3 Non-negotiables to hand-off work without lowering your standards

Part 2 of a 3-part delegation series. You handed something off, it came back wrong, and you took it back — the problem wasn’t your team. Lia breaks down the three non‑negotiables every leader must set before delegating: clear outcomes, decision boundaries, and verification rhythms. Practical handoff language, a quick checklist, and scripts to delegate effectively without lowering standards.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why delegation fails before the handoff even starts -- and the specific step most leaders skip
• The three non-negotiable categories: presentation, timing, and what success looks like
• Why establishing standards upfront is the opposite of micromanaging
• How to structure check-ins that keep you in the loop without hovering
• What "done" really means -- and how to align your definition with your team member's
• How to stop the cycle of people bringing things back halfway through instead of finishing

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© 2026 Lia Garvin / Managing Made Simple

Transcript

Most of us don't delegate because we don't even know what to delegate in the first place. And that is what we talked about last week. How to come up with this list of maybe five or so things, whether it's meetings or tasks, that we can hand off to a team member. Because remember, we hired a team so we don't have to do everything.
Doesn't mean we're handing off the stuff nobody wants to do. It means we are leveraging our team. We are getting more done through our team. This is something we do whether we have one person or a virtual assistant or we have a team of 500 people. We need to make sure we are leveraging them. That's how we scale, that's how we grow in our own careers, that's how we grow our businesses. Literally, leader of any size situation team, whatever, we gotta be delegating. We've got our list, okay?
Today we're gonna talk about the how to delegate, some of the brass tacks behind it. Because one of the biggest reasons we don't delegate is because or we don't delegate again, I should say, is because we try it one time, it doesn't really go that well. And then we say to ourselves, nope, no thanks, not for me. So today we're gonna talk about how to avoid the delegating going wrong situation. All right, here we go.
Delegating effectively is all about setting expectations. But I'm not just gonna say that, drop the mic and walk away. This can be tricky because it can be hard to find the right balance of wanting to set the parameters and wanting to give space for people to do it their own way. Delegating that's not effective is saying, you've got this, go run with it, do it your way, and then looking at it and being like, well, this is your way. Like, yeah, I don't think so.
Instead, we wanted to find, okay, what even do we need to see? And this is a tough one. And I have been there. So a couple of years ago, I hired an assistant to help me take on some of like my kind of administrative work and some of the marketing work. And I did what I felt like as it was a really solid onboarding. We walked through all my content, all the things that I needed. And then she got started. And when she handed back the first thing, I looked at it and I was like, well, this isn't.
This isn't what I wanted. And I had that flash for a second of like, why did I hire someone? I should have just kept it myself. I should have just done it. It was this is now not faster because I have to go over this again with her. And I started to think all of the things I know all of you are thinking when you delegate, and it's not what you like. You think, shouldn't have done that, or never gonna do that again, or that was a waste of time, or gosh, now I'm further behind. And we start to spiral. And I know that because I did that too.
So I'm sitting here thinking, well, I I thought I told her what I wanted. We walked through all this in onboarding. This is her job. She's supposed to be writing content or whatever she was doing, like putting together presentations and doing some pitches for media stuff. Like, why this doesn't sound like me. This isn't how I'd want this written. This isn't whatever. I had a laundry list of these things that weren't like kind of hitting the bar for me. And I looked at that list and I said, okay, well, how would she really know this?
Because I only knew those things were missing because I actually stopped to think about it. I said write a pitch or put together this deck or whatever, and I gave some examples, but we hadn't talked about the biggest, biggest thing, which is the non-negotiables when it comes to delegating. Now, in another example, okay, I was working with a really high-end PR firm. They were charging clients $12,000 a month for representation. And the business owner, she gets on with me and she says,
Hey, I have a really high standard for how I want my team to show up. But I'm worried if I establish this is like what decks need to look like, this is our email signature, this is even dress code for meetings. I worry people are gonna think I'm a micromanager. And so I haven't been saying those things. And then I've just been taking on more of the work because I know that I'm gonna uphold that standard and I don't really know what to do. I know there's an opportunity here, but again, I worry it's too nitpicky and am I gonna be a micromanager.
And in that question, she was asking, how do I establish and even articulate these non-negotiables? And so as you're listening today, I want you to think about the list you came up with last week and think, what are the non-negotiables to be able to hand this off effectively? Because I know just coming up with that list does not mean your team is going to do the thing perfectly, especially if it's taking on a really high-stakes meeting or something that.
you is like really high visibility or whatever it is that you're like, well, I was doing it because I know I'm gonna do it right. And it is like my name on the line if it doesn't get done right. Establishing the non-negotiables, this is the way that we uphold the standard. And the reason it is not micromanaging is because we are establishing this up front. We are establishing it at the moment of handing it off.
