will save you several days per year – but that doesn’t mean you’ll find the time to do it.

Expertise Blindness

In simple terms you forget what you didn’t know when you started.

The thing you may be hiring someone to do could well be something that you now deem to be ‘common sense’, forgetting that once you had to learn it step by step.

Aversion to Systems

Proper delegation requires effective systems – documented processes, standards and checklists.

But every business owner starts from scratch, and many succeed through innovation and improvisation – which can foster a resistance to systems.

Optimism / Wishful thinking

When business owners happen to be High I & D on DiSC (fast-paced, self-determined, big picture and optimistic, there’s an increased tendency to convince yourself that it’ll work out.

Superhero Complex

This is a tricky one and I don’t say it to be inflammatory. Lots of business owners like being the one with all the answers and solutions – it feels good.

And if you’ve only got a handful of people, this approach can still feel manageable(-ish). But try the same approach when you’ve got 10-20+ and you’ll soon grow to fear and loathe the sound of your own name.

Equally and connected to this, I’ve worked with many over the years who are effectively control freaks in a nice wrapper. These people actively want to be involved in everything, or fear losing control or being taken advantage of. Setting someone up (subconsciously or deliberately) to need you may seem odd – but not when it’s taken in that context.

The True Impact of Abdication

The true cost of this ‘quick fix’ is felt over time and goes beyond profitability.

Poor productivity as teams muddle through rather than solve the real challenges that are holding you back.
Higher staff turnover as talented team members become frustrated and leave.
Reduced effectiveness for the owner as constant interruptions and fire-fighting lead to burnout.
Increased mistakes leading to unhappy customers, reduced margins, late payment and poor reviews.
Reduced business valuation due to overdependence on the owner.

Nothing on this list is an overnight business-killer. They all combine to snowball over time and result in a greater feeling of chaos against the backdrop of reduced margins.

That chaos consists of a thousand petty annoyances – which makes the cure so much harder to identify.

The 5 Elements of Effective Delegation

Or maybe that should say “which makes the cure so much harder to believe in”.

If you stopped and thought about it, your list of things you could do to ensure a task was properly delegated would be similar to everyone else’s. Why? Because it makes sense.

1 Set very clear outcomes and expectations.

Think less about what you want someone to do, and more about what you want them to cause to happen.
The right people will respond better to being given a tricky challenge to solve than a ‘to do’ list of tasks and actions.

Plus, if you speak with talented people, you may well find out that your list of actions in the job description is not the best way to solve that challenge. But if you only think in terms of input at the expense of output, it’ll take you longer to figure this out.

You’ll be asking them to climb a ladder that could well be up against the wrong wall.

Top Tip: remember to include KPIs but don’t make this too narrow or the unintended consequences may bite you. Also include timelines and milestones as this will make managing them much much easier.

2 Give them Appropriate Authority

You can’t expect your employees to accept responsibility for something without giving them the authority to make decisions or spend money.
Teach them how you evaluate expenditure to gauge if it’s a cost or an investment.
Set a £ limit – or other parameters – you’re comfortable with and review results with them.

3 Sell them your Vision

If you want people to be actively engaged in your business, you need to explain why they should care.
Sell them your vision for the business and how they fit into that.
More specifically show them exactly how solving their challenge fits into your master plan.

When people understand the ‘why’ of the future, they tend to make better decisions in the present.

4 Set them up to Succeed

Any job can be done better with the right systems, software or tools.
There’s a fine line between keeping an iron-like grip on profits (never more necessary than now) and allowing log-jams to appear through using poor kit.
The right kit will be an investment and produce an RoI in either real-cash terms or indirectly through happier customers.

5 Put Quality Supervision & Accountability in your Diary

Ring-fence quality 121 time to review progress and trajectory toward the ‘big thing’.
Create the time to genuinely acknowledge their successes and praise their attitude and approach.
Or it could be the time to ask tough questions – bearing in mind you’ll be questioning the efficacy of the tactics.
What’s going well? What isn’t working? Is there any evidence it just needs more time? What do we need to do more of? Less of? Start doing? Stop doing? If we went back to square 1, would we keep the same strategy & tactics?

Top Tip: The LION agenda which I’ve written about elsewhere is a great format for these ongoing meetings. Remember, if they have bought into the vision & challenge, it’s much easier to have the ‘it’s not working’ conversation.

Taking Your Team from Dependence in Independence

You may be driven by a desire for fewer interruptions, questions and problems being laid at your door. For a return to a slightly less chaotic and reactive day. But the benefits of this go way beyond freeing up your time.

By showing your people what proper delegation looks like, you’ll make it easier for them to delegate properly themselves. It’s the foundations of your future growth.

Abdication leads to an apparent contradiction: less control and more interruptions. You are simultaneously not sure what they are achieving day to day but are being interrupted hour by hour.

Delegation gives them more autonomy and you more control via an agreed target and milestone KPIs.

Next Steps: Starting Your Delegation Transformation

Imagine reclaiming an entire week of your time every year.

What would you do with it? Get your website sorted? Turn those happy customers into testimonials? Take a holiday?

Proper delegation doesn’t just free up your time – it unlocks your business’s true growth potential and increases its value.

Start your delegation transformation this week by:

First, identifying your highest-value abdication-to-delegation opportunity:

What tasks do you repeatedly get drawn back into after you’ve attempted to delegate them? Make a list.
Which recurring mistakes or omissions are causing you the biggest headaches?
What challenge would—if solved—have the biggest positive impact on your business in the next 90 days?

Then, applying the 5 Elements framework to this opportunity within the next 3 days.

Remember: Every 10 minutes saved daily through proper delegation adds up to a full work week annually. What could you accomplish with an extra week—or several—each year?

All the best, Tim

P.S. If you’d like to discuss this regarding your business and teams, use the appropriate link below to get the ball rolling.