The Power Of DELEGATION

“Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions:” Matthew 10:1–5 (NIV)

Lately, God has been placing me in the presence of many leaders. Some old and some young. The problem I’ve identified with these leaders are that they are stressed. They are dealing with the pressures and challenges of leadership and it’s quite simply overwhelming. In some ways I guess I can see myself in these leaders. I’ve too, dealt with stress and was on a close verge to burning out very early. The reason I was always so stressed was because I didn’t delegate. I had an awesome team around me but I wasn’t utilizing my team. Which caused me to be stressed and them to be frustrated. They wanted work and I was trying to get rid of work. I wouldn’t share the load of responsibilities with my team, which always damaged me someway in the long run. God has given you a team for a reason. An acronym for TEAM is Together Everyone Achieves More. If we as leaders would just simply utilize our team we wouldn’t be as stressed out. Many of us think our team is lazy but they’re not! They’re not lazy, you’re just foolish! You won’t share the work with the team. We need to start learning how to delegate. What is delegation? To delegate means to entrust a task or responsibility to a person. It’s okay to delegate. I’ve realized that it’s hard for a team or certain individual to burnout when everyone’s contributing and sharing the load of work. Yet, I don’t see many leaders delegate. Moses didn’t delegate. His father in law, Jethro recognized it and confronted him about it. He told Moses he needed to start building a team and utilizing that team or he was going to burnout and the people right along with him. Moses was doing EVERYTHING!Moses needed to delegate. He was doing everything which wasn’t good for him. Many leaders are like Moses, they do EVERYTHING and very little do they allow someone else to do it and help them out. Here are some reasons why some leaders don’t delegate.

Why Some Leaders Don’t Delegate…

1. They really love doing the task
2. They don’t have time to train somebody to do the job
3. They possess a “if you want something done right do it yourself” mentality
4. They think giving up a task will be giving up their control
5. They think they can do it better
6. They are too prideful and stubborn to ask for help
7. They fear someone might do the job better than they can
8. They lack confidence in their teammates ability and can’t afford to take a risk on such a delicate task

Those are the reasons (along with many more) why people don’t delegate. So fear, time, insecurity, pride, passion and the wrong mindset causes leaders not to delegate. Believe it or not but even Jesus Himself delegated tasks. In our opening scripture, Jesus was about to send His disciples out to do some Kingdom Work. Believe it or not but delegating maximizes our effort, impact and energy. We can get a lot more done rather than just one person doing it. One person has limits, but a team working together becomes limitless. Jesus couldn’t do everything by Himself. Even though He was the Son of God, He was still only one person. That’s why He later sent the Holy Spirit to be in all of us. Jesus could get a lot more done for the Kingdom when He sent out the disciples in different places. I’ve realized Jesus did three things when delegating.

How Jesus Delegated:

1. Power
2. Instructions
3. Trust

When Jesus delegated such a great task to His disciples, the first thing He did was give them power. The scripture says He “gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” You as a leader can’t be afraid to give up power. Give your team the necessary resources, training or information that’s necessary for them to properly and successfully complete the task. Another thing Jesus did was He gave them a list of certain instructions. What to do if this happened or didn’t happen. Great leaders are always anticipatory! We’re always aware of potential problems and we let our team know those things beforehand. Great leaders not only know how to solve problems but they can anticipate problems. Lastly, Jesus trusted His disciples to do what He sent them out to do. No where in the scripture do we see that Jesus spied on His disciples. He didn’t micromanage them. He gave them power, instructions and He trusted them to do what they were told. We must follow the example of Jesus. Here are some basic key principles we need to follow whenever we’re delegating.

Keys To Successfully Delegating:

*Select the right person
*Give them the right job
*Empower them with what they need to do the job right
*Trust them to do what’s right
*Place a deadline on the job
*Don’t micromanage
*Focus on the results not their process

These are some principles we must follow in delegating. But before you start delegating tasks left and right- there’s something you should know. You can’t delegate EVERY task. There’s certain tasks that shouldn’t be delegated. Jesus could send out His disciples to heal but He couldn’t delegate His cross. HE had to die on the cross- He couldn’t send Peter to do it. That was HIS God ordained calling. There’s certain things leaders shouldn’t delegate. But what are those things?

Things Leaders Shouldn’t Delegate:

1. Anything that is important, urgent and fully requires you. (If it’s in your job description to do it and it’s necessary for you to be present and productive — don’t delegate it.)
2. Vision (Leaders cannot delegate the vision. It’s okay to align your team with the vision. But to cast or work towards the fulfillment of a vision — you MUST be involved!!! You can’t exclude yourself from your vision!)
3. Hiring process (You need to be there when it comes down to selecting the right person for your organization. Don’t allow people to do this that don’t understand the culture, values and mission of the organization.)
4. Praise and recognition (Don’t allow anyone to ghostwrite an appreciation letter, speech or email for an employee. Make sure everything you do is HEARTFELT.)
5. Discipline and people development (You cannot be afraid to confront an individual. Confronting an underperforming employee must be done by the leader- not by someone else. When you do that people will lose all respect for you. Training and developing the team should also be done by you.)
6. Crisis and confidential matters (Problems and private information should be things you want to handle and address personally.)

This list may make you feel like- dang Kyler, what can I delegate? If that’s what you’re thinking, check this out. Here’s a list of things leaders can and should delegate.

Things Leaders Should Delegate:

1. Stressful and time consuming tasks
2. Jobs others would be better at doing or would possibly enjoy doing
3. Routine tasks
4. Things you are not responsible for/are not in your job description to do
5. A task that will provide exposure and will help strengthen an underdeveloped skill within an individual
6. For once give up a job you love doing! Don’t be afraid to share every once in awhile.

These are things that are okay to delegate. Everyone on a team should have a specific role to play. Just like every joint in the body has a role to play to properly function. The foot, the hands, the eyes, the mouth, the head, etc. all has a different role to play but it makes up the whole body. Every person on the team should be contributing something to make up THE WHOLE body of the organization. We are one team with different functions. We are all connected to each other and we all need each other to survive. It’s the leaders responsibility to not do all the work but to delegate tasks and let everyone help out. That way if we’re all playing our role no one can get overwhelmed, stressed, depressed, frustrated or burnout. Leaders we must understand the power of teamwork! Teamwork makes the dreamwork! Not only must we understand the power of teamwork but The Power Of Delegation!