Learn the most common delegation mistakes private practice owners make and how to fix them with clear expectations and accountability.
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Episode 15 | Watch on YouTube
Poor delegation is not just an inconvenience. According to the Project Management Institute, it contributes to 50% of project failures, most often because of unclear expectations and inadequate follow-up. Brandon Seigel has made these mistakes himself, and in this Quick Tip episode he lays out the most common delegation blunders so you can recognize and avoid them.
Writing something down does not make it clear. If you hand someone a task without a checklist, training video, or worked example, you are setting them up to interpret your intent rather than execute it. Build action-oriented instructions with defined outcomes, examples, and decision points. The more you invest in the setup, the less you will need to intervene later.
Just because someone can technically complete a task does not mean they should. Misaligned delegation burns out your best people and produces mediocre results. Before assigning any function, assess whether it fits within the employee's sphere of excellence and functional capacity, and whether it aligns with what genuinely energizes them.
Third-party vendors, whether recruiters, billing agencies, or marketing firms, must be held to the same standards as internal staff. Brandon built his own revenue cycle management company specifically because of how rarely medical billing outsourcing included real accountability. Every outsourced function should have defined KPIs, consequences for underperformance, and regular review cycles. MGMA's vendor management resources provide a useful framework for structuring these agreements.
Floating expectations are not expectations. Every delegated task needs a clear deadline and a defined check-in point. That is not micromanaging; it is accountability. Micromanaging is sitting next to someone while they work and correcting their every move. Setting a deadline and reviewing the outcome is standard management. The distinction matters enormously for team morale and output quality.
The final and most pervasive blunder is simply refusing to delegate because you believe no one can do it as well as you can. Sometimes that is true. But as Richard Branson has said, delegation is not about losing control. It is about gaining more time to focus on what truly matters. The practices that scale are the ones where owners learn to invest in the right people, build the right accountability structures, and then let go with confidence.
