By: Devin Lemoine
Many leaders carry this quiet belief: If I want it done right, I need to do it myself. I see it all the time in my work, especially with high performers who’ve recently stepped into leadership roles. They’ve been promoted because they’re great at getting things done, but they’re still holding onto too much and are hesitant to delegate.
After decades coaching leaders across industries and building leadership development programs through my work at Success Labs, I’ve seen the cost of chronic under-delegation. It creates bottlenecks, slows down decision-making, and leaves teams stuck waiting for direction. Most importantly, it holds people back from learning and growing.
In this post, I’ll walk through common barriers and offer a few mindset shifts that help leaders move from doing the work to developing the people.
Common Barriers to Delegation
We can’t talk about how to delegate without first discussing the common barriers to delegation. I believe we have a chronic under-delegation problem. Too many leaders are working below where they need to be. They’re holding onto tasks they should have let go of months ago, often without realizing it.
This usually isn’t about ego, and instead due to habits that formed when they were in execution-heavy roles. When those same habits follow them into leadership, delegation feels uncomfortable or even unsafe. In my experience, most leaders don’t skip delegation because they’re unwilling. They skip it because it takes time. It requires clarity. It forces them to trust that someone else can carry the ball, even if that person isn’t fully ready.
And for many, that’s a hard shift. Whether it’s fear of things falling through the cracks or just not knowing where to start, the result is the same: leaders stay overwhelmed, and their teams stay underutilized.
Here are some of the most common reasons leaders hesitate to delegate:
Time and Patience
Delegation takes time, and that’s one of the first reasons leaders avoid it. You have to stop, think about what needs to be handed off, decide who should take it, and then explain it clearly. That doesn’t sound like much, but when your calendar is already stacked, slowing down can feel impossible.
I hear this all the time: “It’s faster if I just do it myself.” And in the moment, that might be true. But the cost shows up later. You end up buried in work that shouldn’t be on your plate while your team misses opportunities to grow.
Delegation is an investment in your capacity by making room for others to learn, contribute, and eventually lead. Yes, it takes time and patience to do it well—but that’s how you build capacity. If you want more space for strategic thinking, coaching, or relationship-building, you have to give people the chance to take things off your list. And that starts with slowing down.
Perfectionism and Loss of Control
This one shows up in subtle ways. Leaders don’t always say, “I’m a perfectionist,” but you can hear it in the hesitation: “What if it doesn’t turn out the way I want?” or “I don’t want to have to redo it.”
Underneath that is a real fear of letting go. For many high performers, their ability to produce high-quality work is tied to their sense of value. So when they step into a leadership role and hand something off, it can feel like giving up a piece of their identity.
And yes, when you delegate, there’s a good chance it won’t be done exactly the way you would have done it. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong. If you’re always waiting for someone to be fully ready or to match your standard before you delegate, you’ll be waiting forever.
Letting go of control doesn’t mean letting go of excellence. You can still set expectations and provide support. But delegation is how people build skill. It’s how they get their own “at-bats.” And that only happens if you’re willing to step back and let them try.
Satisfaction
Sometimes, the hardest tasks to delegate are the ones you enjoy. Leaders may hold onto certain responsibilities because they bring a sense of satisfaction or flow, like working in a spreadsheet or managing the details of an event.
The challenge here is being honest with yourself. Is this something only you can do? Or is it something you like doing? Just because you enjoy it doesn’t mean you’re the best person to keep doing it. Your time and attention are valuable. And leadership often means giving up the work that feels satisfying so you can focus on the work that’s essential.
“I Can Do It Better.”
This one comes up in every workshop, every coaching conversation. Leaders will say, “I know I should delegate it, but I can just do it better.” And my response is always the same: Of course you can.
You’ve probably done it dozens of times. You have more context, more experience, and a clearer sense of what “done well” looks like. The problem is as long as you hold onto a task just because you’re the best at it, no one else ever gets a chance to learn.
Someone once delegated to you. You weren’t ready. You probably didn’t get it right the first time. But you figured it out because you had the chance to try. That’s how you build capability.
When I talk to leaders about this, I’ll often say: if someone can do it 65 to 70 percent as well as you, that’s a good time to start handing it off. They’ll gain the remaining 30 percent through practice. If you wait until someone is as fast, polished, or experienced as you, you’ll be holding onto that task forever and they’ll never grow.
Lack of Trust
Sometimes leaders don’t delegate because they don’t fully trust their team. If that’s the case, I always encourage leaders to ask the deeper question: Why? Why don’t I trust them with this task?
In some cases, the team truly hasn’t been developed yet. They’ve never been given the opportunity to take something on and carry it through. But in many cases, the trust gap exists because the leader hasn’t set clear expectations, provided the right support, or allowed time for someone to learn.
If you’ve delegated something and it hasn’t gone well in the past, it’s worth reflecting on what was missing. Were the goals clear? Did they know the boundaries? Was there a checkpoint built in?
Too Busy
This is probably the most common thing I hear: “I’d delegate, but my team is already maxed out.” Or, “I don’t want to overload anyone.”
That instinct is coming from a good place. Leaders want to protect their people. But what often happens is the exact opposite. Instead of redistributing work, they take it all on themselves. They stay overloaded, and the team doesn’t get the stretch opportunities they need to grow.
I like to remind leaders: someone once delegated to you, and you were probably already busy when it happened. That’s part of the job. Figuring out how to take on something new, prioritize it, and learn through it—that’s where development happens.
When you delegate with clear expectations, intentional check-ins, and you make sure they have the tools they need to be successful, you build capacity across the team without adding unnecessary stress.
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