Delegation's nemesis

I learned a hard lesson on delegation some days ago; and it was not in a work setting. I was dropping a dear one to the airport and this person wanted to do a last check to see if everything had been packed correctly, ticket, wallet, phone and other stuff.

As everything was yanked out of the neatly packed backpack onto the rear seat of the car, I could see that it was not going to make it back in. I voiced my opinion and also suggested how it should be done.

At this point, the other party gave me a lesson in delegation, saying, "The issue is that if any job is not done the way you would have done it yourself, you presume that it is not done right."

I have to admit that this is true. Even when I thought I was delegating, I was probably manoeuvring the process to be done like I would do it. Sometime last year, in the course of a project at work, I had realized that my way was clearly sub-optimal and someone else had to come in and clean up the mess I had created. Yet I did not learn; not as well as when I heard that sentence a few weeks ago.

Letting go is not easy. But it is a skill one would do well to imbibe.