Delegate to Win

Have you ever been surprised by something in your refrigerator?

I don’t mean a leftover that was once a good color but is now a bad color.

This morning, I was puzzled by a package of turkey burgers.

I quickly realized that I had sent my daughter to the grocery store with a list that included “chicken burgers”, but when she couldn’t find them, she made a command decision to improvise.

This reminded me of an important leadership lesson about delegation.

Delegation doesn’t mean that your intended task will be accomplished EXACTLY the way you would’ve done it.

By delegating, you can be freed up to do work that ONLY YOU CAN DO while developing the abilities and accountability of your helper.

I didn’t react negatively to the gobble burgers by exclaiming, “No, that’s not right.”

Instead, I paused to appreciate how her shopping excursion afforded me time.

I used that time to shoot an educational video that will help hundreds of our talent optimization consultants—my true passion.

I also commended her real-time judgment both as a means of making a micro-deposit into our “relationship account” and as encouragement for her to repeat this behavior in her work and life.

What will you delegate today and to whom?