Outsourcing doesn’t outsource accountability

Section 4 : Clarity on the front end saves you on the back end

A lot of outsourced issues come down to one thing: unclear expectations. Vague direction, rushed timelines, loose definitions of “done.” And when the result comes back wrong, it feels like someone else dropped the ball. But in reality, the ball was never passed properly.

If you want to hold someone accountable, you have to give them something solid to be accountable to. Clear scope. Defined goals. Aligned timelines. When you give people guesswork, you get guesswork back. That’s not a failure of delegation. It’s a gap in leadership.

So before you hand anything off, ask yourself: have I made the outcome clear? Have I made the stakes clear? Because if not, you are not just outsourcing the task. You are outsourcing the likelihood of confusion. And no matter how skilled the person is, they cannot deliver what was never defined.