What Are You Still Holding?
- Cristina Stensvaag
- Jun 30
- 3 min read
What would free up if the work you're holding belonged to someone else?
June 30, 2026
Originally published in One More Rep, a weekly newsletter for people managers who want to get better through practice. Subscribe here — it's free.
Week 26. Rep 26. Q2 was about becoming someone your team can rely on. Q3 is about leading the work, not just the people.
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The Moment
You've spent six months building self-awareness and trust. You know your regulation pattern, you can give feedback that lands, you hold your standards.
And you're still doing too much yourself.
Leaders can get good at the relational side of leadership, and then hit a wall. You have trust and your communication is clearer. But the work still flows to you because letting go might feel riskier than just handling it yourself.
The Pattern
Delegation is where leadership identity gets tested in a new way. It's one thing to regulate your emotions under pressure or hold a standard with a direct report. It's another to hand off something meaningful and trust someone else to carry it, especially when you could do it faster, better, or with less explanation.
Doing it yourself feels faster. At first, your direct probably won't do it as well as you would. So you tell yourself you'll hand it off when things slow down.
Things don't slow down. And your team doesn't get the opportunity to grow.
Why This Matters
Q2 built the relationship infrastructure that makes delegation possible. Trust, feedback, clear expectations / standards aren't separate skills. They're the foundation for handing work off.
If you've done the Q2 reps, you're more ready to delegate than you think. The question isn't whether your team can handle it. It's whether you can let them.
That's where July starts.
Rep
This Week's Practice
Before you can delegate well, you need to know what work you're holding that shouldn't be yours. This week you're building an inventory, not of your team's capacity, but of your own plate.
Your Rep
Identify three things you're currently doing that someone on your team could be doing instead. Write each one down: what it is, why you're still holding it, and who could realistically take it on.
What to Notice
Success looks like:
At least one item has been on your plate longer than it should have been
The reason you're holding it is honest: "I don't trust them yet" is more useful than "I haven't had time to hand it off"
You can name a specific person for each one
Resistance looks like:
"Everything I'm doing needs to be done by me" — it doesn't
Listing tasks instead of responsibilities — delegation isn't about offloading tasks, it's about transferring ownership
Convincing yourself your team isn't ready without having tested that assumption
It's working when:
You look at the list and feel slightly uncomfortable about how long you've been holding some of it
Common Mistakes
Mistake #1: Confusing delegation with offloading. Handing someone a task with no context, no authority, and no support isn't delegation. It's offloading. What you're looking for this week is work that could genuinely belong to someone else.
Mistake #2: Only looking at tactical work. The most important things to delegate are often decisions and judgment calls, not just tasks. If you're the only one who can approve something your team does every week, that's worth putting on the list.
Reflect
What does the list tell you about how you see your team's capability? How much of that is accurate versus assumed?
What would free up for you if one of these three things genuinely belonged to someone else?
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Cristina Stensvaag is co-founder of LeaderReps and creator of One More Rep, a weekly practice-based leadership newsletter for people managers.