I heard someone this week talk about the difference between responsibilities and tasks as they relate to organizational leadership. Their point was that leaders should delegate tasks and focus their attention on responsibilities. The speaker said delegating a task can empower and create a greater sense of organizational investment within the one it is delegated to. In general I agree with this idea, however I also believe that a leader must always be ready to take on any task in the organization that they are capable of doing. In the agency I am director of, I do not like to ask anyone to do anything I am not willing to do myself. This includes running the vacuum, cleaning toilets, and typing up meeting minutes. For me, I guess, it is both an expression of humility and also sending a message to my co-workers that though I am “the boss”, we are equals.
Delegation feels right to me when I have the sense that by delegating I am either, 1) handing a task off to someone who can do it better and more quickly than me, 2) recognizing another’s expertise and honoring that competence by giving them the task, or 3) creating an efficiency in the agency by allowing me to focus on something only someone in my role can do while handing off a task that can be done by another.
I have seen leaders who appear to delegate because they do not want to  work hard or “get their hands dirty.” They give delegation a bad name. Delegation, when done right and for the right reasons actually strengthens an organization. It spreads information and “know-how” across more individuals. It can create more experts. As leaders we need to be checking our motives so that when we delegate or hand  a task off to someone else we are doing it for the right reason…to someone with the right  skill set for the job, to create an efficiency, or strengthen the organization.