Delegating - May 2nd

It's always better to delegate what you can.

I have known this principal in theory for sometime... but sometimes theory is not the same as practice. I had lunch with a friend and mentor today who was helping me to brainstorm about my upcoming team leaders meeting. We were discussing how to get more people to the meeting and he had a brilliant suggestion. He suggested that I invite 10 leaders to call 4 more leaders and invite them to the meeting and ask each of the 4 to invite a future leader.

This was delegation in practice. I made the initial 10 calls and asked each leader to make 4 more calls (I would provide them with the information and the 4 people to call). By doing this, I will be able to reproduce my efforts from 10 leaders to 50 (10+10x4) and then possibly even beyond that by having each of the 50 invite a future leader. The challenge and the opportunity is found in actually delegating the work. I could have personally made 40 calls without too much difficulty, but allowing the 10 leaders to make calls gives them an additional buy in (they are more likely to attend something that they are promoting) and it also gives me the freedom to concentrate on other efforts.

Lesson Learned: Delegating can be a blessing for me and for those that I am delegating to.