Understanding Upward Delegation: Its Causes, Consequences, and Solutions

A few years ago, one of my clients, LB, introduced the concept of “upward delegation” to me. She learned about upward delegation in a leadership course and quickly realized that (a) she was guilty of allowing it to happen, and (b) she needed concrete strategies to stop it, and fast.

Since working with LB, I have introduced this concept to many of my clients because I hear signs of them allowing upward delegation to happen all the time! Especially for my clients who tend to self-sabotage through controlling, hyper-achiever, perfectionist, or people-pleasing behaviors.

In today’s busy world, upward delegation is one of the core reasons for leaders having too much to do, and not enough time to do it. For mindful leaders striving to optimize their time, stress, and energy, getting to the root of upward delegation and stopping it in its tracks is critical for their mental and emotional sanity, and for the empowerment and growth of their team.

This blog explores what upward delegation is, why it occurs, its pitfalls, and strategies to prevent it.

What is Upward Delegation?

Upward delegation, also known as reverse delegation or bossing up, is the act of pushing tasks, responsibilities, or decision-making to their superiors, rather than handling them at the appropriate level. It's when a team member 'delegates' their problems, challenges, or tasks to their boss.

I believe that individuals are not intentionally ‘upward delegating’ or pawning off their work on purpose, nor are leaders intentionally assuming the work of their team members. However, upward delegation may signal issues with leadership dynamics or team empowerment.

I find that upward delegation often results from leaders who don’t adequately empower their team to navigate challenges, hold their team accountable to complete tasks, struggle to communicate expectations and instructions or think it is easier and faster to do the work themselves.

The Impact of Upward Delegation

While upward delegation may offer temporary relief or a sense of security, it comes with several drawbacks in the workplace. A few of these drawbacks include:

Decreased productivity: Continuously passing tasks up the chain of command can create bottlenecks, slowing down decision-making processes and impeding progress.

Undermined trust: Over-reliance on superiors to solve problems erodes trust within teams and diminishes confidence in employees' capabilities. This could then lead to further issues as your team may become hesitant to bring you real challenges in the future.
Stifled innovation: By habitually seeking approval or guidance, employees may miss opportunities to exercise creativity, innovation, and hone their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
Managerial overload: Constantly fielding delegated tasks can overwhelm managers, detracting from their ability to focus on strategic priorities and development.

Consequently, if you’re looking to increase productivity, build trust, encourage innovation, and keep manager overwhelm to a minimum, it may be time to prioritize minimizing the amount of upward delegation that takes place on your team.

Why does upward delegation happen?

Factors that may lead to an employee upward delegating their work to their boss are:

Fear of failure: Employees may lack confidence in their abilities or fear repercussions, leading them to defer decisions to their superiors.
Lack of clarity: Unclear roles, responsibilities, or expectations can lead employees to seek guidance from higher-ups rather than taking the initiative to resolve issues independently.
Limited authority: When employees perceive constraints on their authority or autonomy, they may opt for quick fixes by involving their managers.
Time pressure: In fast-paced environments, individuals may resort to upward delegation as a shortcut to quickly address challenges without investing the time to find solutions themselves.

Factors that may lead to a leader assuming tasks on behalf of their team members are:

Misplaced responsibility: Many leaders believe their role is to remove all roadblocks preventing their employees from executing a task, and therefore will shoulder the work of chasing loose ends or resolving a challenge on their employee’s behalf. These leaders fail to recognize that removing roadblocks doesn’t always require the leader to take responsibility for doing the work.
Lack of Trust in Employee Competency: Leaders often doubt their employees’ knowledge, skill, or ability to solve complex challenges or fear that the task will be too complex and time-consuming for them to solve, so they assume responsibility for solving the challenge on their employees’ behalf.
Micromanagement: Some leaders inadvertently encourage upward delegation by micromanaging tasks. Employees can only tolerate micro-management to a point before throwing their hands up, and saying “fine, you just do it.”
Self-Sabotage: Leaders who tend to self-sabotage through controlling, hyper-achiever, perfectionist, or people-pleasing behaviors often allow upward delegation to happen with beliefs like, “I can do it better,” or “they won’t do it my way,” or “I don’t want to bother them,” or “I’m helping them.”
Time pressure: You know that saying, “if you give a man a fish it will feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish it will feed him for a lifetime?” In today’s fast-paced world, the thought of taking a few hours to train someone on a task you can complete in 15 minutes is daunting and can lead to leaders assuming tasks that should be completed at a lower level.

Examples of Upward Delegation

The following examples illustrate how upward delegation can manifest in various forms, from leaders trying to support their team members and mothers trying to support their children, to employees being reluctant to take ownership of their decisions or actions.

Client Example One: A leader assumes responsibility for an employee’s path to promotion

My client SL is a Senior Director of Technology at a global financial services company. Recently, one of SL’s team members, RF, approached her about wanting a promotion. RF did not present a case for “why” he wanted or deserved a promotion, just that he felt he was ready for one. Through our discussion about this situation, SL informed me that her initial plan was to sit down and map RF’s performance to the core competency matrix for both his current role and the role he desired. From there, SL planned to sit down and review her findings with RF to discuss a path to promotion.

Whoa! Hold up. Why was SL doing this analysis?!

This is a perfect example of a leader unknowingly allowing upward delegation to happen, by assuming the responsibility of her team member’s request. By the end of our discussion, SL realized that she didn’t need to shoulder the responsibility of building RF’s case for promotion. Instead, she could empower him to evaluate his performance and build his case by giving him the tools and guidance necessary to do so.

