I used to love saying, “if you want a job done properly, do it yourself”.
But what that really said was, “I’m a terrible delegator”.
And I was.
When we first move into management roles, we’re typically bad delegators.
We’ve often been promoted because we’re good at doing the work.
So, once we become managers, we dabble in delegation, get disappointed with the results and reflexively resort to doing more of the work ourselves.
What we must do instead is work on developing our delegation skills.
When we delegate well, we scale up our impact.
And we get a clear view of someone’s performance.
If they’re performing well, great! Tell them!
If they’re not performing well, address it head on: provide the person with coaching, support and accountability until they improve. And, if they don’t, performance manage them.
Either way, deal with the problem properly.
Don’t just take on more and more work yourself.
Because effective delegation is essential to scaling up our impact. And maintaining a healthy work life balance.
So, instead of saying “if you want a job done properly, do it yourself”… try “if you want a job done properly, delegate it properly”.
