Instead of Complete Delegation – Lead with Oversight Like Ronald Reagan
I’ve written before about the different levels of delegation leaders can embrace based on the risk levels of a project and how reversible the results may be. My analogy is deciding whether an issue is big enough to sink your ship before you delegate it to someone on your team.
As a leader, delegation is a critical tool for maximizing productivity and ensuring you have time to focus on high-priority goals. But here’s the catch: no matter how many tasks or projects you delegate, you remain responsible for the results.
This is where oversight comes in. As the legendary business thinker Edward Deming taught, leaders can delegate tasks—but never responsibility.
The solution? Follow this famous advice by Ronald Reagan: “Trust but verify.”
Let me explain.
Neglecting Leadership Responsibility
The legendary business thinker Edward Deming taught that management never loses ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of a project.
While some leaders micromanage every detail, others fall into the opposite trap: delegating everything and walking away completely.
I recently met a CEO who delegated every responsibility in a hands-free manner. His approach was simple: drop projects on his team’s desks and move on. The result?
- Dysfunction: The wrong people led the wrong projects.
- High Turnover: His most competent employees left the company.
- Poor Outcomes: Projects failed because no one provided oversight.
This CEO neglected his leadership responsibility. As Deming points out, leaving everything to chance is a management sin.
So, what could this CEO have done otherwise?
The answer is that he could have provided oversight.
The Oversight Trap
Leaders fall into a trap when they can’t delegate projects. They can’t resist getting their hands dirty as they try to understand how things are progressing. We often label this as micromanaging, and it can drive subordinates crazy. In many ways, it’s a lose-lose proposition: the CEO can’t free up their time while the subordinate doesn’t feel trusted to run the project independently. What usually happens in these scenarios is that the CEO ends up owning the project in the end.
Leaders often face a dilemma:
- Micromanagement: Constantly intervening, which frustrates employees and drains your time.
- Hands-off Delegation: Walking away entirely, which risks failure and poor results.
What’s the Solution? Oversight
Effective oversight allows you to track progress, identify issues early, and empower your team to succeed without feeling suffocated.
How to Provide Oversight Without Micromanaging
The best leaders maintain oversight without taking over ownership of a project. Here’s how:
- Use Metrics and Dashboards
Monitor project progress with tools like dashboards or balanced scorecards. Metrics give you a high-level view without diving into day-to-day details.
- Schedule Regular Check-Ins
Hold consistent meetings with team members responsible for delegated tasks. Use this time to:
- Review progress against goals.
- Identify and clear roadblocks.
- Offer support without dictating solutions.
- Avoid Unsolicited Advice
As soon as you start telling your team what to do, you’ve taken back ownership of the project. Instead, ask questions and encourage them to find solutions.
The answer is to find the right balance, the “Goldilocks Zone,” where you can track the project’s progress without taking ownership.
Trust But Verify | The Reagan Leadership Principle
Ronald Reagan was often given credit for using the phrase “trust but verify” when it came to negotiating treaties over nuclear weapons. That phrase might also work well in understanding the role you, as CEO, play when you delegate responsibility inside your business. It’s one thing to delegate, but it’s another to do without any oversight.
- Trust: Show confidence in your team’s abilities to execute tasks.
- Verify: Use oversight to ensure progress aligns with expectations.
By balancing trust and verification, you can:
- Empower your team to take ownership.
- Hold them accountable without micromanaging.
- Maintain responsibility for results as a leader.
Find the Right Balance | The Goldilocks Zone
The key to effective oversight is finding the “Goldilocks Zone”—not too much, not too little.
- Too little oversight = Dysfunction and missed goals.
- Too much oversight = Micromanagement and frustration.
- Just the right oversight = Empowerment, accountability, and success.
The Leadership Takeaway
Delegation is a powerful tool, but complete delegation is a myth. As a leader, you can’t walk away entirely because you’re still responsible for outcomes.
Instead, embrace oversight using:
- Metrics to monitor progress.
- Regular check-ins to remove roadblocks.
- Reagan’s principle of trust but verify to balance confidence and accountability.
By leading with oversight—not micromanagement—you’ll empower your team, achieve better results, and avoid becoming your organization’s biggest constraint.
