Why can't I delegate without holding onto control?

You can hand over the task, but not the authority that should travel with it — so you assign the work and then hover, correct, and keep the real power in your own hands. That is not delegation. It is supervision wearing delegation's clothes, and it does not actually free you or grow anyone. Here is the knot. A task without the authority to make its own calls is not owned by the person doing it. They are just holding your steering wheel while you keep both hands on it too. Real delegation means letting someone decide, and sometimes decide differently than you would. If you cannot release that, you have not lightened your load — you have only spread your grip. Pick one thing this week and give it away fully — the task and the authority to run it. Say plainly: this is yours, make the calls, come to me if you are stuck. Then let them do it imperfectly. The discomfort you feel is the price of actually being able to let go.