Delegation needs a brief, not a blank cheque

You wouldn’t give a new starter the company credit card and say, “Use your judgement.” You’d probably explain a few things first. Certainly before they booked the team offsite at a private island resort in Thailand.

Yet “use your judgement” is sometimes about as much direction as people get.

Singapore’s recent advisory on personal AI agents recommends limiting access and keeping control of important actions. Sensible advice for software. It also raises a familiar leadership question: how clear are you about what you’re actually handing over?

“Take ownership” sounds encouraging. Less so when someone discovers they can’t change the budget, challenge the deadline or make a decision without checking with three people who weren’t at the original meeting.

Then, when they ask, they’re told to show more initiative.

You can see why people start copying everyone into emails.

Good delegation starts with a conversation. Agree what you’re trying to achieve, hear how the person doing the work would approach it, and work out where they’ll need support. They may spot a dependency or a better option that you’ve missed.

Most meaningful work involves other people, too. Giving someone ownership doesn’t magically give them access to another team’s time or settle competing priorities. If sales promises one thing and delivery is measured on another, asking everyone to “collaborate more” probably won’t sort it.

People need to know what they can decide together, who needs to contribute and who can resolve a disagreement. Otherwise, collaboration becomes a recurring meeting with excellent attendance and very little movement.

That matters across functions and markets. Someone close to a customer may see a better way forward than you can from head office. Give them room to bring colleagues into the decision and adapt the approach, within boundaries you’ve agreed.

Stay available, too. Taking ownership shouldn’t mean being left alone with a problem. You can offer advice, remove an obstacle or challenge someone’s thinking without taking the job back.

AI makes some of these questions more urgent, but leaders have been getting delegation wrong without technological assistance for years.

Before asking someone to take ownership, check whether they have the authority, support and working relationships to make it happen.

And if every decision still comes back to you, perhaps the team doesn’t need another talk about empowerment. Perhaps you need to let them make one.