The Governor's Island

The Unlikely Governor

One of the best episodes in Don Quixote is when Sancho Panza is finally given what he was promised: an island to govern.

Everyone expected him to fail. He was uneducated, simple, a squire. The Duke who arranged it meant it as a joke—entertainment for his court.

But something unexpected happened. Sancho governed wisely.

He resolved disputes with common sense. He created practical rules. He cared about the people. The “joke” governor turned out to be more effective than many real ones.

He didn’t need a manual. He needed trust and context.

Sound Familiar?

Most PMs struggle with delegation—not because they don’t want to delegate, but because they don’t trust the outcome.

Picture your Tuesday morning. You told the team last week that onboarding redesign was theirs to own. You meant it. But now the designer posts an early concept in Slack, and before you even think about it your fingers are typing: “Love the direction—just a few thoughts on the layout, the copy, the illustration style, and maybe the flow order.” A few thoughts. You’ve just reviewed every decision in the project. That’s not delegation—that’s delegation theater, and your team can tell the difference.

An hour later you check in on the engineer building the backend for that same flow. She’s moving fast, but something feels off. You realize you never told her why this project matters, what the success metric is, or that legal has constraints on data collection during onboarding. You said “build the onboarding flow” and assumed the rest was obvious. It wasn’t. Now the work is heading somewhere you didn’t intend, and the gap isn’t her skill—it’s the context you kept in your head.

By afternoon the first usability results come back and they’re rough. Completion rates are low. Your stomach drops. You could let the team dig into the data and iterate—that’s what ownership means—but instead you pull the project back to your own plate. “It’s just faster if I do it myself.” Maybe. But your team just learned something: when it gets hard, you’ll take it back. Next time they won’t invest fully, because why would they?

Then comes the stakeholder meeting. The team lead asks if she can present the findings to the VP. You hesitate. “I should probably handle that one—I know how he thinks.” And maybe you do, for now. But if only you can talk to leadership, only you can interpret the data, only you can make the call—then you haven’t built a team. You’ve built a dependency with your name on it.

Control feels safe. But safety and results aren’t the same thing.

The Sancho Approach

Sancho governed well because he was given the right conditions:

1. Give the Island, Not Instructions

The Duke didn’t give Sancho a playbook. He gave him an island and said: govern. Sancho used his own judgment.

The test: When you delegate, are you sharing the outcome and context, or are you writing a step-by-step script? If you’re scripting, you’re not trusting.

2. Common Sense Beats Credentials

Everyone assumed Sancho would fail because he lacked formal education. His practical wisdom proved more valuable.

The shift: The engineer, designer, or analyst closest to the problem often sees solutions you can’t. Their lack of “PM experience” doesn’t mean lack of judgment.

3. Let Them Stumble (Within Bounds)

Sancho made some mistakes as governor. He learned from each one. If someone had overridden every decision, he would never have grown into the role.

The rule: Define the blast radius, not the steps. “If it’s reversible, decide and tell me after. If it’s not, let’s talk first.”

4. Trust Creates Ownership

When Sancho realized the island was really his responsibility, he took it seriously. Ownership followed trust.

The question: Does your team feel like owners or executors? The difference usually isn’t them—it’s how much space you give them.

Signs You’re Not Trusting

Watch for these patterns:

• You’re in every meeting—if nothing can happen without you, that’s not leadership, it’s dependency
• Everything needs your approval—decisions queue up waiting for you
• People ask permission instead of forgiveness—your team won’t take initiative
• You’re the bottleneck—work slows when you’re busy or on vacation

Each is a sign you’re holding the island instead of governing it.

The Delegation Test

Be honest with yourself:

• Can your team ship a feature without your approval? If not, you’re the bottleneck.
• Do people come to you for decisions they could make themselves? If yes, you haven’t given them enough context.
• Could you take a week off without anything stalling? If not, you’ve built a dependency, not a team.
• When someone makes a call you disagree with, do you override or coach? If you override, trust hasn’t landed yet.

The answers might surprise you.

The Island You’re Holding

Sancho only became a great governor because someone let him try.

Your team might have their own islands in them—practical wisdom, creative solutions, better judgment than you expect. But they’ll never show it if every decision runs through you.

Give them the island. Share the context. Set the boundaries. Then step back.

You might be surprised who governs well.

Put this into practice

Delegate outcomes, not tasks. The Stakeholder Map helps you align the right people with the right decisions.

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