Why Delegate When You Can Overwork, Overstress, and Overcontrol?

It hit her when we tried to laugh about it:  

"Why delegate when you can overwork, overstress, and overcontrol?"

The punchline? The only person she was controlling was herself—into exhaustion.

The irony was undeniable. She wanted to build empires—multiple businesses, global collaborations—but she was stuck in a loop of self-sabotage. Her "hard work" wasn’t scaling; it was suffocating her true potential.  

The breakthrough came when she realized:  

1. Delegation isn’t abandonment. It’s an invitation for others to grow.  

2. Clarity dissolves fear. Defining outcomes and timelines first gave her the safety net to let go.  

3. Her survival mode was outdated. The skills that got her here (hyper-independence) wouldn’t get her there (scale).  

She started small, sketched a few deliverables with a low to medium-risk task, handed it off, and watched two things happen:  

- Her team stepped up.  

- Nothing collapsed.  

Now, she has designed a new playbook for her leadership style:

- Pre-delegation clarity: "What does ‘done’ look like?" (Write it first.)  

- The 10% rule: If she was doing more than 10% of someone else’s job, she would be the bottleneck.  

- Humorous accountability: When she slips into "martyr mode," she would repeat: "Delegate first, apologize never (unless you micromanage—then apologize profusely)."

Leadership isn’t about carrying the weight alone. It’s about creating structures where others can lift with you. And sometimes, it takes a sarcastic joke to expose the absurdity of the old way—so you can finally change it.  

1. When people follow you, what are they actually trusting?
2. What’s the fear underneath your ‘protecting the team’ narrative?
3. What if success isn’t perfect outcomes, but collective growth?

The turning point? A sarcastic joke:  

"Teamwork makes the dream work… unless I do all the work myself."

P.S. My DMs are open if you want to shift your leadership perspective. No "overworking" required.