Difficult decisions are part of leadership. Restructures, reduced budgets, changes in direction, unpopular policies or simply telling people something they don't want to hear sometimes come with the territory.

Yet the person with the authority to make the decision isn't always the person asked to communicate it. Instead, the conversation is delegated. Someone further down the organisation is left explaining and defending a decision they didn't make, may not entirely agree with and often doesn't have enough information to answer the inevitable questions that follow.

The senior leader avoids an uncomfortable conversation, but also loses something valuable. The opportunity to explain the rationale, hear the reaction first hand and take visible ownership of the consequences.

Delegating communication isn't always wrong, large organisations couldn't function otherwise. But there is a difference between cascading information and outsourcing the discomfort of leadership.

If a decision is important enough to make, sometimes it's important enough to stand in front of people and own.