The Leadership Line

Leaders Who Delegate Grow Faster

• Tammy Rogers and Scott Burgmeyer • Season 7 • Episode 4

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Ever notice how “I’ll just do it” feels efficient and heroic, right up until you’re answering emails at 10 p.m. and your team waits on you for every decision? We dig into the invisible costs of holding on and the practical steps that turn delegation from a guilt trip into a growth engine.

We start by calling out the classic excuses leaders use to avoid asking for help and why those patterns create yes‑people instead of thinkers. Then we flip the script: as leaders, we own the learning curve. That means setting a reasonable timeline to competence, defining clear checkpoints, and offering feedback that’s specific and time‑bound. We share concrete signals to watch during onboarding, how to rotate trainers when style is the obstacle, and when it’s time to make the tough call if milestones keep slipping. Along the way, we challenge perfectionism with a question that frees up capacity: where is solid “good enough” the right standard for the outcome?

From there, we offer a simple, high‑leverage audit to surface recurring tasks you can turn into systems. Track a few days of your real work, ask why each item had to be you, and decide who could own it next with the right tools or documentation. If no one can yet, make the next pass a teaching moment: shadow me, do it with me, do it while I watch, then you own it. This laddered handoff transforms delegation into a repeatable process that develops people while protecting quality. The payoff is a team that thinks, decides, and delivers without waiting for your inbox to clear.

If you’re ready to stop being the bottleneck and start being a multiplier, this conversation gives you the framework, language, and first steps to get moving. Subscribe for more practical leadership coaching, share this with a manager who needs it, and leave a review with one task you’ll delegate this week.

Karman:

Good morning, Tammy and Scott. Good morning, Carmen.

Tammy:

What up, Carmen? Scott's nowhere near his his mic.

Scott:

I had to project my voice to make sure my mic would pick it up.

Tammy:

He's like, hey, I'm getting some coffee. Oh no, it's not coffee for you, it's tea.

Karman:

What kind of tea are you drinking this morning, Scott?

Scott:

I drink the same tea every morning. I even bring it with me when I travel. I'm such a snob. I do organic awake English breakfast by Tezo Tazo. I don't know how you pronounce that. And then, you know, with and then you have to sweeten it with agave.

Tammy:

And he uses so much agave. Oh my god.

Scott:

I don't use so much. It's one tablespoon per cup.

Tammy:

Tablespoon?

Karman:

Tablespoon?

Scott:

Yeah. Your cups aren't that big, Scott. Sorry. You have to sweeten me up somehow.

Tammy:

That's true. That's since you're a little salty, we'll just get you some agave.

SPEAKER_00:

Can you say?

Karman:

So I was talking with a coaching client the other day about delegating or you know, lack thereof. Lack. Lack of. Um, and we talked about a couple years ago, I created a little bingo card of all the excuses that we tell ourselves about why I don't delegate. That sounds like fun, Carmen. Yeah, it's a it's a cute little, you know, and it's like, oh yeah, yeah, well, me, bingo. Um and you know, so in in January, we've been talking about Tammy and Scott's lessons from 2025. And one of the things that you guys talked about in our review was like, there are some times when you should have asked for help. Yeah. Um, so my question this morning is like, why is it so hard for us as leaders to ask for help? And oh my gosh. And you know, why do we think we have to do it all? And how do we get better at delegating?

Scott:

Are we gonna play the excuses game?

Tammy:

I don't I don't want to play this one. I can we do a different topic. Next.

Scott:

We can do this topic. We just lie. We can just lie and make ourselves sound good.

Karman:

I'll feel so much better. Oh gosh. All right, I mean, yeah, I'm gonna pull out my bingo card like surreptitiously here, and then as you guys talk, I'm just gonna check things off and I'll let you know when you when you hit a bingo.

Scott:

Boy, no, that was one of my staff doesn't listen to.

Tammy:

I know the staff know, just like don't in fact, you know, don't we won't even say anything, and then we'll see if they come back and give us feedback. Yeah, all right.

Karman:

I got the bingo card here.

Tammy:

I'm ready. All right, why, why, why? Okay, so this is people come to our leadership programs, and I think they come as a leader going, great, you're gonna give me all of these tools to fix other people. And they're really excited about it because you know, those people all suck, and they all those people need to be fixed. And when they realize that it's not about fixing other people, it's about fixing yourself. It is like not like that's emotionally stressful.

Karman:

That's such a great articulation of like even the last big leadership thing that I did. Like, you know, what people told me on day one that they wanted to learn was like how to manage, you know, this kind of people or that kind of people. And yeah, it was really like no, you just need to change yourself. Anyway, go on. And that is, I mean, that's the piece here, right?

