299 | Delegation Done Right: Build a Culture of Growth Without Losing Control

Struggling to delegate without feeling like you’re giving up control? In this episode of the Lead Culture Podcast, Jenni Catron unpacks the mindset shift every leader needs to build a culture of growth through effective delegation.

You’ll learn why delegation isn’t about offloading tasks—it’s a strategic leadership skill that develops your team and increases your capacity. Jenni shares the three traps that hold leaders back (pride, guilt, and control) and introduces a simple, powerful framework—“Only, Could, Must”—to help you evaluate what you should own, what you could release, and what you must let go.

Whether you're overwhelmed or just holding on to too much, this episode will give you a clear path to delegate well, grow your team, and create unstoppable momentum.

✅ In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why most leaders struggle to delegate (and how to break the cycle)
• The difference between dumping tasks and developing people
• How to use the “Only, Could, Must” framework to clarify your highest and best contribution
• What delegation reveals about your culture—and how to use it to build trust and clarity

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Transcript

Hey, leaders, welcome to the Lead Culture podcast. I'm your host, Jenny Catron, CEO of the 4Sight Group. We're a company dedicated to helping leaders develop thriving teams. Each week, I'll be your guide as we explore practical strategies to equip you with the tools you need to lead with clarity, confidence, and build unstoppable momentum in your organization.

My mission is to be your trusted coach, empowering you to master the art of self leadership so you'll learn to lead yourself well so you can lead others better. Each week we take a deep dive on a leadership or a culture topic. You'll hear stories from amazing guests and leaders like you who are committed to leading well. So let's dive in.

Well, friends, welcome back to the Summer of Leadership series. I have loved this series and I hope it's been really practical for you because we're just looking at these core culture building skills, these skills that every leader needs to lead well and build a culture that is helping your team grow, thrive, and be unstoppable.

And sometimes these feel like just the simple practical, they're not easy to do, but they are really core to being a healthy leader and leading a healthy team. And so today we're going to talk about the topic of delegation. And I mentioned last week that I was like, this one's going to be a bit of a doozy because oftentimes as leaders, we struggle to delegate well.

And there's a few different reasons for that. We're going to get into it. We're going to look at it I'm going to give you a very simple framework today to help you evaluate what to delegate and whom to delegate it to. This I have found to be really, really helpful both for myself, but then for the teams that we're working with to help the whole team kind of evaluate what they perhaps should be delegating. So,

Jenni Catron (02:23.906)
Delegation is going to be more about a shift in perspective and how letting go of tasks is helping develop our teams. So it really is, as with a lot of these skills, there's a lot of mindset shift. Like we have to force ourselves to think a little differently in order to lead better. We've been talking about foundational leadership skills this summer and delegation is one we know we need, but we often avoid it.

It's tempting to see delegation as a way to get tasks just off our plate, right? Like kind of just get rid of stuff, but it's actually a tool to develop our people. And when we have that mindset that delegation isn't about just getting rid of stuff, it's really about developing people. think our perspective on it changes and our capacity to do it well increases. Delegation isn't about doing less. It's about investing more intentionally.

So let's look at just a couple of reasons why delegation is hard, even for seasoned leaders. I feel like this is one of those things that you just kind of, you learn and improve on, and then you hit another lid on it and you've got to push through and grow again. I feel like that's the case with delegation. And I think there's a few different traps that we fall into. The first one is the pride trap that no one can do it like I can, right? So,

We think we're the only one that can do it this way. And guys, I am guilty of this all the time that I feel like, well, gosh, I'm the only one who can. And so if you ever like hear yourself, you know, even subconsciously saying something like, I'm the only one that knows how, I'm the only one who can do this, just push yourself on that. Cause it potentially is a little bit of a pride trap. Another trap for us is the guilt trap of, I don't want to put,

more on my team. I do this one often as well of I'm conscious of everybody's workload and so I don't want to add to it so then I feel guilty if I delegate more to them. And then the third one is the control trap is it's just easier if I do it. What I really mean is I just want to do it or I don't want anybody else to do it. So I'll say it's just easier if I do it.

Jenni Catron (04:44.6)
But leaders, know this, when we hold onto everything, we limit our leadership and we also limit our team's potential. In many ways, they are eager to grow. They are looking for you to give them meaningful work. The other challenge sometimes is that we will delegate things that are not very, and there are things that we need to engage that are not like, you know, exciting projects, but they just need to be delegated. But if we're also not delegating meaningful work,

We're not developing the potential of our team. We're not giving things that help them rise to the challenge and grow into a new opportunity. So let's let's dig into this just a little bit more. Because leaders really do empower others by delegating right? It's one of our greatest growth tools. The problem with delegation is that most leaders approach it from what I think are kind of too extreme and pretty unhelpful perspectives. First, some of us delegate to get stuff just off our plate.

