03/09/2026
A client spent months trying to delegate. One question fixed it.
We'd been circling the same topic since spring. He'd make a list of tasks to hand off, then quietly take them all back within two weeks.
His theory was workload. Too busy to train anyone properly.
I believed that for a while too.
Then one call I asked him: what would you delegate if you trusted the outcome would be 80% of yours?
Long pause.
Then he named four things. Fast. Like they'd been sitting there ready.
The block was never his calendar. It was that anything under 100% felt like a failure with his name on it.
The 80% version ships. The 100% version sits in his head while he does everything himself.
He handed off two of the four that week. Kept two, which honestly is fine, some things should stay yours.
But the list existed the whole time. He just needed permission to accept good instead of perfect.