When handing down responsibility, do you delegate or do you abdicate?

Our reader poll today asks: When handing down responsibility, do you delegate or do you abdicate?

• I delegate and make sure I stay in touch with the task to ensure it’s done right 90.12%
• I abdicate and hand things off then hope for the best 4.35%
• I don’t really understand the difference between those approaches 5.53%

Getting the benefits of delegation. A huge portion of you are doing delegation right – pass the task off and give responsibility and authority for completion to the person it lands with but stay in touch to make sure it gets completed correctly. For those who just abdicate, expect to be unpleasantly surprised at some point. When you completely disengage and don’t follow progress, you might get news you don’t want. You’re also doing a disservice to the person you hand it off to. They may need your help but might be afraid to ask for that help. For those who didn’t understand the differences between delegation and abdication, hopefully that’s clear now – it’s about maintaining the connection to the person who is doing the work.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.