We're just like, just got to get rid of this. Who can I give it to? And essentially it's really all about me as the leader when I do that. I'm just saying, I've got to get this off my plate. Who can I give it to? And I am very me focused. And while sometimes that's just a reality, it is not, it kind of lacks the spirit of delegation. And then on the other extreme is we're afraid to delegate because

we aren't comfortable asking others to do the thing, right? So again, it's kind of all about us, because I'm uncomfortable asking somebody to do something, and so I'm avoiding that discomfort. So in both of those cases, on those extremes, I'm either just dumping stuff or I'm not giving away stuff, and both of them are very me-centric. But delegating well requires a better perspective on the purpose of delegating, and this is what I want you to

lean into today is the purpose for delegation. And I think it serves two very important purposes. The first of which is to create an opportunity to grow the skills of your team members and foster an environment for coaching and developing. It's, it's an opportunity to delegate something to another person that creates a growth opportunity for them. And it is also helping take something off of your plate, but it's really more about

Jenni Catron (07:09.304)
How can I delegate this to somebody who it's going to create a growth opportunity for and I can coach them and I can support them and I can help them grow by giving them this new responsibility? And then the second important purpose is it forces you to consider what you need to let go of. Again, this kind of pushes on that control freak in us, right? Of like, hey, what do I actually need to let go of? Because it's actually inhibiting me from perhaps doing something

that would have greater impact or I need to grow in, right? Like sometimes leaders, friends, we hold onto stuff because it's comfortable. I know how to do it and I feel busy and I feel productive and I feel valued and I feel significant because I'm doing the thing when in fact I might need to actually be letting go of that thing and giving somebody else the opportunity to grow into it so that I can stretch and grow into the next thing.

And so we've got to be forced to consider what do we need to let go of to make room for new responsibilities that we can take on and we can grow from. So the growth like at the heart of delegation is the perspective shift we need to have, that it's both growth for others and it's growth for ourselves. And when we bring that perspective to it, I think some of the other things that we get trapped by the control, the guilt, the pride.

traps that we can get kind of caught up in. think those get diminished when the purpose for delegation is so much more clear. Delegating done well allows team members at every level to continue to increase their capacity and their skill set. Everybody grows as we get better at delegating. And as with much of what we've named so far, your organizational clarity work, like that clarity you've done around roles, responsibilities, org chart, et cetera,

we'll do the heavy lifting and helping you define what needs to be delegated, right? Like when those things are clear, when organizational clarity exists in your organization, it is much easier to identify what we need to develop or what we need to delegate. But beyond that, even you wanna look for opportunities to grow the skills and the capacity of your team by delegating projects that will stretch them. So I wanna give you this tool.

Jenni Catron (09:34.094)
that I have used both for myself. And it's funny, you guys, I can remember very specifically sitting in my office in Nashville when I was on church staff there. And our team was growing rapidly. We were in a really busy season of growth. And I can remember sketching this on my whiteboard. And I don't know if I had picked it up from somewhere else. So I don't know necessarily if there's somebody to attribute it to, or if it was just kind of one of,

my random musings. I'm a working genius. I'm invention and discernment. And so it's not uncommon for me to pull out the whiteboard and just kind of map out some new framework that I've had in my head. But I can remember doing this on the whiteboard that day because I felt so much overwhelmed and I knew that I needed to delegate more things. I knew I needed to develop more of my team, but I was just a little stuck on what to delegate and who to delegate it to and even how to go about it. You ever felt those

seasons of like, know, something needs to change, but you can't quite, you're just so overwhelmed. You don't know what to do first. And so this is what I sketched out on my whiteboard that day. And then it's become a tool that I use repeatedly. And now I use with teams as we're working with them, but, I simply call it only could must only could must.

And to start this exercise, so I actually want you to do this. Like if you're in a place where you can get out a pen and paper, and I like a good old fashioned pen and paper, but you could also do it on your computer, whatever works for you. But I want you to create three columns and I want you to label the columns from left to right. On the left, only I can do is your first column on the left. The middle column is I do, but I could delegate. I do, but I could delegate.

And then the third column is I must delegate. So from left to right, the first column is the things only I can do. The middle column is the things I do, but I could delegate. And then the far right column is the things I must delegate. Now you get it, you're already seeing it, but let me kind of describe these for you a little bit. That first column is the things that only you can do.

