I started reading this article this morning as I was planning my activities for the day. Delegating is a huge issue for me, in part for some of the reasons Kent states in the article, but also in part because I have prided myself at being ‘a working manager.’ I don’t ask my staff or others to do anything that I haven’t done, wouldn’t do, or couldn’t do myself.
The problem with that notion is that as a simply practical matter we can’t, despite our best intentions, do everything. I know that it seems self evident, but for me it continues to be a challenging idea in practice.
And it’s not because I’m a doer either, my wife and father in law are both doers, they can’t sit still. I think in part I fear asking for help, and thus appearing to be weak and needy.
Clearly I am neither, but fear is an interesting thing, and if we aren’t careful about it, we can be manipulated by others as a result. Kevin Mitnick made a career out of it through ‘social engineering’ his book, The Art of Deception, an excellent read, is a seminal work on the subject.
Anyway, delegating to get things done is a practice that I continue to work in and hopefully someday will master.
Read the article don’t delegate it to someone else to read.