JUST PUDGE

I HATE the word delegate!

Why?

Because many times the only person it empowers and grows, is the leader. Ironically though, the leader’s job is to grow their team.

Delegating doesn’t excite me, but giving my team ownership does. It’s a thin line, but there is a big difference between the two.

Here are a few ‘compare and contrast’ examples of what I mean…

Delegation

• Handing out tasks or assignments to get them done quicker on case by case basis
• Frees the leader up to do more temporarily
• Empowers no one
• Puts more on the leader
• Takes no time at all, but has to be repeated many times
• Easy to implement
• Builds a team of “assistants to’s…”

Giving ownership

• Teaching people to think through tasks or assignments so they can always do them
• Enables the whole team to do more (as well as the leader) over the long term
• Empowers the team
• Puts more on the team
• Take longer time initially, but less time down the road
• Difficult to implement
• Grows a team of leaders

I could go on, but I think you see where I am going. And please hear me on this; there are times to delegate and times to give ownership.

We can’t do one or the other ALL the time. I am saying that many times, if we aren’t careful, we will begin to (unintentionally) mix the two and our teams may suffer.

Me, I’m still learning how to do this more everyday and by no means do I have it down. This is just me sharing what God is teaching me as a leader and hopefully it will help you like it has me…?!?

What are some other ways we can ‘give ownership?’ What experiences can you share that would help us grow in this even more? Share with us!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 9:21 am and is filed under LEAD, CREATE, COMMUNICATE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.