Who can I give this to? Wrong question.
Most managers delegate by asking who has bandwidth, who’s qualified, who won’t mess it up. This is task distribution thinking—focused on immediate execution. The right question is “Who would benefit from owning this?” This shift from distribution to development changes everything about the team you build. Same delegation decision. Completely different outcome.
Take Action: Today, before delegating anything, pause and ask both questions. Notice how “who can do this?” and “who should learn this?” lead to different people. Write down the difference.