This seems to be a very naive view of the way people and organizations work. It is quite typical for managers to delegate projects/efforts/initiatives to a sub

This seems to be a very naive view of the way people and organizations work. It is quite typical for managers to delegate projects/efforts/initiatives to a subordinate for the express purpose of giving them an opportunity to develop and demonstrate the skills they will need in a future position/promotion. If I assigned a stretch opportunity to one of my direct reports and their response was that they needed a promotion before they would do that work, that would be strong evidence that they were not going to be progressing anytime soon.