Tag: delegating

My Competence Is My Enemy

When Strength Becomes Weakness

Your hard work, education, and self-discipline have paid off. Congratulations for rising to a position of authority and leadership! People respect you. Your competence is often sought by others, both within your organization and by others in your industry and even outside your industry.Competence Tug of War

But now you’ve hit a plateau. The opportunities are there but you can’t seem to grow your organization fast enough to meet the demand. You recognize the bottleneck is leadership. You can’t find enough skillful leaders that you can trust to make good decisions. So every issue gets pushed up to a few very busy people.  Maybe it’s only one person: You. Continue reading My Competence Is My Enemy

Deciding Who Does What

Leveraging Assignments for Growth

Deciding Who Does What

If you’re like most people trying to decide who to assign a task to, you start by identifying who is best equipped to do the job. They’ve done it before, they’ll get it done quicker, and it will take you less time  to explain what needs done. It’s a natural starting point, but not necessarily the best ending point for deciding who does what. Continue reading Deciding Who Does What

Don’t Answer That!

Questions Leaders Should Try Hard Not to Answer

We love having the answers. It’s an ego boost to know what to do when others don’t. But just because you know the answer, doesn’t mean you should give it when someone asks.

“Answer That” Scenario

Chris is Brett’s boss. Brett’s working on a project and encounters a problem. So Brett goes to Chris and asks what he should do. Chris, having been in similar circumstances, gives Brett a great answer. Brett take Chris’ advice and successfully solves the problem. What will Brett do the next time he has a problem? He’ll think, “I know, I’ll ask Chris!”. And Chris will probably give him another great answer.

What’s wrong with this scenario? Nothing, as long as Chris wants to continue to be the organization’s bottleneck, making all the decisions. Brett (and undoubtedly, many other Bretts in the organization) is being programmed to push every decision up to Chris.

Don't Answer That

Let’s try another approach. Continue reading Don’t Answer That!

The Decisions You Shouldn’t Make

…Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

Leaders tend to be busy people.  A corollary is that leaders tend to be bottlenecks in most organizations.  Good leaders learn to delegate – not just to get the tasks done, but because they see delegation as a tool for developing people.

Decision making bottleneck
(c) Can Stock Photo / jgroup

So let’s say you’ve mastered delegating tasks and are seeing people rise up to do things that you used to think could only be done by you.  Much to your surprise, some have proven better at those tasks than you ever were.  You’re no longer a bottleneck, right? Continue reading The Decisions You Shouldn’t Make