Your crap task might be someone’s dream development opportunity (seriously)
Most leaders think delegation is about clearing their to-do list. But the best ones know it’s also one of the fastest ways to grow their team.
In this week’s Locker Room Chat, I share a quick story from my time at Target that completely shifted how I view delegation—and why your least favorite task might be exactly what someone on your team needs to level up.
The Real Talk: Delegation isn’t just about saving time, it’s about building capability.
One day, I mentioned a report I dreaded doing. Total drain.
One of my team members surprised me by asking, “Can I take that on?”
To her, it wasn’t busy work—it was a growth opportunity.
She crushed it. I got it off my plate. Win-win!
This Week’s Challenge:
Take 5 minutes to do a mini delegation audit:
What task or meeting drains you?
Could it actually be a stretch opportunity for someone else?
Is there a development conversation waiting to happen?
Why It Matters:
The tasks you dread might be the ones that build your bench.
Let them go—and let your team grow.
👉 Want more leadership strategies like this?
Check out Lead to Win – my hands-on leadership development program designed to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and results.
🔗 www.renaldoandco.com/lead-to-win
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[00:00:00] Delegation and growing and developing your team go hand in hand. Let me tell you a story.
Back when I was at Target I had supervisors who reported to me. One of those supervisors had a goal of being in my level of role. So she really wanted to promote.
Her and I had been working on things to help her develop to one day be able to move into this role. And then one day I was talking with her about some report or something.
It's been over 10 years. Can't remember exactly what the task was, I mentioned to her about how I had this task to do, and it was like ugh draining. Her response was really interesting to me. She asked if she could do that. And I said, "why would you wanna do that?"
Because to me it was the crap thing on my list that I hated doing. But for her, it was an opportunity to learn one of the tasks that she would be doing
when she was able to move up in her career.
I showed her how to do the thing. She took it over, crushed it, and honestly, it was something off of my plate that just felt a little draining.
But she was stoked because she had an opportunity to learn how to do a higher level [00:01:00] task.
So my challenge to you is to do a bit of an audit, not necessarily looking for all of your
"crap tasks"
but look for tasks or meetings that could be done by somebody else and could be a developmental opportunity for someone on your team to learn, a higher level skill.
It's a win-win for both of you.