Don’t Allow Team Members to Delegate Up

Even leaders can be taken advantage of. 

Leaders who are kind, generous, conflict-avoidant, tolerant, and too busy can be exploited by those who want to get their way. When some team members know a leader has a particular weakness or character quality, they can use that vulnerability to their advantage. 

Unscrupulous colleagues can create guilt, engage in rude behavior, insist on receiving choice assignments, and demand raises. If leaders let them. 

It is wise to remember that no one can be taken advantage of unless they let the other party do so. Leaders have to allow others to exploit their weaknesses and pro-social qualities. At any time, a leader can set clear boundaries and refuse to play along with this gamesmanship.  

The good news is that team members who intentionally manipulate to further their own agendas are not that common. If team members take advantage at all, they usually do so inadvertently and without strategic intent. Most team members enjoy the benefits of a leader’s weaknesses rather than seek to take full advantage of them — with one notable exception. 

Leaders who allow team members and colleagues to delegate their problems up soon find themselves doing everyone else’s work in addition to their own. This is an easy pattern to fall into, especially for those leaders who are highly accommodating, see themselves as a resource to others, and want to be liked. 

The leadership role is one of helpfulness and support. Leaders do their best to remove the obstacles and roadblocks others face and to stand ready to lend a hand whenever and wherever they are needed. Offering advice and counsel to the problems and challenges team members face is a big part of the job. 

But that doesn’t mean a leader should own or accept those problems as their own. In an attempt to be helpful, leaders can cross a line and allow others to delegate their problems up to them. 

Offering assistance is not the same thing as solving or working on an issue others should be accountable for. Once a leader allows team members or peers to put them to work on their tasks and assignments, they have created a mess for themselves. They only have to look in the mirror to understand why they are overwhelmed with everyone else’s challenges and assignments. 

Guarding against this pattern requires leaders to distinguish between accommodating and helping others by doing their work. A leader who allows anyone to delegate a task they are responsible for up to them has opened the door to ineffectiveness and an unhealthy dependence on their time and talents. 

Good leaders delegate down and refuse to let team members delegate up. They are helpful and supportive, but never do other people’s work.