The 70% Rule: Letting Go Without Losing Control

One of the biggest barriers to delegation is perfectionism. Leaders hold tasks back because they believe, “No one can do it as well as I can.”

And they’re right…at first.

Here’s the hard truth: if you’re waiting for someone to do it 100% your way, you’ll never let go. Your team never grows, and you stay buried in tasks that don’t need to be yours.

The 70% Rule

If someone can do a task at least 70% as well as you, it’s worth delegating.

Why? Because:

Their 70% today can become 90% with practice.
The time you save can be reinvested into the high-impact work only you can do.
You’re training someone else to think, decide, and own outcomes.

A Historical Lesson

Abraham Lincoln struggled with this during the Civil War. He drafted battle plans himself because he didn’t trust his generals to push hard enough. The result? Exhaustion and stalled progress.

It wasn’t until he empowered Ulysses S. Grant to take ownership that the tide turned. Grant wasn’t perfect, but he was capable. Lincoln’s decision to let go, even when it meant accepting less than perfection, changed the course of the war.

A Modern Example

I once coached a leader who insisted on rewriting every report before it went out. His reasoning? “I know the client best.” The team felt deflated, their confidence never grew, and he worked 60-hour weeks.

When he tried the 70% Rule bydelegating drafts and only providing light edits, two things happened:

The reports still met client expectations (some even praised the speed they received them).
His team’s writing improved rapidly, closing the gap toward his own standard.

Try It This Week

Pick one task you usually hold onto because “no one does it like me.”
Delegate it to the person who you think could do it according to the 70% Rule.
Accept that it won’t be perfect and resist the urge to snatch it back.
Give feedback after the fact, not during. Aim it at achieving the end goal, not making them your clone.

Watch what happens over time: both your workload and your perfectionism shrink.

Final Thought

Delegation isn’t about lowering standards, it’s about raising capacity. The 70% Rule frees you to lead where you’re needed most, while giving your team the chance to grow into leaders themselves. Remember you were once the person whom the boss had to empower a treasured task to.

Perfection isn’t scalable. Delegation is.

📘 Learn more practical delegation tools and frameworks in my new book,

Delegate Smarter, Lead Better: Build Capable Teams That Deliver.