Elevarse Performance Consulting

It’s 6 PM. Your team is gone, but you’re still clearing “quick” emails and “easy” tasks. Sound familiar?

As leaders, we know we need to delegate for effective team management. So why is it so hard?

A new HBR article by Elsbeth Johnson pinpoints a powerful, hidden barrier: we’re addicted to the dopamine hit of easy productivity.

Strategic planning, coaching, and setting context are the real work of leadership, but they don’t provide that satisfying “check-the-box” feeling. So, we subconsciously cling to the “activity-based work” we know.

This leadership failure has three massive costs:

1. Cost: You’re an expensive employee doing work a team member could do.
2. Culture: Your team gets frustrated by micromanagement and stagnates, killing your leadership pipeline.
3. Strategy: You get mired in old work, failing to focus on the critical, big-picture planning your role demands.

Effective leadership means reframing our purpose. Our goal isn’t just to be “productive”—it’s to scale our impact by empowering our people. This requires a growth mindset, shifting from “doer” to “enabler”.

My question to other leaders: What’s one task you’re holding onto just for that “productivity hit” that you could delegate tomorrow (with clear context)?

#Leadership #Delegation #Productivity #TeamManagement #GrowthMindset