Delegation isn't dumping: a decision checklist
Delegation fails less often because a manager picked the wrong person, and more often because the manager and the person picked never agreed on what "done" looks like. The task gets handed off with a rough idea in the manager's head that never made it into words.
Before handing something off, four questions are worth answering out loud, not just assuming: what does the finished version look like, what decisions is the person free to make without checking back in, what decisions need a check-in first, and what's the deadline that actually matters versus the one that's just a buffer.
Skipping this doesn't save time — it just moves the time cost to the rework conversation later, which is more expensive for both people than the five minutes it would have taken up front.