The Art of Delegation

Delegating authority, not tasks, is crucial to the success of the organization. Leaders who delegate tasks create a group of helpers. They aren’t inspired. They aren’t living up to their fullest potential. They are just following what the leader tells them to do.

Leaders who delegate authority give people the freedom and the responsibility to produce results. These leaders don’t dictate how the job needs to get done. Instead they inspire and equip their staff. They give them everything they need to be successful including the freedom to get the job done.

Leaders who only delegate tasks ultimately become a single point of failure in an organization. This can happen for a couple of reasons. 

One reason I commonly see is that leaders don’t want to delegate because they feel they can do the job better or faster than their staff. This might be true, but it’s irrelevant. Instead, the goal is to make your staff better at it than you are. I love to celebrate the moment that one of my staff members is better than I am at something. It’s so satisfying to see that level of growth in someone. 

The second reason why I often see leaders not properly delegate is ego. Being busy and feeling like the center of it all can make a leader feel important. When a leader talks about being busy it’s usually a statement of importance. But when a leader is overly busy, I actually become worried for them. It’s often because they haven’t delegated well.

If too many things depend on the leader, the business will start to slow down. This becomes a big problem and it can severely limit the success of the business. If the revenue grows faster than the staff who have the delegated authority to act, then the business is in trouble. Instead, great leaders know that in order to develop a successful business, you need to delegate authority and equip and support your leaders to be successful.

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