[nilkn]

I completely agree with this. It's actually hard to delegate too much. Almost all managers I've ever known have delegated too little. I think they're afraid that by delegating important parts of their job they're diminishing their role in the company, but it's actually the opposite. Leadership is not necessarily a zero sum game: you can elevate yourself while also elevating those you work with.

[balls187]

You really want to delegate that soul crushing work to your engineers?

[phereford]

What is soul crushing to you is not soul crushing to someone else. You can certainly find people who are motivated to meet new engineers and talk and spend part of their day doing that than going to a meeting of choice.

If you are leading a team of engineers, chances are you have some form of recurring check in to see how the individual is doing. In those times, it is the leaders responsibility to understand what motivates that individual and what they enjoy doing. This way, your delegation is impactful in an empowering way and not a “well thanks for unloading the stuff you don’t like”.

I prefer people to opt in to the processes that need to be handed off as that is how you get true ownership, evolution, and trust.

[nilkn]

There's less to delegate if you're a team lead with IC direct reports. The situation starts becoming a lot more complex when your reports are themselves managers or team leads.