day 341: Delegating

Delegation is one of the hardest skills to teach a new manager or team member. There are a lot of reasons why this is so hard. Mostly, the barriers are excuses that are unfounded. When we hear, "Everyone else is too busy", or, "I don't really have anyone who can do what I do", what is really being said is "I like doing the things I do", "I am good at them", and "If I give them to someone to else, what will I do?" There is also the worry about a loss of recognition by others if someone else does something better than we do. It's a very odd phenomena because delegation is one of the secrets to really being happy within one's work. Those who delegate well are typically the ones who others respect the most, want to work with first, and who gain a reputation as a developer and leader of people. But, still most people hang onto as much work as they can, even to the point of overloading and burdening themselves into burnout mode. This is not a new problem. In the earliest writings of the Bible we are told the story of Moses who after leaving Egypt found himself from morning to night listening to the problems of the people and doing nothing else. It was not until his father-in-law Jethro came to visit him and I imagine had a talk with Moses like some of us have had with our elder relatives who come and visit and we are too busy at work to spend any time with them. Jethro told Moses that he was burning himself out and at the same time the long line of people waiting each and every day was causing a lot of discontent. He told Moses to delegate by picking judges who could handle the routine and mundane complaints and then Moses would be freed up and could focus on the harder problems. So Moses took Jethro's advice and created a system of delegating. His system, by the way, was very analytically based and one to observe on how to break down work by people and numbers. From that day on, Israel had a system of judges and Moses was freed up to get back to his other leadership duties. Are you struggling with delegating today? If you are, think about these simple concepts: if you there are things that you do routinely, things that you like doing and things that you are already good at doing; then these are the things that you should delegate. Others want to learn and they want to do more than you imagine or they tell you. If you give them something that they know you like, then they will feel good about that. It took Jethro harping on him for Moses to see that he needed to delegate. What will it take for you to see?

Reference: Exodus Chapter 18: 13-27 (New Living Testament)