Archives: Leadership Insights

The common assumption about siloed leaders is that they’re “politically” motivated. Guarding resources. Protecting headcount. Playing an institutional long game.

The unit runs well. Deliverables are strong. The team is loyal and capable.

And yet, across campus, no one quite knows what they’re actually doing.

This week, we’ve covered two ways to delegate when you don’t have a team to delegate to. Monday, that meant renegotiating with the person who assigned the work or trading with a peer instead of quietly absorbing the cost yourself. Wednesday, that meant building small structures—a template, a standing slot, a stated default—so that the same request stops costing you something new every time it lands.

On Monday, we talked about delegating up and sideways, renegotiating with whoever assigned the work, or trading with a peer. Both of those depend on another person being available and willing. Some weeks, they’re not: The supervisor is unreachable until next week. The peer is just as underwater as you are. The trade isn’t there to make.

Most delegation advice starts from the same place: You have people who report to you, and the work is deciding what to hand off and to whom. That’s useful if you’re running a department. But it’s less useful if you’re the one-person office, the new supervisor with a team of one, or the coordinator whose actual job is absorbing everyone else’s overflow.

Picture the same team from Monday, six weeks on.
In one version, the energy has quietly scattered into a spread of half-owned projects, and nobody can say what the term was about. In another, the team spent October pushing hard on one thing that mattered and knew exactly why.

It’s week two. Nothing dramatic has happened. However, neither you nor the team have been sitting still:
• A colleague asks you to join a working group.
• A Dean asks for a quick task force.
• A good idea from Monday’s meeting needs an owner, and your team still has energy, so someone raises a hand.

It’s the first real team meeting of the term. Everyone is rested. The calendar still has white space on it. Someone floats an idea, someone else builds on it, and inside of forty minutes, three new initiatives have a green light. The room feels great.

Monday, you named the pattern. Wednesday, you counted it. Today, we’re asking you to interrupt it—just once, in a single meeting—and pay attention to what happens next.

On Monday, we asked you to walk into a meeting watching for your own default role. That’s a start, but noticing in the moment is difficult. The meeting moves fast, your attention splits a dozen ways, and by the time it’s over, what you remember is usually a vague impression, not a clear count.