I have delegated to the wrong person – someone who just wasn’t the best person to get that job done.
I have delegated in the wrong way. For example I have allocated work (“here’s some work to do”) to people and thought that was delegation. Or I have abdicated work (“I don’t know, do this however you want – take over).
When you delgate the right task to the right person in the right way, it works. You have to tell them what result you want, what tools and resources are available to them, what done looks like, and how and when to report progress. It’s best if you tell them you believe in their ability to do it and ASK them to take it on.
Empower people to take responsibility for jobs, tasks, and parts of your job so you can do even higher value, leveraged work.