Tammy:

About delegation. It's really, yeah, there's a certain amount of skill sets that people need before you hand things off, right? But the fact of the matter is, this is all the stuff that you have to work on yourself in order for you to be able to ask for help, which is one problem, and to me, delegating, which is another. And I actually see them as two separate issues, but it really is this is a Tammy issue, right? This is not a staff issue as much as it is a Tammy issue. It's a staff issue. Oh, good, Scott and Argonna fight. Okay, Scott, go for it.

Scott:

If anyone be so incompetent and lazy and stupid and slow, we could delegate it.

Tammy:

Bingo! Bingo! Oh B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O. Yep, bingo was Scott's name.

Scott:

Oh yeah, I mean, I'm I'll say it. I don't care.

Tammy:

Oh, so do you really think it is all about that, or do you think it is also about us?

Scott:

No, it is, but uh, I do think it is a share. I do actually, I I actually believe it is shared. I do believe it's it's probably like an 80, 20, 70, 30, with the bulk of it being in the leader's place. Okay. Okay. I do, I do believe that. Are of course, are there like are there situations where you have you know that one employee who's paying it, like, yes, but that isn't the norm. It really, really isn't. So we can sit and point fingers and it's actually what we've we talked about. Like, am I just putting my head down and doing, or am I thinking as a leader? Am I actively thinking about why is this task or thing mine? The activity I'm doing right now, why am I doing this right now? Which takes a tremendous amount of effort.

Tammy:

You know, I think we are again, we run. There's so many, this needs to be done by this time frame. And we end up, you know, being a running Rodney to go back to you know, our think characters. And we're running, and in the process of running, I'm getting things done. However, I'm getting things done today and I'm shortcutting the future. And what I mean by that is sometimes it is much more expedient for me to do it today myself. But if I do that all the time, I'm always gonna have to be the one who is running. And there are times when I am making that decision and I am shortcutting the opportunity to develop somebody else. And in doing so, it's there's twofold. One, I get stuck doing it, okay, forever because no one else can do it at the level that we need to have it done in order to have the results that we need. But the other thing that I'm doing is I'm also cutting the legs off of my stuff. And this is something that we see in organizations, and it's how organizations create a bunch of non-thinking yes men and women. It's like we get to the point where it's like, just do exactly what I have told you to do, because I don't really have time to explain it. I really don't have time to have you think it through and question it and wonder how why, and you know, and like all the nuances of that, just do exactly what I've told you to do. Well, there is no growth and there is no delegation in exactly telling you what to do. And in that spot, if I do that frequently enough, I get people who just say, Yes, sir, yes, ma'am, yes, sir, yes, ma'am.

Scott:

And they're undertakers. They're undertakers.

Tammy:

Exactly. And I created my own headache. And now I then compound it because I get mad. And then you go to Scott's question, why am I doing this? And the answer is because they can't. And then I start thinking, well, they're idiots. They weren't idiots. I created someone who can't. I, the leader, created a team of people who can't. And that is one of the biggest realizations when we're going through uh leadership for people. It's like if they can somehow or another, in the process of the conversations that we have, recognize that when you think about your people the way Scott just described them, idiots who can't effing do the work, you're like, really? Whose fault is that? How did we end up with idiots who can't do the work?

Scott:

And Tammy, I think it's a two-way street. Because in some cases you might have someone who's new.

Tammy:

Sure.

Scott:

Who truly doesn't know. Okay. Now, so I think it is two things happening at the same time. It is you haven't created that or you aren't actively creating it.

Tammy:

Yes. I like that.

Scott:

Right, because both of those things can be can are likely happening.

Tammy:

Well, and Scott, just for a minute, think about how many organizations that we work with, and they're like, and human resources brings me these jerks who don't know what they're doing. Right? So now it's true, right? And we'll take feedback. Yes, right. But here's the piece about that. A leader's job is to develop people who can fill in the blank. You're on a manufacturing floor, run the machines. Okay, you're in a white-collar world, you know, do the Excel spreadsheet. You're in customer service, answer the customers' questions. A leader's job is to have people who can. And when they first come to you, they're not going to be able to do that. It is your job to give them the experiences that they need, the information that they need, the tools that they need, the time that they need to gather that skill. And if as a leader you're not doing it, you're not actively, let's go back to Scott's word, you're not actively developing them to be ready to do that work. And that is your responsibility, leader. Because human resources, it's not because human resources are doing it wrong. It's that no one coming into your organization is going to know how you guys do things. Okay. No one will.

Scott:

In my mind, as a leader, your responsibility is to figure out what is what is the reasonable learning curve.

unknown:

Yeah.

