“Delegation is the celebration of the untapped potential in others.”
How did we get so far off track? How did we come to the understanding that delegation was the minimizing of our power and our control? That the limits of what was possible in our organizations were limited to what we can do or the extent of our foreseeable will to work even harder?
Maybe it is the season of my life. Maybe it is the fact that one of my core values is “mudita” (enjoying the success of others more than your own success). Maybe it is working with so many good-hearted leaders who reach the point of wanting to just shut down or check out. Or seeing leaders come to the painful reality that the most precious people in their lives are not getting the best of them, but simply the rest of them. Whatever the reason, I am ready to take a stand for delegation.
Healthy delegation, in its’ purest form, is a gift to both the giver and receiver. It is a fulcrum we can use to multiply our impact and find the realization of success beyond our finite strength and ability. It is the doorway to unlocked potential in our teams and unrealized capacity in our leadership.
There are some fundamental facts you should know.
Every 15-minute daily task that you can hand off gives you back the equivalent of 1 1/2 weeks of your year
Those 15 daily minutes turn into the equivalent of 3,600 minutes a year
Here is the painful reality, though: most of us will never successfully delegate much of anything.
We live in a get-er-done, do-it-yourself kind of culture
We wrongly believe that no one will ever do it as well as we can
We believe our way is the only right way to do anything
We love controlling every aspect of everything
We operate as if everyone who works for us is inferior to us and their ideas or way of doing things pales to ours
But what is the path to delegation, if you were so inclined? What is required?
Assessment - Do they have the skill, margin, and passion for the task? Do they have the necessary tools and training?
Clarity - Have I made the expectations abundantly clear and documented the results and process needed?
Patience - they will not do it as well on the first or tenth time as you do in on your hundredth - but by their hundredth, they will likely do it slightly differently and possibly better than you do it now.
Humility - You need to be able to enjoy the success and growth of others more than yourself.
Time - Studies show it takes about 30 times the amount of time it takes to complete the task as it takes to successfully transition it (talking about it, documenting it, showing them how, watching them doing it, giving them course direction as they go, etc.)
You might be saying, “30 $#@*& times the amount of time?!? Forget it, I’ll just do it myself!” But if you keep doing it all yourself, you’re on the path to maintaining your current level or overwhelm, capping your company’s potential, and never really developing the hidden talent on your team.
Would you be willing to invest $450 dollars if you knew it would return $3,600 dollars to you every year from now on? Investing 450 minutes (30 times that 15-minute daily task) would yield you 3,600 minutes (1.5 weeks * 8 hrs a day * 60 minutes) over the next year and every one after.
Who wouldn’t make that investment if they knew the ROI of taking the steps necessary to make it happen?
Consider
What are the things that only you can do?
What are the things that you could and should hand off to someone else?
Do you think you can follow the steps and overcome the obstacles to receive that incredible ROI?