Stop Taking It Back
Why Your Team Keeps Handing You Work They Already Know How to Do
with Molly McGrath
“Can you just take a look at this?”
“I wasn’t sure, so I assigned it to you.”
“I didn’t want to make the wrong decision.”
“Can you tell me what you want me to do?”
If your team is trained — but everything still finds its way back to you — you don’t have a delegation problem.
You have an ownership problem.
And sometimes, without realizing it, the leader is helping create it.
In this session, we’re going to unpack why capable employees stop making decisions, why attorneys and administrators become the firm’s human safety net, and how to stop rewarding escalation.
We’ll use the 5 Levels of Delegation to identify exactly where ownership is breaking down — and what needs to change on both sides.
Then we’ll open the floor. Bring the task, employee, or responsibility that keeps boomeranging back to you.
What we’ll cover
- The difference between assigning a task and transferring ownership
- Why trained employees still ask permission for things they already know
- How leaders accidentally train teams to escalate everything
- The 5 Levels of Delegation — and how to identify the right level for each role
- The Delegation Boomerang: what to say when work gets handed back to you
- When it’s a training issue vs. a confidence issue vs. an accountability issue
- How to move employees from “What should I do?” to “Here’s what I recommend.”
- Your 7-day challenge: one responsibility you will never take back again
Who this is for
Law firm administrators, operations leaders, and attorney-owners who are buried in tasks their team should already own.
Bring the task that keeps coming back to you. Leave knowing exactly how you’re going to hand it back — without taking it over.
