One of the things with my job is that I'm in the position to delegate tasks to people. Well, technically I can delegate to people to get all of the project done. Practically, they sort of have to admit that they want to own the task and do it since I don't have authority over them per se I have no threat or carrot - only "if you do this we can move the project along".
There are however, some exceptions. When I'm involved with something that concerns my boss, I can always as a last resort end up having him cc:ed to the "I'm asking for this based on Dr X's request" (half-a-stick-approach). I don't particularly like it that way, but it's part of the work culture for certain departments... so, at times I've ended up that route.
The other exception is "the things I do on my own" - aka my job and the extra projects I'm in charge of for real (building data bases, streamlining processes among other things). For these things I'm expected to delegate and not do every little detail myself. I'm suppose to make it happen. Not necessarily make them myself. And when they are done, hand them over to someone else to use and update. This has turned out, as I knew it would, to be a little harder than I would initially want it to be. As usual it's the trap of "stress and time issue". It takes longer to explain and instruct someone how to do a fairly complex task the first time so then you might as well just do it yourself, right? Eh no. Key word? "First time" - after that it's usually quicker and then all of a sudden you don't have to do that task at all.
However, every so often you end up with the conundrum of "if I do it my way it ends up 100% correct* and great", if I ask someone else to do it, "it might not end up 100% like that and then it's not good" - therefore I won't ask anyone else to do it. This is probably the worst solution and the most devious thought process .... Not only do you have an inflated sense of your own perfectionism (that this other person doesn't have), you also presume that if it isn't exactly like you envisioned it, it's not perfect. As we all know, there are many ways to make an omelet and most things that I find myself caught up in - well, they are just ok to have someone do their own way. It will get done. It will be as good, or almost as good (in my mind) as I would've done it. It will be "enough good quality".
Most of all, it's going to be good enough AND I get time to do those other things that only I can do. That's probably the absolute most important part of the whole equation.
My boss is actively trying to have me "get this" by showing me how much they delegate to me. Without specific detailed instructions a lot of times. Often a conversation or an email with "can you take care of this?" and then it's up to me to make it happen in the best way possible (as I see fit and that would be a good solution for them and the lab). Quite frankly, I'm impressed that they can delegate as much as they do, but as they said "I hire good people who I trust, so why wouldn't I delegate with happiness?" and then they continue with "I have to prioritize my time and efforts and what I'm imperative for - writing grants, mentoring my post-docs (lots of other things) - that's what I need to be doing. These things I delegate are things that I could do, but I would end up doing them instead of these other things since there are only that many hours in a day". Did I mention that I have a lot of learning to do?
Ending this post, as all of the Christmas post, with a little reminder about perfection ....
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