In this month's edition of The Shift, we explored the idea that delegation often fails not because of the person doing the work, but because the work wasn't set up to succeed.

That's an important insight. But insights only create change when we put them into practice.

This week, we'd like you to take a closer look at one delegation experience that didn't go as planned.

Think of a task you delegated recently that came back incomplete, required significant revisions, or eventually landed back on your own to-do list.

Now ask yourself a simple question:

Why did this come back to me?

Be honest with your answer.

It's easy to assume the problem was a lack of skill, experience, or attention to detail. Sometimes that's true. But before you settle on that explanation, consider whether the person had everything they needed to succeed.

As you reflect on the task, review these three areas.

1. Was the Purpose Clear?

When you delegated the task, did you explain why it mattered and what outcome you were trying to achieve?

Many people receive instructions but never receive context. They know what to do, but not what success looks like.

Without understanding the purpose, people often make decisions that seem reasonable but don't align with what you actually wanted.

Ask yourself:

• Did I explain the objective behind the task?
• Did the person understand why this work was important?
• Would they have been able to explain the desired outcome in their own words?

2. Was the Right Authority Delegated?

One of the most common reasons work comes back to a lawyer is that the person doing the work wasn't sure what decisions they were allowed to make.

When authority is unclear, people default to asking for approval. That often creates unnecessary interruptions and puts the lawyer back in the middle of the process.

Ask yourself:

• What decisions was this person expected to make?
• Did I clearly communicate those boundaries?
• Was there a point where they had to come back to me simply because they didn't know what authority they had?

Delegating responsibility without delegating decision-making authority often creates a bottleneck.

3. Was "Done" Clearly Defined?

This is where many delegation failures begin.

The work may have been completed exactly as instructed, but not as expected.

The difference is often that the standard was never clearly articulated.

Ask yourself:

• Did I define what a successful result looked like?
• Did I provide examples or quality standards?
• Would two different people have produced roughly the same outcome based on my instructions?

If not, the person was left to fill in the gaps.

Your Challenge This Week

Choose one task that didn't go as planned and identify one thing you could have done differently when handing it off.

Perhaps you needed to provide more context.

Perhaps you needed to define the standard more clearly.

Perhaps you needed to give the person authority to make decisions without coming back to you.

The goal isn't to perfect your delegation process overnight.

The goal is simply to improve the next handoff.

Because better delegation rarely starts with finding better people.

More often, it starts with creating better clarity.