You’re delegating to the wrong people

How good are you at delegating? Really? Let’s say it doesn’t come naturally to a lot of founders. It’s probably something you know you need to get better at.

In fairness, if your business has reached the SME stage, you probably are delegating. You’ve realised you can’t manage everything yourself anymore.

But there’s a problem we see all the time when we start working with new clients.

They’re delegating, just to the wrong people.

And if you’re delegating to the wrong people, things will still feel slow, messy, sometimes frustrating. 

When the “most organised person” gets everything

A really common pattern in growing businesses is that organisation-type tasks end up with the most capable or organised seeming person.

Maybe it’s someone in operations.
Maybe it’s someone in marketing.
Sometimes it’s just the person who is good at keeping things moving.

So they’re the ones organising meetings, chasing people for updates, managing diaries, formatting documents, coordinating projects… all the bits that keep a business running. But none of them are actually what they’re supposed to be doing. And their function falls by the wayside.

We often speak to people who were hired to lead operations or delivery and have quietly become the person who keeps the founder’s life organised.

And that wasn’t anybody’s plan.

The junior team member who can’t unblock things

Another version: work gets delegated to someone junior because they have capacity.

The intention is good. Founders want their team to feel empowered whilst freeing up their own time.

But some tasks need a level of confidence, expertise or business context that comes with experience.

Things like coordinating projects, chasing decisions, or managing stakeholders across the business can look administrative superficially. But they often involve a lot of judgement calls, understanding complex relationships and hierarchies and the confidence to keep pushing things forward.

If your junior tasked doesn’t feel able to challenge people or make quick decisions, things grind to an awkward halt.

And you end up being pulled back into the conversation anyway.

You haven’t really delegated, you’ve just sent someone on a longwinded circumnavigation and now deadlines are looming.

The co-founder who becomes the organiser

If you’re a co-founder, but you don’t think you need an Assistant, maybe ask your other co-founders what they think. If you’re not arranging your own meetings, who is? Did you just ask your co-founder to put a meeting in for you? Maybe?

You might have three or four co-founders, each with different strengths. But somehow one person ends up being the meeting booker, the organiser, the one emailing around follow up notes and actions. And they should be co-founding.

But when a founder starts acting as the organiser for the rest of the leadership team, it’s usually a sign the business needs better operational support. Founders shouldn’t be spending their time managing calendars.

People don’t always say no

Your team want to help, that’s what they’re here for. They’re invested.

They don’t want to push back on the founder. They don’t want to seem difficult. 

So when something lands with them, they just get on with it.

From your perspective, everything looks fine. The task gets done.

People hired to drive strategy or growth are ending up spending their valuable time coordinating diaries and chasing actions. Not what they are here to do.

A quick test for founders

If you want to sense-check whether your delegation is working properly, try this.

Look at the last few organisational tasks you handed over.

Who did you hand them to? And are they really the best person for the job? Or where they just the most convenient option at the time?

Good delegation isn’t just about getting work off your plate and onto someone else’s.

It’s about making sure the right level of work sits with the right level of person.

When that happens, things move faster. People stay in their zone of expertise. And you’ll actually get the headspace you were hoping for when you started delegating in the first place.

Are you looking for the best person to delegate to? Caroline will match you with the right Virtual Assistant for your business and what you need.