This is the expectation setting, which is the the conditions for delegating. Now, non-negotiables, they can look like a number of things. Think I I I like to break it down into three different categories. There's kind of presentation. What does something need to look like? Is there a template that you use? Is there a format? Is there a formula? If you run a luxury med spa, are you using a, you know, certain scrubs or uniform? If you run a gym, if you have
Client meetings, like, do you wear a blazer, whatever it is? Okay. And I sometimes you can't be so specific with some of that stuff, but like you get what I'm talking about. non presentation might be sort of like, how are we being perceived by our clients? Now, for that, for that PR firm, we talked a lot about that. Hey, when we are, when when we engage with a client and they're paying $12,000 a month for our service, they expect a level of polish.
They expect the emails to look consistent, the decks to be in a certain template. They expect us to show up looking like we are like gonna crush like the pitch and get them on Good Morning America, whatever it is. There is an expectation that the client has. It's not the boss saying, Because I said so. And the way that we communicate the non-negotiab in the context of the goal of the company. And that's what presentation is all about, because it can feel a little bit subjective, to be honest. It can feel like, well, I just like it this way. So you paint the picture.
My med spot listeners out there, if you're trying to create a five-star hotel luxury experience, what would that look like? What presentation pieces would be needed? Maybe when someone walks in the doors, they're greeted by name. They feel like you were looking forward to them being there. You ask them about their kids' graduation and where they're going to school next year. You, you know, you remember their vacation that's coming up and part of their treatment that they're doing is to get ready for that. And you're asking, you know, did you get your outfits picked out? Are you ready to go?
You are showing them that I care about you. You offer them a beverage, or you actually, sorry, you know their favorite beverage because you've written it down with their name in this scheduling system and you bring it right out. Then you walk them to your their room, you you do more chit chat, you're not in a rush, you're not making the person feel like they're in your way. Whatever that is, this is painting a picture of the non-negotiables. You can imagine what that looks like in a salon or a gym or in a retail store.
When someone when you have a service business, maybe you have a marketing agency, right? And you a client gets on the phone and they're you already know what this person is going to be asking. How is my campaign doing? What what what vision do you have for my business? How are you gonna help me get there? What's am I getting the ROI out of you? Right? The presentation is actually sort of preemptively addressing what what does this person need to keep doing business with us? Right? That is what that's about. And you establish not a rule book.
Not 50 pages, not not a million things, so that people feel start rebelling against it, but they're bought in on the why and they understand, okay, yeah, we are creating this luxury experience. We are put someone putting their whole brand in our, you know, in our hands to to to carry forward. What would someone want in that situation? And you ask your team that and they start to talk through it, right? If you are building out, you know, if you're building software or
You know, working on where you maybe aren't seeing the customer every single day, right? This is we're talking about some kind of customer-facing roles. You're talking about, well, what would the quality of the product be to be able to satisfy this goal, this mission? Right? What what does what do we need to be able to ensure that our stakeholders don't come back to us with a million questions? Hey, l working at Google, working at Apple, working at Microsoft. If I'm presenting to an SVP, my deck can't be a mess.
Because what's it gonna look like? That I'm not prepared, that I didn't do my due diligence, that I'm not, I'm not meticulous. They're gonna start poking holes at everything. That is part of the presentation. So you give the team the context. It's not just because I said so, and they f they they understand that. The second non-negotiable is timing, whether what is the what's the due date? Sometimes we don't even that, but when do you want to check in? What do check-ins look like? What level of polish do people need?
And that is a non-negotiable because that is what's going to give you comfort that you can keep letting go because you've seen progress along the way. I'm telling you, we don't want to delegate something and then check back at the end and be like, what? This is what you came up with. This is not the, this is not the answer. At least have one check-in along the way where maybe you say, Hey, we're gonna just touch base on track. Yes, no, thumbs up, thumbs down, and we don't even need a meeting. But you're giving space to as that person is getting in the rhythm of it.
They are able to ask a question. A lot of times when I hand something off, let's say they someone has a week to do it, I'll say, hey, let's check in on Wednesday. you know, if it's about 50% baked or whatever, show me, you know, the the presentation, some of the ideas you have, what it looks like to kind of what the plan is for the rest of the week. Something like that, right? If it's a research project, maybe you're asking them kind of what kinds of questions you are going to be asking. But you're you provide space so that if someone's stuck,
They don't just try to muscle through it and come back to you later. I was working with an engineer years ago that was coaching her. She had just joined a team and her manager said, okay, just, you know, get up to speed, just kind of, you know, go through our wikis and our our documents and our drive folder, whatever else, and let me know if you had questions. And he said, Okay, you know, we'll meet in a couple of weeks to kind of go through it. So I was talking to her more frequently than she was even talking to her manager. I was coaching her through this.
And she said, my gosh, I just spent the last four days, you know, pouring through kind of docs and questions. And I and I I don't want to bother anybody. So I've just kind of been figuring this out. And I think I finally got an answer, but I don't really know. Like, what a waste of time. The person was not ready to take that on. The manager should have said, You are new here. I will check in with you in, you know, a day or two. No question is too is too small. Like, here's the kind of questions t people typically have when they're starting.
