Busy Is a Choice

And other uncomfortable truths about delegation.

Previously on Giuseppe’s Glimpse: In the last episode, we explored how AI agents are rewriting the rules of customer loyalty and why companies now have two audiences. Missed it? Catch up here! ✨

Buongiorno everyone 👋

I need to tell you something about myself that’s not particularly flattering.

I’m the stereotypical representation of the Busy Being Busy mindset. I’ve been CEO three times, I’m a divorced father living in a different country than my kids, I’ve called five different cities home in the last 20 years, I’ve advised 279 companies (just signed that last contract), got a PhD, co-authored three books with Philip Kotler, and taught more than 10,000 students over the last decade.

I’m telling you this not to brag, but to admit something: for a big chunk of my career, I was terrible at delegation. 💼

And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. When was the last time you heard a business leader say “I feel like I can take on more work because I’ve delegated effectively”? Those people probably exist, but they’re like an endangered species.

Since most of us struggle with this, I want to share a simple framework I use now when I’m overwhelmed. But first, let me tell you why delegation is so hard in the first place.

The mistakes I made (so you don’t have to)

My first time as CEO, I was convinced I had to control everything to prove I deserved the job. I thought delegation meant giving up control, and giving up control meant failing.

What actually happened is I became the bottleneck. I was working constantly and convinced this was what leadership looked like. 🤦

The second CEO role was different. I walked into a situation where the team wasn’t strong enough for what needed to happen. So I went back to doing everything myself, but this time I had a reason: “I can’t trust anyone to do this right.”

Looking back, that’s such obvious circular logic. The team wasn’t ready because I never gave them a chance to get ready. I never delegated anything meaningful enough for them to grow into. And if you don’t have the right people, guess who’s responsible for creating the conditions for them to develop? For attracting and hiring great ones? 👈

The third time, I thought I’d learned. I delegated more. But I made a different mistake: I tried to be “fair” by delegating equally to everyone. Same types of projects, same level of responsibility, rotating opportunities so nobody felt left out.

What I didn’t realize is that delegating based on equality rather than competence doesn’t actually help anyone. The strongest people don’t get stretched, and the ones who need more development don’t get the targeted support they actually need.

What I wish I’d understood earlier

The word “delegate” comes from Latin: de (away, out) + legare (to send, appoint, entrust). Which means you’re not just offloading work. You’re granting someone the authority to act on your behalf.

That’s a completely different thing. 😲

When I finally got this, I started asking myself: what actually requires me? Not what I’m good at or what I enjoy. What truly requires my specific authority, relationships or expertise that nobody else in the organization has?

Turns out, that list was much shorter than I thought. Maybe 20% of what I was doing.

The rest? I was doing it because it made me feel important, or because I’d always done it, or because I didn’t trust anyone else, or because I thought speed mattered more than developing people.

Once I got more honest about this, things started to shift. My teams got stronger, and I had actual time to think about bigger questions instead of just reacting to whatever landed on my desk that day. 📚

Uncomfortable truths about delegation

A few things I learned that I wish someone had told me:

(1) Delegation feels slow at first.

Teaching someone to do something takes longer than doing it yourself. This is genuinely frustrating. But if you never pay that cost, you stay trapped forever doing the same tasks.

(2) Most leaders (including me) are terrible at asking for help.

We spent our whole careers being the person with answers. Admitting you can’t handle everything feels like weakness. But that’s where delegation actually starts, with saying “I need you to own this.” 🙋

(3) I used to think delegation was about trust.

Like, I need to trust you first, then I’ll delegate to you. But I had it backwards. Clarity comes first. If I’m crystal clear about what success looks like, what the boundaries are, and what decisions are yours versus mine, then trust builds naturally from there.

(4) Tasks versus outcomes matter more than I realized.

If I delegate a task (”write this report”), I get someone who follows instructions. If I delegate an outcome (”figure out why our customer retention dropped 15% and propose solutions”), I get someone who thinks like an owner. The second one takes more initial effort to set up, but it’s the only way people actually develop. 💡

(5) The biggest barrier to delegation was my own ego.

I’m still working on this one. There’s something seductive about being the person everyone needs, the one who has to approve everything, who’s in every meeting, who knows every detail.

It feels like importance. But it’s actually the opposite. If the company can’t function without you for a week, you haven’t built anything resilient. You’ve just made yourself the single point of failure. 💣

I think about this now: being busy all the time is often a choice I’m making, usually without admitting it. Being overwhelmed protects me from harder questions, like whether I’m actually adding value or just adding activity.

What actually changed for me

A few years ago, I heard about this concept from the tech world called the “bus factor.” It’s the question: “How many people need to get hit by a bus before the company collapses?”

If the answer is one or two, you’re fragile. 🚌

I started noticing this pattern in myself. I’d be the person who had to approve things, who knew all the details, who was in every important conversation. At the time I thought that was what good leadership looked like.

But really, I’d just made myself the bottleneck for everything.

After so many years working with Philip Kotler, my brain now organizes things in lists of four words starting with the same letter. So when I’m overwhelmed, I use the 4Ds framework:

→ Do it (only if it requires your unique talent)
→ Delegate (outcomes, not tasks)
→ Defer (schedule for the right time if not urgent)
→ Delete (remove unnecessary tasks)

Sounds simple. The tricky part is actually being honest about what belongs in the “Do it” category. I always want to put more there than probably should be.

I still catch myself thinking “it’s faster if I just do it myself.” And sometimes that’s true. But it also means choosing to stay busy instead of building something that works without me.

Stay curious 🙌

-gs

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