Scott:

You may look at that and say, you know what? For that job, that learning curve is 30 days. And people are like, what? Yeah, there are some jobs that I would expect like someone could learn and be competent at in 30 days. Some it might be 90, some it might be six months, 18. Like, and to me, it's not that they're slow or fast. No, what's reasonable? Some people will be a little faster than that, some people will be a little slower than that. Then you have to be giving feedback along the way, and you might have to make tough calls. In my experience, there are milestones along the way. I can tell you when I was in charge of training, one of the items we identified very, very quickly is if someone couldn't clock in correctly and timely within the first week, there was likely no hope. Because it was on a computer system and it was a touch screen. And if you couldn't figure that out, there is no way in hell you're gonna figure out how to run a piece of equipment. So you just might as well cut your losses. Now, that doesn't mean, oh, we're just done. No, hey, we're gonna have a couple different people train them because maybe it's a training style. Hey, we're going to like watch and give them feedback along the way. But truly, if they can't do that on their own after the first week, we actually would let them go. So there are probably checkpoints along the way to say, are they making progress reasonably?

Tammy:

So if we look at the delegation side of your question, Carmen, right? For me, like have we, Scott and Tammy, done the work that we needed to do with the staff in order to have them have the skill sets that they needed to get that done? And and did Scott and Tammy in earlier, like you know, a year ago, two years ago, when we had the opportunities to develop the staff in those spaces, did we take those opportunities or did we do it ourselves? Right? You know, we can tell you right now, there were probably hundreds of opportunities that we've missed along the way to develop people, to give people the opportunity to gain that skill set.

Scott:

And I think this is we have the place where you have that shared. What how are staff asking to participate in these things? Now, in some cases they were, and we said, Oh, no, that that's not gonna work. In some cases, they weren't. And so, and and so it's not, it's not, I think that's where in my mind there is the shared responsibility.

Tammy:

There is, I agree with that. I'd also I also will tell you that I think there's another piece of it. We work with an organization, and um one of the things that we talked with them about years ago was you know, there are places where it's okay to do sea level work. And the staff was like, there is no way I'm gonna turn in sea level work. I'm not a sea level person. The piece of that is that there is some work that doesn't have to be like, holy moly, the best shiny diamond, right? There's some work that is good is good enough, right? And I will tell you, I think that that caused that organization grief, that whole concept of what's good enough, because a lot of the staff were very, very unhappy with this concept of wasted excellence and just doing what's good enough in that space. And we also sometimes have leaders who say the level of work that this employee could contribute is not high enough. And the question is is when the leader says that, is that true? Or would C still be enough? Right? Would C level work still be enough? And I know that there are probably times that I am thinking I need higher level work, and maybe I don't. Maybe it doesn't require my level of experience. So I think that's a I think that's something that every leader should ponder as well in that spot, right? Am I getting am I helping people get the experience? Are people asking for that experience? Am I taking the time to get us there? I should also be asking, what can like is this level of work okay? And does it have to be the level that I was thinking? Right? I don't even like saying that any more than the staff that that company that we worked with like saying C level work. I mean, that's a hard, that's a hard thing to grasp.

Scott:

And there's times where the I'd say the most common thing for me that I am seeing in organizations is leaders will say, I'm busy. And you know, I get a lot of phone calls, or I get a lot of emails, or I get a lot, and and like, and they'll say, I can't delegate it because you know the staff isn't experienced in that yet. They're new or they're learning, or you know, whatever that is. And my response is typically something like, okay, you are where you are. That is okay. What are you actively doing to dig yourself out?

unknown:

Right.

Scott:

Are you circling back? Are you looking at your schedule or the tasks that you did? Are you my favorite is in phone calls. I'm like, do you log your phone calls? And do you go back and look at where were the topics? And then do you assign responsibilities? Say, hey, I got four, I got six phone calls about this topic in the last two weeks. Carmen, I need to you to figure out what are we going to do consistently and train everyone for that topic so that I never I because I never want a phone call like that again. And most of the time, people are not doing that work.

Tammy:

Just that thought, Scott. Just that thought. What is that thing that recurs frequently? Are we addressing it, right? Are we just fixing it and moving on, fixing it and moving on, fixing it, moving on? But we're not fixing it, fixing it. We're just taking care of it for the moment and we're letting it recur over and over again. That thought pattern, what you just said, is actually brilliant. I hate to say that to you, but it is actually brilliant in terms of hey, if something is happening all the time, we can start whittling away.

Scott:

What how are you whittling away at this so that you can elevate as a leader and you also bring your team elevated up with you?

Tammy:

Yeah.

Scott:

Because I think it is the whole bingo thing is like, I'm okay if you're not delegating right now. What I'm not okay with is I'm gonna continue to not delegate and I'm gonna complain about it. No, no, no, no. Yeah, so you either need to do something about it or you need to shut your noise hole and deep and live with it.

