Upon investigation, it turned out that during vacations, lower-level managers were covering their accounts “up”—in other words, asking supervisors to take calls or meetings for them. On the surface this seemed reasonable, but the practice was stretching our directors thin and depriving our associates of major opportunities for growth. Learning to delegate is one of the toughest challenges facing new managers, and it is a skill that's critical to making a successful transition from strong individual contributor to team leader. However, as in sports, if players/employees practice and never get real game time, they can’t get better. This proved a problem when the time came for those same managers to find someone to promote.

Source: Forbes November 21, 2017 12:56 UTC