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Delegate What You Know ​

Force growth by giving away your expertise and only doing what you haven't mastered.

TL;DR ​

  • Delegate what you know - If you can do it, teach someone else
  • Do what you don't understand - Focus your time on learning edges
  • Goal: Make yourself obsolete - Get promoted or find bigger challenges
  • Both sides grow - They learn your skills, you learn new ones
  • Stops when you hoard knowledge - Keeping expertise keeps you stuck

The Model ​

If you know how to do it, delegate it. Only do what you don't fully understand.

This creates a forcing function:

  1. You must teach others your current skills (they grow)
  2. You must learn new skills to stay useful (you grow)
  3. You become overqualified for your current role (get promoted or leave)
  4. Your team becomes capable without you (scalable organization)

The opposite: Hoard expertise, stay essential, never get promoted, team stays weak.

Why This Works ​

Traditional thinking:

  • "I'm the only one who can do X" = job security
  • Keep critical knowledge to stay valuable
  • Do what you're best at (maximize efficiency)

Reality:

  • Being irreplaceable = being stuck
  • Hoarding knowledge = team can't scale without you
  • Doing what you're best at = never learning

This model:

  • Make yourself replaceable = get promoted
  • Share all knowledge = team scales
  • Do what you don't know = forced learning

How to Apply ​

Step 1: Audit Your Time ​

List everything you do regularly. Mark each:

  • ✅ Delegate: You know how to do this
  • ❌ Keep: You don't fully understand this yet

Example:

TaskCan You Do It?Action
Deploy to productionYes, I wrote the scripts✅ Delegate to Sarah
Optimize database queriesYes, I do this weekly✅ Delegate to Bob
Design system architecturePartially, still learning❌ Keep doing, learn more
Negotiate with vendorsNo, never done it❌ Keep doing, learn

Step 2: Delegate What You Know ​

For each ✅ item:

  1. Document the process (write it down, don't just show)
  2. Pair with someone (do it together 2-3 times)
  3. Hand it off (they do it, you review)
  4. Remove yourself (they own it fully)

Don't:

  • "Just watch me do it" (they won't learn)
  • Take it back when they struggle (they need reps)
  • Stay as the "expert reviewer" forever (you're still bottleneck)

Step 3: Fill Your Time with Learning ​

Now you have free time. Don't fill it with more of what you know.

Bad:

  • Take on more deployments (you already know this)
  • Do more database optimization (you already know this)
  • Become the team's deployment expert (you're a bottleneck)

Good:

  • Learn system design you don't understand
  • Shadow sales on vendor negotiations
  • Study architecture patterns you haven't used

Step 4: Repeat ​

As you master new skills, delegate those too. Keep pushing to your learning edge.

Examples ​

Example 1: Engineering Manager ​

Month 1:

  • Doing: Code reviews, architecture decisions, hiring interviews
  • Knows how to do: Code reviews (10 years experience)
  • Doesn't know: Hiring interviews (only done 5)

Action:

  • Delegate code reviews to senior engineers (pair for 2 weeks, then hand off)
  • Keep doing: Hiring interviews and architecture decisions

Month 6:

  • Doing: Hiring interviews, architecture, quarterly planning
  • Knows how to do: Hiring interviews (now expert)
  • Doesn't know: Quarterly planning (first time doing)

Action:

  • Delegate hiring to senior engineers (they now screen candidates)
  • Keep doing: Quarterly planning and architecture

Month 12:

  • Doing: Org strategy, cross-team coordination
  • Now: Team runs without you, you're ready for Director role

Example 2: IC Engineer to Tech Lead ​

Starting point:

  • Knows: React, Node.js, testing, CI/CD
  • Doesn't know: System design, database architecture, mentoring

Action:

  • Delegate: React code reviews to mid-level engineer (teach them your patterns)
  • Delegate: CI/CD setup to junior engineer (pair with them)
  • Do: System design (take architecture decisions you don't fully understand)
  • Do: Mentor junior engineer on CI/CD (learn how to teach)

6 months later:

  • Knows: System design, mentoring
  • Team: Can handle React + CI/CD without you
  • You: Ready for Staff Engineer role (system design + mentoring)

Example 3: Startup Founder ​

Year 1:

  • Doing: Product, sales, customer support, ops
  • Knows: Product (built it yourself)
  • Doesn't know: Sales, ops

Action:

  • Delegate: Customer support to first hire (document all answers)
  • Keep doing: Product, sales, ops
  • Focus learning: Sales (you're bad at this)

Year 2:

  • Knows: Product, sales
  • Delegate: Product to eng hire, sales to sales hire
  • Focus learning: Ops, fundraising (things you don't know)

Year 3:

  • Doing: Strategy, fundraising, hiring
  • You: CEO doing CEO things, not doing IC work

Common Objections ​

"But I'm faster at it" ​

True. You're faster because you've done it 100 times.

