Your Delegation Pattern
- Cristina Stensvaag
- Jul 21
- 3 min read
When I delegate, I tend to...
July 21, 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 29. Rep 29. We've done three weeks of delegation work. This week we'll look at what it added up to.
Read
The Moment
The last three weeks have been all about delegation. First, you identified what you were still holding onto. You handed one of those off using the three-part handoff. You may have felt the pull to step back in and, hopefully, didn't act on it.
Those three exercises give a picture of how you lead when you're not the one doing the work.
The Pattern
When you think about delegation, the instinct is to ask: "did the work get done?" That's not wrong, but it isn't the end of the story. The work getting done tells you about your team's capability. It doesn't tell you about yours.
The bigger question is what your behavior showed you. Where did you hold on longer than you needed to? Where did you step back in? If you did step back in, was it necessary, or were you rescuing? Where did you hand something off and genuinely let it be theirs?
Why This Matters
Delegation isn't a single skill. It's a set of habits built around what you hold, what you hand off, how you do the handoff, and what you do in the following days. Right now, some of those habits are working, but some might not be. Until you look at the month as a whole, you're assessing handoff by handoff without seeing the larger pattern.
Rep
This Week's Practice
Review your three delegation reps from this month. You're not looking at the outcomes. You're looking at your own behavior: what you held, what you handed off cleanly, and where you took it back.
Your Rep
Answer these three questions:
Where did you hand something off and genuinely stay out of it?
Where did you step back in, and what triggered it?
What's the one delegation habit you most need to build in August?
What to Notice
Success looks like:
Your answers are based on what you observed, not how you felt about your performance
Accepting an answer that feels uncomfortable
Resistance looks like:
Grading the work outcomes instead of your own behavior
Writing what you intended to do instead of what you actually did
It's working when:
You can finish this sentence without hesitating: "When I delegate, I tend to..."
Common Mistakes
Mistake #1: Focusing only on what went wrong. Where you handed off cleanly and stayed out is just as important. You need to know what's working so you keep doing it deliberately.
Mistake #2: Stopping at the insight. The habit you identify in the third question needs to be something you carry into August, not a reflection you file away. Write it somewhere you'll see it.
Reflect
What does this month tell you about how much you trust your team?
What would it mean for your team's growth if the habit you named became reliable?
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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.