Jenni Catron (11:49.442)
These are the responsibilities that are core to your job. Like these are really core. If you don't do these things, like that's a problem. For example, at Foresight, only I can set the vision and the direction for the organization. That's my primary responsibility as the founder and CEO. So this first column is an opportunity for you to get really honest about where your best energy and your efforts need to be directed. By the way, this should probably be a very short list.

there are probably just like three to five really key things that you do and only you can do inside of the organization. This is really core to your role and to your wiring, to your responsibilities. So you wanna make sure you're not hoarding tasks here just because they feel good, which we're also sometimes guilty of. These are the things that really truly, if people said,

You weren't here. These things would suffer because these are so core to your role and to how you're wired up. So those are the things only you can do. And again, it's only a few things, right? Really, really, really focused list in that middle column is where you identify the things that you currently do, but you could delegate in the near future. Maybe there's a team member you're developing and you see a pathway to develop or to delegate a project to them.

or perhaps you have a new hire on the horizon that you'll be able to delegate some work to, the purpose of this column is to help you pay attention to tasks and responsibilities that eventually need to move off of your plate to give you more margin for the items in your first column. So again, this middle column is things that you're doing. And it's not like it's...

Urgent that you get them off your plate, but you see pathways for them to move off. You see, know what you maybe if you've done really good org chart work, you've got your five year plan and you've got your the org chart for five years from now and you see how a core chunk of your responsibilities is going to separate out into a new role or a new department or something. And so you're doing them and you can do them for awhile, but you see the pathway for growth. And part of the reason why I want you to do this is I want you to see that pathway for growth.

Jenni Catron (14:03.35)
I want you, kind of inspires some hope, right? That it's like, okay, these things are on my plate, but in order to create more margin for the things that only I can do, I gotta have an eyeball on the things that eventually need to move. And when we have an awareness on that, we're on the lookout for where they can go. We're noticing people that have propensity towards a skillset or interest in an area of the work that you're like, well, maybe that could go there.

maybe that person could develop into this. And so that development eye is open when we've got this visibility in front of us, right? So these are tasks that could be shared after training or trust is built. This is your stretch zone where you grow your team and your leadership margin. So this middle column is really powerful. And I want you to spend a good amount of time here because it's a really important just visibility.

to what you're doing and how you could, again, grow your capacity and grow others. And then that third column is the things that they should embarrass you slightly. If you had to tell me that you were doing these things, you'd be like, er, yep, I'm still doing these things and I know I should delegate them and I know I should give that away, and you'll have all kinds of excuses. These are the pet projects or tasks that you hold onto because you're just a little too stubborn. That might be me.

or controlling to release them. And you're going to have all kinds of excuses and reasons, but friends, it comes down to you're either too stubborn or too controlling most of the time to give these things away. In truth, these are often low level tasks that make us feel like we've at least gotten something done today. Have you ever done that? Maybe you like this will happen to me. If I'll have a really busy week and I everything will feel out of control because maybe I've been traveling. This was actually true of this week traveling for three of the.

the five days of the week. come back, I traveled Monday to Wednesday. I come back on Thursday and it's jam packed meetings all day long. And I get to Friday and Friday's not quite as busy, but I feel all of these things that I need to be getting done. And what do I do? I start the day filling it with low level tasks because I just want to feel like I did something. And I'm not saying that that's entirely wrong because sometimes we need that to get us motivated.

Jenni Catron (16:32.354)
But if that's our go-to, if we busy ourselves with low-level tasks because it makes us feel good, we need to evaluate it. It could be things like booking travel or checking email or organizing things, which again, all of those things need to be done. And sometimes there are parts of it that you need to do. But when you have people who could do this work for you and you're doing it at the expense of something that's in the first two columns, that's a caution fly.

Right? So most of the time, the things that are in your third column are the ones that you would kind of be a little embarrassed if you had to show me the list. And again, this is important visibility. We need to be conscious of the time, the places where we give a lot of our time and energy. That's not our best use. That first column is your highest and best use. It's your highest and best contribution to the organization. That third column is not your highest and best use.

And so you need to be really conscious of when you're spending time over here. These are tasks that are draining your capacity and or may no longer fit your role. These are the things that are costing you and your team and holding onto them is hurting more than it's helping. You're actually creating busy work. It might be creating distraction for you. You know, you'll fill in the blank, but I want you to build out that list and then I want you to immediately

determine how you can delegate the things in your third column. Because the power of this three column activity is that it gives you visibility and vision for making delegating a normal part of your leadership. If every team member at every level is creating this list, so imagine this, you guys, if every person on your team did this three column list and they had more awareness and more visibility of the things that only they can do, this is my highest and best contribution. This is where I need to give my best energy. And then here's my middle column of the things that I do, but I...

could delegate some time, then they've got a development eye. Then they're looking at it going, okay, you know, how can I develop others and grow capacity? Maybe where can I recruit an intern to help with some of these things? Same thing with the must delegate column. Like it's like, okay, what do we do about these things? And I'm not suggesting that there's always an easy answer to this because I know that our budgets are tight and we don't always have margin or capacity to just, and remember we're not dumping.