Tammy:

I think the other piece of it, Scott, I like your language, just whatever. Okay. But the piece about it is also You don't like noise hole?

SPEAKER_00:

I I find that fascinating.

unknown:

Yeah.

Tammy:

Oh, just uh Scott's getting a little dagger. If you I wish you could see my face. I'm daggering him now with my eyes. Um, one of the things, too, is as a leader, if you are not looking and saying, Where am I working at helping each member of my team level up? I mean, do you have that in your head, right? Do you have it in your head that here are my six staff members and this is the opportunity for Carmen? This is the opportunity for Marlene, this is the opportunity for Jen. This is the opportunity for Susan. If you don't see like what is the 2026 opportunity for growth, then you're not helping level up your staff and you're not helping your organization become more. You're stuck in the status quo.

Karman:

I uh the other thing I like about that is it gets at some of these other excuses that are less my team isn't ready for this or they can't do it fast enough. Some of the other excuses that people have are like, well, my team already has so much to do. Uh, you know, I I don't feel good about handing off one more thing. Or, you know, that's something that I kind of like and I probably shouldn't be doing it, but I want to keep doing it. And there's some other excuses really. And when you put that lens of how is delegation a development opportunity, then it helps maybe work through some of those other kinds of excuses.

Tammy:

Well, and Carmen, I'm glad that you brought that piece up because here's here's the other thing. If you as a leader are saying, I can't give it to them anymore. Okay, there, you know, I'm I no, I can't. And you take it on. One of the things that we see all the time is leaders who are working harder than their staff. Okay. And when I mean that, it's like it's the leader that's there at six and seven o'clock at night. It's the leader who who picks up the extra project and stays and does Saturdays and Sundays, and their staff is home and with their kids and doing all that stuff. What we have come to understand is we're underutilizing folks because I don't want to have them to like take the time and the effort and the energy to figure things out. And yet that's really what it takes. And when we tell folks that they are capable and they can, it's not about the extra hours, it's about the respect that says, you're brilliant, and I know you can figure this out and make it work. And all of a sudden, the workload starts to actually flow across the organization instead of overburdening a leader or one follower of the five. And you guys know what I'm talking about a department where you got that person that works their butt off, four people that sit around and don't do anything and are underutilized. And it is this piece that says, I have to figure out how. And then they can figure out the process, you know, how to delegate it, how to give it to them. They can figure out how to do it. And as they do it, they'll get faster and they'll get better at it. And it won't take as long. But that is part of the that thing that leaders do all the time. They're like, I can't, I'll take it on. Cut it out. Cut it out, right? Don't play the martyr in that in that role.

Scott:

So here's the task I would give to our listeners. For the next week, for the next three days, or some time period, I would tell you write down the things you're doing. Like I was at this meeting, I filled out this paperwork, I made this like whatever that that tangible thing is. And then just like randomly pick five or six or seven of them. And next to it, I write out, why did you do it? Why did you have to do it? Yeah. Who else could have been doing it? What would that have done? Like taking that time to start to purposefully think about that. I believe you can begin to be more purposeful in saying, who needs to do this thing? Or ooh, no one can do this. And if you're truly, ooh, no one can do this, then to me the question is, is that really your work? Or is that the next time that comes, you're gonna sit down with Bob or Mary or Sally or Susie or whoever, and you're gonna do it with them. Because if it's not your work, like I'm thinking, oh, yeah, all right, I'm the CEO and I'm negotiating a merger or an acquisition. I'm probably not gonna delegate that. Okay, now maybe in a big fortune, you know, fortune 500 company? Yeah, okay. Who's gonna make the presentation for the um, you know, giving a talk at X conference? Tammy, you and I should not be doing that. Staff members should draft that, even if we're the ones speaking.

Tammy:

So, one of the things, even to go back to your, you know, merger acquisition, Scott, how many CEOs have we been working with that, hey, they're at the end of their career and they're looking for who is going to follow in their footsteps? And ultimately, they've been doing all sorts of things. And it takes time, but when we actually talk with these CEOs, it's like, what are you doing? And who are you going to teach to do that thing before you leave? And it doesn't always have to go to just one person. And so these things that you're doing today, even though it might be your responsibility, can you bring them with? Can you have them see it? Can you have them do it with you? Can you then have them do it and you watch and you give them feedback? And then can you hand it off? Because in the end, important things that we need to delegate, it's not a matter of just handing it to them. Let them watch, let them do it with you, right? Let them do it and you watch. And then there'll come a time period when you have enough confidence to get to hand it off and know it's going to be done well. All right. So delegation is not a once and done. It's a process. And it's a process of growing people to do something, to have expertise in an area that they've never had before. And that is a leader's job to level up their folks and go do the homework. I think that's a great exercise, Scott. Go do the homework.