Get Help! Delegate!
I've been volunteering for a not-for-profit organization lately. It's a business organization that I've supported in the past (even serving on the board of directors for several years). I took on the task of leading a small committee because the board member who had been charged with this role had quit in frustration.
So for the past couple of months, I've been learning the committee's functions, essentially by performing them all myself. You see, my predecessor didn't actually have a committee. Instead she had a page full of tasks that she scrambled to accomplish every month all by herself. She found the whole experience to be joyless and burdensome so it should be no great surprise to anyone that she decided to give it up.
Imagine what her experience might have been like if she had only asked for help! There are plenty of volunteers that show up month after month at breakfast meetings and classes for this organization. What if she had organized the tasks, created clear roles, and called for help? What if she had clearly described the importance of her committee's tasks, helped volunteers enjoy the experience of contributing, praised those who stepped forward, and made the whole experience pleasurable for herself and a team of volunteers?
Her experience and the quality of her contribution would have been very different. Instead of leaving an organization in the lurch, she would have created a functioning committee full of volunteers who had started to develop loyalty and commitment to the organization. Those volunteers might even have wondered what it would be like to serve on the board of directors and her mentoring might have prepared them for that next step.
As leaders in our businesses and places of employment, we are asked to create productive, high-functioning teams. (Of course employees are given tangible paychecks whereas volunteers often receive intangible payment for their service.) However, any time we want to develop a team, we have to be willing to delegate. Whether working with volunteers or employees, the obstacles that prevent us from delegating are likely similar:
We think it will take too long to train someone
We believe that the task is too menial to delegate
We fear that someone else will make mistakes
We want to look indispensable
We fear that someone else might do it better or faster
You can spot the managers who don't delegate: They're swamped, burned out and cranky. So here's your challenge: take a look at the tasks that are weighing you down and call for help! Determine what you want to delegate, who might benefit from handling the task, and what information needs to be conveyed when you assign it. Offer resources and support. Set a check-in date so you can follow up.
Then step aside and allow others to contribute under your guidance. What a satisfying feeling you'll have, getting the work done and building a productive team. Your organization will thank you for it.