And then that person wouldn't been spinning for days and days and days. Like we have to recognize as leaders, sometimes people don't want to bother us. I know a lot of you out there, your qu your your teams ask you too many questions, and you're like, well, I wish they would do a little bit without me. But you can also run into the other piece and they're asking no questions and they're just muscling through it and you're paying them to be spinning their wheels, and that's expensive and it's demoralizing for that person. So a piece of this is also these are the types of questions, like I said, or
Hey, when it's this kind of question, here's how you figure that out. This is the kind of things to bring me in on, right? And then that's where the timing piece is. And then of course, what's the due date? When is this needed by? I had a client come to me that runs a like a a property management service, and they do stuff for nonprofits, and they had to submit an R an RFP for a grant.
And one of her team members said, and she had him do this project. It was like a week-long project. And they got to the end of the week and he said, Well, the grant didn't need to be submitted, so I decided not to do it yet. And she's like, Well, no, I asked you to have the paperwork done by the end of the week. And he said, Well, no, I mean it the grant wasn't due. And that was a miscommunication on, hey, it doesn't matter what the external deadlines are. That's this is our internal deadline. And this is what done is, and this is when it has to be.
And so getting clear with your team members, sometimes they can sort of take timelines into their own hands. And sometimes that's okay. But if you need it earlier for something else, this guy on her team didn't have context that she was going to be, you know, reviewing the the grant with other stakeholders or whatever she needed to do as the boss, she can decide that. we want to be really clear about that so that you say, okay, this is the that deadline, this is why, and here's how what progress I have to see along the way.
And then our third non-negotiable is what success looks like. What is a good job? Are you asking someone to get something all the way up to where you're approving it and then you're giving feedback and they're running with it? Are you hoping that it's completely done? Are they sending it out to the client? Are they completely like placing the order? Are they finishing the thing and they're sharing with you for FYI, for visibility, for a conversation after? What does done look like?
And giving examples of that, giving showing examples of that. If it's something that you used to do that you're handing off and you have a visual of it, if you have a written example of that, a video of it, a testimonial of it, whatever it is, you've got to show them what done looks like. Other examples from past team members. People need to see, done actually means this.
This client pitches in this format. It talks about these things. It covers these questions. It's it has this deck that goes with it. It's emailed in this way. done is all this other stuff I didn't really think about. Or if it's taking on managing a meeting, right? A lot of the stuff on our list is taking on a meeting. This is what done looks like. You have sent a meeting that has an agenda. You have submitted a pre-work thing 24 hours so people can read it.
or pre-reading, you have facilitated the meeting according to the agenda. You kept to it. There is some action items coming out of it. You have followed up with people. You've rescheduled the follow-up that there's needed. That's full ownership. So you want to talk about people to what done looks like so there's no confusion there. Because I think that's one of the big places folks say to me all the time, I feel like my team they start something and it's going okay.
And then they get about halfway through and they're like, I just want to run this by you. I just want to run this by you. I just want to run this by you. Can you take a look here? I just want to get your feedback. And they they don't feel comfortable to actually dive into the pool and finish. They don't feel comfortable owning it. And you're answering the question because hey, they're coming to you and you don't want them to screw it up. But by talking about, hey, let's walk through actually what it would look like to figure this out, answer this question on your own.
Now you are getting people that are way more self-sufficient, that can actually take something all the way across the line. And that is how you get that savings. You can get a little bit of savings. You can get some of the hours that we've been promising from delegating slices of things and still answering a lot of questions along the way. But the true unlock when you're especially with these meetings that you can fully hand off is when you can literally carve back out hour after after hour.
We're thinking, I think we said five to 10 hours a week at least. Think about all of that time. This is 20 plus, 20 to 40 plus hours a month that you can be now reallocating into your business, back to your life, back to not sitting at this freaking computer all day, whatever you're doing all day. This is huge. Okay. If you are the primary service provider in your business, which I know a lot of us are that are small business owners, this is.
Now you're back at the thousand dollar an hour tasks instead of the $20 an hour tasks. If you are a corporate manager, this is how you actually show your value so that you can get promoted and you can keep growing. Right. So this is where the money is, right? No matter what sort of role that you have, is by getting the heck out of the weeds. And we can't do that if we're delegating stuff and people are getting it wrong and they're not doing it right and they're not upholding the quality that you need to.
So the non-negotiab your ticket to that. So this is step two. You got your list last week. Now you write down your non-negotiables. Okay. And now you start to see how it comes together. And next week, part three is how you check in along the way. What kind of feedback do you give? How are you sort of keeping an eye on something, right? Or what if it's done and it's not right?
How we deal with that situation, because I do not want to leave you hanging. It's not gonna be perfect the first time. Maybe it will be. I hope it is. But if if it's not perfect, do not worry. We're gonna keep going. And this is how we delegate again, even after we're like, I don't know. And you know this, I know it's possible because I have been there. I have gone from the being the worst delegator to being a pretty proficient delegator, I will say, and by applying these strategies. All right, see you next time.