What does it mean that under-delegation warning signs?

Holding too much yourself creates bottlenecks, burnout, and prevents others (and systems) from developing capability.

Example: A senior engineer handles all production deployments because 'it's faster if I just do it.' Within six months, every release depends on their availability, the team has learned nothing about the deployment pipeline, and the engineer is burned out, working weekends, and resenting colleagues who leave at five. The engineer didn't fail to delegate because they were selfish. They failed to delegate because every individual decision to 'just do it myself' was locally rational. The system-level failure only becomes visible when you zoom out.

Try this: List every recurring task you personally handled in the last two weeks. For each one, answer: (1) Could someone or something else do this at 70% of my quality? (2) What would break if I were unreachable for a week? (3) Have I ever tried to hand this off, or did I assume it couldn't be? Count the items where the answer to #1 is yes but the answer to #3 is 'never tried.' That count is your under-delegation debt.