Delegation Lies, Dog Mom’s Day & White Tank Tops
Last week, we talked about how founders become the bottleneck as their businesses grow.
This week, we want to talk about why that happens—because it’s usually not just a systems problem.
It’s the stories we tell ourselves about delegation.
We’ve both struggled with this, but for different reasons. One of us spent years in large organizations managing teams (so delegation was required), while the other built as a solopreneur (so delegation was more rare). Different paths—but the same pattern shows up: we hold onto work longer than we should.
And if we’re honest, there’s often an underlying instinct to absorb the burden ourselves rather than risk it falling on someone else.
That instinct might feel noble. It’s not. It’s a growth ceiling.
Here are the 5 most common lies we see founders tell themselves—and what to do instead.
1. “It’s faster if I just do it.” 🏃♀️
(…and “they don’t know enough anyway.”)
It probably is faster right now.
But if this is a pattern, you’re not being efficient—you’re signing yourself up to do this forever.
You’re also creating the exact conditions that make delegation feel impossible:
No one else has context
Everything feels urgent
Any handoff feels risky
That’s not reality. That’s a system you built.
What to do instead:
If it’s repeatable, record yourself doing it once (Loom is great for this)
If this keeps happening across different tasks, start pulling people in earlier
Share context before things are urgent, not during
Invite someone to sit in on calls—even if they don’t end up working on the project
You lose nothing by having someone in the room. You do lose your sanity when you realize too late that you needed help.
Delegation doesn’t break down at the handoff. It breaks down the moment you decide to go it alone.
2. “This is my responsibility.” 🏋️♀️
That may be true based on how your business is currently structured.
But let’s be honest: a lot of what’s on your plate isn’t there because it has to be. It’s there because no one has challenged it—including you.
If it’s not the highest and best use of your time, then “this is my responsibility” isn’t a fact. It’s a design flaw you’re maintaining.
What to do instead:
Audit your workload ruthlessly: what actually requires your level?
Reassign work based on the level of skill required rather than defaulting to who has historically owned it
3. “They won’t do it the way I would.” 🎯
Correct. They won’t. And that’s the point.
There’s a massive difference between different and wrong.
If you treat those as the same thing, you will stay the bottleneck indefinitely.
What to do instead:
Define what’s actually non-negotiable (your standards, your POV, your edge)
Let everything else flex
If your way is the only way things can work, you’re not building something that can grow—and you’re cutting yourself off from new ideas and approaches.
4. “They’ll mess it up and I’ll have to fix it.” 🧯
Sometimes, yes.
But most of the time, what you’re actually afraid of isn't cleaning up a mistake—it's cleaning up a mistake that isn’t yours.
We recently saw this play out on a client team: someone agreed to send a calendar invite without realizing there were constraints that made that a problem. It was caught early, corrected quickly, and now the expectation is clear going forward.
That’s not a failure. That’s how systems get stronger.
If your takeaway from situations like this is “I need to stay involved in everything,” you’re solving the wrong problem.
What to do instead:
Be explicit about constraints and “known landmines”
Bring people into context earlier
Expect (and plan for) small mistakes
If your business can’t absorb small mistakes, it’s not scalable—it’s fragile.
5. “I don’t know anyone else who can do this.” 🤝
This one’s real. And also fully fixable.
You don’t have the network yet.
But you don’t build that network when you’re desperate. You build it before you need it.
What to do instead:
Get in rooms with people who are more skilled than you in specific areas or who can play a learning role on your team
Build relationships before there’s a transaction attached
If you’re thinking, “I don’t have anyone I can hand this off to,” that’s your cue. Join us at our next Work With Day on May 7th. (Or drop a note - we love to connect people in our networks!)
Start building that bench now, not when you’re underwater.
Delegation isn’t just a skill. It’s a willingness to stop believing the stories that keep you stuck doing everything yourself.
If this hit a little too close to home—us too. Let's start to change together.
🪢 Laura & Lauren
Things We Loved This Week
LaurA’s Things
😴 GRWOM.
😢 Sometimes water by the eyes.
🐶 Come celebrate Dog Mom’s Day with me!
Lauren’s Things
💰 I often joke with my friends in finance that their job is to move made up money around and take a cut. Apparently I was real right.
⚖️ This interesting and important (but somehow still fun) conversation about the role rules play in building trust across society, whether it’s sports, business or government.
🔥 This is somehow my new favorite music video?
