ABOUT THIS EPISODE
You want someone on your team to take over a responsibility, but you keep deciding they aren't ready. What would you need to see before you could hand it over?
You may know exactly what could go wrong if someone else takes over. But a responsibility coming back to you doesn't tell you, by itself, why it came back. The person may need information, instruction, or permission that still sits with you. They may also need experience the assignment genuinely requires.
I walk through two situations that look similar from the founder's seat and need different kinds of work. An IT employee was asked to manage software development outside his background. An incoming leader could carry more responsibility, but the founder was having difficulty granting the authority to do it.
The practical arrangements matter. So does the personal belief that may remain after capability is clear. Giving someone a chance to demonstrate readiness doesn't automatically address what granting authority means to the founder.
You'll leave with a more useful conversation than “take more initiative”: what would need to be true for this responsibility to move, and which of those things is already true?
If you're wondering what a handoff needs, the Breakpoint Inspection inside The Missing Layer is a place to begin:
https://dori.live/missing
Related listening, Episode 2:
https://dori.live/BTW-Epi2-Spotify
Below the Waterline with Dori Etter. The leadership work no one else talks about.
New episodes every Wednesday.
