Delegation Failure : Why New Managers Still Do the Work Themselves

 

"I'll just do it myself — it'll be faster and I won't need to review it."

That's the sentence most new managers say. Often silently.

And understandably so: they were promoted because they were very good at their job. Their natural reflex, when faced with an urgent or sensitive task, is to take it back into their own hands.

The problem? Left uncorrected, that reflex turns a great individual contributor into a poor manager.

The competence trap

A new manager who "does it himself" is not inefficient. He is, in fact, too skilled in his former role and not yet equipped for his new one.

A promotion does not change behaviour. It changes the title, not the way of working, not the perspective not the reflexes.

The practical result: the team remains underutilised. Team members get no chance to learn and they don't grow. And the manager, overwhelmed, cannot play his/her real role : anticipating, directing, developing people.

What delegation is not

Many managers confuse delegating with "letting go and hoping for the best." That's precisely why they avoid it.

Effective delegation is a structured skill. It rests on three foundations:

1. Clear levels of delegation — Handing over a task does not mean abandoning the outcome. There are multiple levels, from closely supervised execution to full autonomy. Choosing the right level based on the person and the situation is the starting point.  The tendency to see a binary choice rather than the full spectrum of nuances, is a point of attention for the manager.

2. Structured performance feedback — Delegating without follow-up is delegating into a void. Regular, structured feedback is what turns delegation into a genuine development tool.  It is precisely what will grow the team abilities & performances on the long run.

3. Managing upward delegation — This well-known phenomenon occurs when a team member "returns" the task to the manager through repeated questions or hesitations. Inadequate level of delegation, improper documentation, fear of making it wrong... Without realising it, the manager takes back the very responsibility he had just handed over.

What it costs the organisation

A manager who doesn't delegate is a bottleneck. The power of the team is not leveraged. Decisions stall. Projects slow down. Talent stagnates (and eventually walks out the door).

Across a team of ten, the hours lost each week due to absent or poorly calibrated delegation represent a real operational cost (one that rarely appears on HR dashboards).

This is not a motivation problem. It is a training problem.

What changes when delegation is properly developed

Managers who learn to delegate effectively (with method, feedback, and follow-through) don't work less. They work differently: focusing their energy on what genuinely requires their level of judgment.

Their teams feel the difference: more engagement, more initiative, and a measurable rise in collective productivity.

This is precisely what LMI's leadership development programmes address, in particular the Art of Delegation module, which covers delegation levels, feedback structures, and how to prevent tasks from bouncing back up the chain.

Are you supporting your managers in this key aspect of their role ?