Jenni Catron (18:59.554)
we're delegating and that's a very, different and it's very, very important because sometimes we want to just dump stuff off on other people. And that's not what I'm suggesting. I'm talking about getting really good visibility that every team member at every level, as they create these lists, they're making space to receive items from someone else, right? Because they're, they're making adjustments. And so then there's, there's this constant like movement in the organization of things that are moving around for them to be on the with.

on the best person's list. Not the best person, but the best person for that job is the person who's doing the job, if that makes sense. If you want a culture where leaders are being continually grown and developed, we have to create a culture where continual growth of adding and releasing work is a normal part of our rhythms. And I want you to hear that, where adding and releasing work is a normal part of our rhythms because we tend to hold on or hoard when we are not confident

in our place in the organization. But if everybody is adding and releasing, everybody knows what they're getting off of their must delegate list and they know what they're taking on because they have the capacity or it's a growth edge for them. It's a really, really powerful perspective on delegating and will serve your team really, really well. So listeners, I want you to write out your list.

Hopefully you did it even as we were talking, but I realize you might've been in the gym, you might've been driving, whatever the case might be, carve out some time for building out these three columns and get your lists. Look at your lists and see it in front of you, because I bet you're going to have some ahas. And if you do, I'd love for you to tell me, like just email me at jennikatron at getforsight.com. I want to know what did you learn about yourself as you did these lists? Then do this with your team.

maybe make it an all staff meeting discussion and have everybody build their lists and see what they learn from it. And then revisit this framework quarterly. This is a good tool because again, part of what happens when we do this and I'm not, you want everybody to do their own lists and then you can have conversations with your direct reports to talk about their lists and see if they evaluated themselves correctly.

Jenni Catron (21:18.882)
because some people might put in their must delegate list some things that are just really core to their job. And you're like, well, you can't delegate that because that's actually something you need to do. So I'm not suggesting that everybody can write this and declare it and, you know, just go on about their business. We all need to have the best interests of the organization in mind as we build out our lists. And then as managers, you can be having those one-on-one conversations to help coach through that. But this becomes a really, really powerful way for team members to

help keep the most important things in front of them. That when they have to build these lists, they're forced to go, yep, this is my highest and best contribution. Here's how I need to be thinking about the things that I might be able to give away long-term and here's things that, that's low level work. We don't need you doing that. Actually AI could do that. Or we have interns that could do that. Or there's somebody else on the team whose job responsibility that actually is and you've been doing it. And so it's created confusion organizationally. You see how

Like by doing the exercise, it creates greater clarity and opens up conversations. And that's the power of it. So friends, I want you to reflect and I want you to take action this week. That simple tool I think will spark so many good conversations in your organization. So what are you holding onto that you need to let go? Who on your team is ready for more? And what's one thing you could delegate this week as a growth opportunity?

and not just something that you're giving somebody else to do, but you really see it as a growth opportunity for them. Consider those questions this week and take action on those.

Jenni Catron (23:00.6)
Friends, this all comes back to the importance of culture matters, and it's all baked into our lead culture framework, that if you want to build a thriving culture, delegation matters. We need people growing at every level of the organization, and we need to be leaders who know how to delegate well so that we're equipping people well. It's one of the ways that we live out clarity, trust, and a culture of development. And so I want to just encourage you that all of these little things

are building your culture. The intentionality to these skills that we're talking about are building your culture if you're leaning into them. So delegation isn't letting go for the sake of ease. It's letting go for the sake of growth. Next week, we're going to talk about accountability. I'm telling you, these just get juicier every week. We're going to talk about accountability and how this is so critical.

to your culture in that everybody understands who does what and what's important here. And they have this measure of just accountability and accountability to one another. So we're gonna dig into that. And if you're still not a part of our Summer Leadership Institute, it's not too late to get started. You can jump in now and then by the end of October, be a better culture carrying leader, more equipped to lead your team.

and accomplish the mission. And so if you've been enjoying these conversations, if they've been sparking curiosity and sparking an awareness of, gosh, there's some things I need to grow in. I've got to sharpen these skills a little bit more to be a great culture leader. The Summer Leadership Institute is a great way to do that. It is both a course with one-on-one coaching. So go to getforsight.com, G-E-T, the number four, S-I-G-H-T.com slash Leadership Institute.

getforsight.com slash leadership Institute. And you can check that out until then friends, keep leading well, your leadership matters. We need you leading well. We need leaders who are healthy and thriving and building, growing, thriving and unstoppable teams. You don't have to do it all. You were never meant to. So keep learning and keep leading. And if you found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend, share it with your team, talk about it together.

Jenni Catron (25:25.858)
And then would you also rate and review it? That's so incredibly helpful and means so much to me. So keep leading well, delegate this week, build out that three column list and tell me how you did and then I'll see you next week.