The delegation trap every senior leader faces

"Delegation is supposed to get easier the higher you rise. In reality, it becomes challenging in a different way, Common delegation advice is helpful for first-time managers, who typically have trouble letting go. But for senior leaders, effective delegation looks different. It's not about handing off tasks. It's about leading through a paradox. They need to stay close enough to align and coach, but they also need to step back enough to empower and grow others."

"These risks don't happen by chance. They're likely to happen when we don't see what delegation really is: a polarity to manage. It's a continuous balancing act of two interdependent poles, involvement and autonomy. Both are valuable. And there are downsides to doing too much of both. That is the essence of polarity management, which Barry Johnson first described in his 1992 book, Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems."

"Polarities are paradoxes and tensions you can't solve, but only manage, over time. Think speed and quality; short-term and long-term; stability and change. Two poles of a polarity are interdependent, so you cannot choose one as a "solution" and neglect the other, just like involvement and autonomy. To get the benefits of one, you need to attend to the other. Senior leaders live in this paradox every day, but few think about delegation as the polarity it actually is."

Delegation grows more complex at senior levels because leaders must both align and empower. Common delegation advice helps first-time managers who struggle to let go, but senior leaders face a paradox: stay close enough to align strategy, spot risks, and coach, yet step back enough to empower and develop others. The main risk at senior level is over-detachment rather than micromanagement. Delegation functions as a polarity between involvement and autonomy; both poles offer benefits and have downsides when overused. Effective leadership requires continuously managing that tension over time rather than choosing one pole.

Read at Fast Company