I’m surprised Zuck said this…

I don’t believe in delegation.

That’s what Mark Zuckerberg said at the Stripe conference recently.

This made me stop and think. What does he mean? Is he right?

Delegation has been a hot topic lately. It started with Brian Chesky’s ‘founder mode’ stuff. Now Zuck is piling on…

“Fundamentally if there is a decision that I want to be involved in, I’m going to be involved with it. I don’t believe in delegating. And I think this is generally a good way for founders to operate.”
– Mark Zuckerberg

So is he just grabbing a headline here, or is this advice we should actually follow? I mean, Tony Robbins did say the secret to success was delegation. So what is going on here? 🤯

Here’s how I think about it…

Delegation happens on an axis. On one extreme you have over-delegation, or blind trust as I like to call it. This is what Zuck and Chesky are pushing back on. Over-delegation is handing off a project to someone, and then having little to no involvement in whatever happens next. More often than not, things will blow up in your face.

Then on the other side of the axis you have under-delegation, otherwise known as micromanagement. Micromanagement happens when a leader feels the need to be in all the details, all the time. This proves impossible at scale and the leader becomes the bottleneck of the business.

So why is Zuck telling leaders he doesn’t believe in delegation?

Quite honestly, I’m not sure Zuck even knows what he’s saying here. Sure, the leader always maintains the right to dive into the details. But that doesn’t mean you abandon delegation entirely.

It means you don’t know how to delegate in the first place.

This whole conversation reminds me of a powerful quote from Andy Grove, the legendary CEO of intel:

“Delegation without follow-through is abdication”

In other words, it’s not true delegation if you’re not establishing expectations up front, checking in with the person throughout, and providing some level of support and feedback.

You should operate between the two extremes, not at them. You want to stay connected to the right details, at the right time. Not all the details, all the time. Or, none of the details, none of the time.

Where you land on the delegation axis depends entirely on the task and person you’e delegating to. I wrote an article all about this, with a framework you can follow.

So, was Zuckerberg’s advice, good advice?

Nope. This was a PR play to catch some of Chesky’s founder-mode juice. And he botched the execution.

Delegation remains as crucial as ever. And IMO, its the single most important leadership skill to master. Guess I’m with Tony on this one.

It can take a while to get right, but it’s a skill you can’t ignore if you’re serious about your business.

Till next time,

Scot

p.s. Happy father’s day to all the dads out there!

Vision vs. Strategy: Stop confusing the two!

Many founders confuse vision and strategy. Or, they operate with one and not the other.

In this recent Highland video, I break things down for you, and explain why vision and strategy should be tightly linked…

I wrote about the vision ladder template we use in Highland here: How to create a vision people want to follow

If you’re intrigued about Highland, we should talk. You can apply HERE.

Note: must be a founder and/or CEO