How to overcome your reluctance to delegate
1. Quotable quote
"Rarely can an organisation afford to risk its life by maintaining blockages. Sooner or later they must resort to surgery. Henry Ford is claimed to have said ‘if anyone is indispensable, fire him’. A little extreme perhaps; but it does get the message across that people who do not delegate actually impede an organisation’s progress. If they hog all the information to themselves and refuse to delegate, quite possibly they can’t be replaced. But they can’t be promoted either!"
2. Viewpoint
"You are not a manager if you do not delegate responsibility, just as you are not a pianist if you do not play a piano… If you insist on keeping your hand in the details all the time, you’ll discourage your subordinates by competing with them. The capable ones will leave you; the weak ones will sit back and let you do all the work."
3. Don't forget
The symptoms of poor delegators :
- Need to know all the details
- ‘I can do it better myself’ illusion
- Lack of experience in delegating
- Insecurity
- Poor planning
- Lack of objectives
- Slow decision-making
- Too large a span of control
- Believe delegating is a sign of weakness
- Fear of loss of control
- Constant pressure and confusion
- It doesn’t occur to you
- ‘My boss won’t …
