"It's quicker if I just do it myself."

Sound familiar? If you've caught yourself thinking this way, here's the uncomfortable truth: that instinct isn't dedication — it's a warning sign that you've become your organisation's biggest bottleneck.

The cost of controlling everything

When you insist on handling it all, you drown in daily tasks. Your team disengages, sensing they're not trusted. Every decision flows through you, and progress grinds to a halt.

What delegation really means

Delegation isn't dumping unwanted tasks on others. It's strategically assigning responsibility while staying accountable for outcomes. It's a fundamental leadership skill that requires trusting your authority to others, not a luxury you grant yourself when overwhelmed.

Why it matters?

• For you: delegation frees up mental space for strategic thinking. Instead of reacting to fires, you can finally be proactive. You'll build deeper trust with your team.
• For your team: being entrusted with meaningful work is transformational. People develop skills, grow professionally, and become resilient rather than dependent on you for every decision.
• For your organisation: effective delegation enables growth, lowers costs, and builds capacity. When leaders delegate well, they create systems that scale.

Your move

Start by accepting you can't control everything. Understand your team's strengths and match responsibilities to capabilities. Most importantly, define the outcome you want, then trust your team to determine how to get there.

Delegation isn't something you do when you feel ready. It's your fundamental responsibility as a leader. You owe it to your team, your organisation, and yourself.

Here's my challenge: identify one task on your plate that someone else could handle. Ask yourself what's truly stopping you. Then take that first step.

What's holding you back from delegating? Reply and share your challenges

~ Elle

To read the full article, visit https://blackmill.co/resources/delegation-is-your-responsibility

What’s been happening?

Elle at Yow! Brisbane

Elle will be at Yow! Brisbane in just over a week — Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th of December. If you’re around, come and say hi.

Leading Engineering Teams workshop

Our next Leading Engineering Teams workshop is running December 1–4. That’s literally next week!

Tickets remain available until midnight this Friday.

A Head of Engineering who attended at our LET workshop recently gave us this testimonial:

I came away from the Leading Engineering Teams workshop with many practical insights. Elle and Lachlan create a unique space that is fun, respectful, and open. The mix of concise pre‑recorded learning videos, live sessions with a small group, and reflective questions after each day made for a great learning experience. It was incredibly valuable to learn from their extensive experience leading teams and to practice real scenarios for the topics discussed alongside other participants.

This workshop reminded me of the book The Invisible Gorilla: without the right frameworks, questions, and focus, it’s easy to miss what matters with everything else going on. Each day provides you with applicable tools to understand your team better and improve culture, productivity, and collaboration.

Black Friday special for group coaching

Are you looking for ways to improve your leadership skills and team performance? Our second group coaching program is designed specifically for you!

A question we asked our last group coaching cohort is: “What’s one thing you’ll do differently because of this program?”

• Helping others think about change in different ways
• Managing my own productivity so I have a better foundation of time and energy to lead others.
• Always seek a group of external peers: I get a lot of energy, ideas and new reflections

With two IECL-certified coaches to facilitate and guide the sessions, you'll work with a small group of peers to explore specific areas related to leadership and team performance. The program includes an initial call, six online two-hour sessions, access to a private space, unlimited async access to your coach, and a wrap-up group call.

Anyone who signs up by the end of next week, Friday, December 5th, we offer three individual coaching sessions to complement the group work.

Learn more at https://blackmill.co/coaching-training/group-coaching. Or book an obligation free chat to explore your journey and your needs.

What are we reading?

• The most expensive sentence in personal development – Deborrah Ashley details her approach to selling your achievements when you’re scared selling yourself is bragging.
• Some notes on probability judgement – Danielle Navarro on the lyingness of how data is presented, even though the data itself is categorically true and presented in entirety and the methodology and sample size is good and rigorous. But it's still a bunch o' lies.
• stdlib – Andrew Murphy has put together a giant list of technical leadership resources.
• Beyond the binary: a critical examination of dichotomous thinking through philosophy, science, mathematics, and society – Dr Kibria explores the limitations of a binary worldview and argues for more nuanced and multi-dimensional frameworks.
• "Good engineering management" is a fad – Will Larson provokes, then pulls you to an interesting question: “what are the right skills to develop in to be effective today and to be impactful across fads?”

What are we cooking?

Muhammara — a capsicum dip

A fun one we found on Instagram recently: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQOuSqjkbLs/

Ingredients

• 3 red bell peppers (roasted and peeled)
• ¾ cup walnuts (lightly toasted) (we used blanched almonds)
• 1–2 tbsp pomegranate molasses (adjust to taste)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 garlic bulb (roasted)
• 1 tsp Aleppo pepper (or chili flakes)
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp salt (adjust to taste)
• 2 tbsp olive oil (plus more to drizzle)
• ½ cup fresh breadcrumbs
• Optional: 1 teaspoon smoked paprika for depth

Instructions

1. Roast the red peppers over open flame or in the oven at 220°C until charred. Peel the skin and let cool.

2. Toast walnuts in a dry pan until lightly golden and fragrant. Cool.

3. In a food processor, add roasted peppers, walnuts, breadcrumbs, garlic, cumin, salt, Aleppo pepper, lemon juice, and pomegranate molasses.

4. Blend until smooth but slightly textured.

5. Taste and adjust salt, lemon, or molasses if needed.

6. Serve in a shallow bowl, drizzle with olive oil and garnish with crushed walnuts or parsley/mint if desired.

Tips:

Use pomegranate molasses made with only pomegranate (no sugar or additives) for best flavour.

Bread crumbs can be omitted for a gluten-free version, but it adds that classic creamy body. We used gluten freen bread crumbs

Keeps 4–5 days in the fridge. Flavour deepens over time.

And we’re out

Thank you for showing an interest in our newsletter and we hope that you enjoyed the read. Feel free to contact us if you have any feedback, a burning question, or just a recipe that you would like to share.

Until next time, keep learning!

Everyone at Blackmill