Also true: Your speed is capping team growth. Every task you keep is:

  • One less person who can do it
  • One less thing you can learn
  • One more bottleneck when you're out

Math:

  • You do it: 1 hour (fast!)
  • You teach someone: 5 hours first time, 2 hours second time, 1 hour third time
  • After 3 reps: They can do it in 1 hour, forever
  • You freed up: 52 hours/year (if it's weekly)
  • You can learn: New skills with those 52 hours

"But they'll make mistakes" ​

Yes. They will.

You also made mistakes when you learned. That's how learning works.

Better:

  • They make small mistakes on small tasks (learning)
  • You review and coach
  • They get better
  • Eventually they're as good as you

Worse:

  • You never let them try
  • They never learn
  • You stay stuck doing low-level work
  • When you leave/get promoted, everything breaks

"But what if I run out of things to do?" ​

Impossible. There's always something you don't know.

If you truly run out:

  1. You're ready for the next level (promotion/new job)
  2. Your team is capable without you (you can leave)
  3. You've built a scalable organization (huge win)

This is the goal.

"But I like doing X" ​

Then you're optimizing for comfort, not growth.

Which is fine - but be honest about it. You're choosing:

  • Stay comfortable doing what you know
  • Stay at current level
  • Team stays dependent on you

vs.

  • Be uncomfortable learning new things
  • Grow to next level
  • Team becomes independent

Both are valid choices. But if you want growth, you can't keep doing what you're comfortable with.

Red Flags You're Hoarding ​

  1. "Only I can do this" - Congratulations, you're a bottleneck
  2. "It's faster if I do it" - Yes, and it will stay that way forever
  3. "They're not ready" - They'll never be ready if you don't let them try
  4. "I'm too busy to teach them" - You're too busy because you didn't teach them last quarter
  5. "I need to review everything" - You're a quality gate, not a teacher

How to Teach (Not Just Delegate) ​

Bad delegation:

  • "Can you handle deployments?" (throws them in)
  • They struggle, you take it back
  • "See, they can't do it"

Good delegation:

  1. Document: Write down the process before pairing
  2. Explain the why: Don't just show steps, explain reasoning
  3. Do together: You drive, they observe (first time)
  4. Switch roles: They drive, you observe (second time)
  5. Review: They do it alone, you review after (third time)
  6. Hand off: They own it, you're not involved (fourth time+)
  7. Improve: They make it better than you did (success!)

Timeline:

  • Week 1: You do it, they watch
  • Week 2: They do it, you watch
  • Week 3: They do it, you review
  • Week 4: They own it
  • Month 2: They're teaching the next person

When to Keep Something ​

Don't delegate if:

  1. You don't fully understand it yet - Learn it first, then teach
  2. It's strategic - CEO shouldn't delegate company vision (yet)
  3. It requires your authority - Firing people, board meetings (role-specific)

But even then:

  • CEO should delegate vision to execs eventually
  • VPs should delegate firing to directors eventually
  • Always be working toward making yourself obsolete

The Forcing Function ​

This model creates forcing functions:

  1. Forces you to learn - Can't just do comfortable work
  2. Forces you to teach - Can't hoard knowledge
  3. Forces you to document - Can't rely on tribal knowledge
  4. Forces you to trust - Can't micromanage everything
  5. Forces you to grow - Can't stay at current level

Result: Both you and your team become overqualified for current roles.

Success Looks Like ​

Month 1:

  • You: Doing 10 things
  • Team: Dependent on you for 8 things

Month 6:

  • You: Doing 5 new things (that you didn't know before)
  • Team: Handles 8 old things without you

Month 12:

  • You: Doing 3 new things (even more complex)
  • Team: Handles 13 things without you (improved your old processes)

Month 18:

  • You: Get promoted (overqualified for current role)
  • Team: Runs without you (someone else gets promoted to backfill)

This is success.

Remember: If you're still doing the same things you did 6 months ago, you're not growing. Delegate what you know. Do what you don't.