Well hello! It’s been a while that I’ve been able to push some content out here on the blog. But that’s yesterday, today is a new day. And this is a new post!
A couple weeks ago I came across this tweet in my Twitter feed from a friend Tim Schraeder. Tim usually has quality tweet material and this tweet is no different.
As a leader, it’s not your job to do everything but it is your job to make sure that everything get done. @joelabell #HillsongConf
— Tim Schraeder (@timschraeder) July 4, 2012
This tweet pretty much sums up the past few months of my life. I’ve been in a cycle of adding more (or getting more added) to my plate on a weekly basis. Which is pretty cool because I’ve been learning a lot! The other side of that coin though is that my attention starts to get pulled in different ways. Many different ways. Then all of the sudden I’m finding that I can’t do EVERYTHING well anymore.
So what are the options? Two things come to mind. One, I can keep control of everything and keep trying to do it my way and the way I think is right. The problem with this is eventually the quality of these “tasks” will start to drop drastically. I can’t do it all.
The other option? Give it away…Not like pass the responsibility off give it away, but empower, train, and equip someone to do the job who can do it, and hopefully do it better than me!
This can be a very foreign concept to Type A, controlling personalities; but it’s the only viable, sustainable option. If I’m leading well, I need to be training others to do the work. Like Tim quoted in the tweet above, my job is turning more into a role of making sure the work gets done, not necessarily doing it all.
One last thought. Some people can view this as the easy route. Thinking, “You are just telling people what to do.” And it probably might look like that from the outside. But I’m learning it’s harder (and just as much work) to lead and influence people to do a task then it is just to do it yourself.
So the question I leave you with today. What are you doing to empower others to do the work? What opportunity is someone missing out on because YOU are doing it?