Client Example Two: A Mother shoulders the burden of researching colleges

My client LB is a Director of Continuous Improvement at a healthcare distribution company and the mother of three boys. LB is the client who originally brought the concept of upward delegation to my attention and has been actively implementing strategies to stop upward delegation and empower her team at work.

During one of our sessions, LB expressed frustrations about her eldest son, a Junior in HS who wanted to play football in college, not taking the initiative around his college search or signing up for football camps to get noticed by recruiters.

When LB asked her son why he wasn’t taking action, he said he didn’t know where to start. So, she spent a few hours mapping out all of the universities within a four-hour radius of their house that had football programs and researched to find out which summer football camps the coaches to those schools attended for recruiting. She gave him the list and was frustrated that a week had passed and he hadn’t reached out to a single coach or asked her to sign him up for any of the camps on the list.

FACE PALM: We had worked through an almost identical work situation two weeks prior when one of LB’s team members didn’t know where to start on a project. To be helpful and alleviate confusion, LB outlined the entire project plan, including timelines, benchmarks, key contacts, deliverables, and more.

In both situations, LB could have prevented upward delegation from happening. Just because her son and her team member didn’t know where to start, didn’t mean that LB had to do all the work.

In both situations, LB could have sat down with them, asked questions to understand the hurdles, provided guidance, discussed the best next steps forward, and empowered them to do the initial mapping and research.

additional examples of how upward delegation manifests at work:

Simple Task Escalation: A team member encounters a minor issue or decision-making situation but instead of resolving it themselves, they immediately bring it to their manager's attention, seeking direction or approval. For instance, a marketing assistant might pass on the responsibility of choosing between two design options to their manager rather than making the decision themselves.
Passing the Buck on Problem-Solving: During a team meeting, a group is discussing a challenging project issue. Instead of brainstorming solutions collaboratively, one team member consistently turns to their supervisor, asking them to decide how to proceed or solve the problem.
Seeking Approval for Routine Decisions: An employee regularly emails their manager to ask for approval on routine tasks or decisions that fall within their scope of responsibility. For example, a sales representative might constantly seek approval for small discounts or pricing adjustments before finalizing a deal, even though they have guidelines in place for such decisions.
Over-Consulting on Minor Issues: An employee frequently interrupts their manager's workday with queries about relatively straightforward matters, such as formatting a document or scheduling a meeting. Rather than taking the initiative to find a solution independently, they rely on their manager for immediate assistance.
Blaming Others for Lack of Authority: When confronted with a challenge or request outside their usual responsibilities, an employee insists they cannot take action without approval from higher management, even though they possess the authority to handle the issue themselves. For instance, a customer service representative might refuse to process a refund without direct approval from their supervisor, despite being trained to handle such requests autonomously.

How To Stop Upward Delegation In Its Tracks

The number one way to stop upward delegation in its tracks is to put your coaching hat on and empower your team to solve their own challenges. Because trust me - - they’ve put a lot of thought into it and racked their brain on how to get around the roadblock before throwing their hands up and saying “I need help.” Here’s How:

Acknowledge and validate what you are hearing, and the challenge(s) your employee is facing. This will allow them to feel seen and heard and help them feel at ease about bringing the problem to your attention.
Ask them to clarify what the challenge is, by asking them to provide specifics. An example of this would be: “Thank you for letting me know that we’re going to miss the upcoming deadline as a result of roadblocks a/b/c. You are much closer to this project and problem than I am, help me understand the specific challenges that you’re facing.”
Ask them about their solutions: “What have you tried so far to solve these challenges?”
Ask them about their desired outcome: “What do you think should happen next? What else do you think you could try?”
Ask them how you can support them: “What support do you need from me?” This question allows them to dictate how and when you step into the solution. They might request that you jump in immediately, especially if you need to pull strings with leadership from a different department, or they may surprise you and say “nothing” or just request that you be a sounding board as they navigate the process.

Here are a few more tips that can help you create a culture of self-empowerment and available support.

Establish clear expectations: Define roles, responsibilities, and decision-making authority clearly to empower employees to take ownership of their work.
Encourage autonomy: Foster a supportive environment where employees feel empowered to make decisions and take calculated risks without fear of punishment.
Provide training and resources: Equip employees with the skills, knowledge, and resources needed to tackle challenges independently and make informed decisions.
Offer constructive feedback: Provide regular feedback and coaching to help employees build confidence, refine their problem-solving skills, and learn from mistakes.
Lead by example: Demonstrate your desire to delegate effectively and trust your team members to handle tasks competently. Encourage open communication and collaboration.
Hold individuals accountable: Establish accountability mechanisms to ensure employees take ownership of their responsibilities and follow through on commitments.
Empower, Don’t Enable: Take time to train your team and offer support when needed. However, if you feel your team members are using you as a crutch and are truly capable of navigating the challenge, stop yourself from enabling their uncertainty, and empower them to find the solution! Enabling will never grow an individual’s confidence or their ability to operate autonomously, empowerment will.

Final Thoughts:

Upward delegation can undermine productivity, erode trust, and stifle innovation in teams and organizations. However, by fostering a culture of empowerment, clarity, and accountability, leaders can mitigate its effects and pave the way for growth and innovation within their teams.

Embracing a coaching leadership style will help leaders minimize the impact of upward delegation, resulting in more time to focus on their actual work, reduce their stress levels, and help them build a resilient and empowered workforce poised for success.

Working with a coach is a great way to improve your leadership skills, and raise awareness where you might be allowing things like upward delegation to happen. To learn more about working with me, or to explore additional resources that will help you become a more influential and mindful leader, please consider subscribing to my newsletter, and connecting with me on social media: LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.