Or it's showing genuine respect for your employee's job, autonomy and skillset, and implicitly acknowledging that you probably aren't going to do as good a job

Or it's showing genuine respect for your employee's job, autonomy and skillset, and implicitly acknowledging that you probably aren't going to do as good a job as they would. "Mind if I take this call?" could easily be met with "would you mind taking the one afterwards? I know who's dialling in and we're just wrapping up a long-running issue"