When I was a young leader, an older mentor had lunch with me and said, “Unless you can learn to delegate, you’re not going to get far.”
First a word to leaders about delegation, then one to followers.
LEADERS:
There are lots of reasons to not delegate, but a big one that isn’t talked about much is guilt. When I was younger, I felt bad delegating tasks that I didn’t like doing and wasn’t good at, because I didn’t want to burden people on my team with terrible jobs that (I assumed) all people hated. So I soldiered on alone and did it badly.
What I didn’t know then and do now is that SOMEONE LOVES WHAT YOU LOATHE. I truly hate HATE juggling schedules and appointments, booking flights, and making arrangements. Also I’m terrible at it. My long time assistant (12 years at time of writing) Carol taught me something. Many times she’s told me that it is fun for her to make all the puzzle pieces work and come together. Amazing to me that someone could enjoy doing that. Someone loves what you loathe.
FOLLOWERS:
If you want your leader to love you, figure out how to lighten their load. What do you love doing that could make their life easier?
Your leader should be doing the jobs that only they can do. Ideally everything else should be delegated to the team. Consider volunteering your skills to take on a job that would challenge you and free them up.
I offer a course on delegation which you can find here: https://professionalleadershipinstitute.com/course/how-to-delegate/
Get good at empowering people through delegation and the world can be yours 🙂
Getting ahead is about getting started.
