Did Mark Twain Believe In Delegation?

By Author: Ronen Cohen
Total Articles: 3
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Let me ask you
Can you borrow time?
Can you hoard time?
Can you earn more time?

Unfortunately the answer is NO.

However, you can:
Invest time
Organise time
Spend time or
WASTE time

How are you spending your time - time to think

Research has shown that most managers are reluctant to delegate.

Why are managers reluctant to delegate?

They take comfort in routine tasks
They don't trust their subordinates
They are fearful of the consequences of mistakes
They have a misconception - it is quicker to do it yourself than the time it will take to show the staff member how to do it

Isn't it short term thinking?

Let's learn a lesson in delegation from Mark Twain

He said, To be good is noble and to teach others how to be good is nobler and much less trouble. He had Tom Sawyer exemplify the point in his book - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Do you remember when Tom had to white wash Aunt Polly's picket fence?

What did his friends want to do?

Play!

But ...
... he influenced them into believing that only the lucky one would be allowed to partake in the wonderful sport of fence painting.

Tom supervised while others did the painting
What a master of delegation. If you can master this skill you will dramatically increase your work out put.

Your output changes from what you can do to what you can control

Good delegators give their juniors as much responsibility and authority as they are able to accept but at the same time maintain control. Paradoxically good delegators increase their own power by sharing it with others.

However, you have made an assumption
When you talk about delegation you are thinking that you have a staff to whom you can delegate. However, a key responsibility of your role is - you have to develop your staff for greater challenges in the future.

Therefore,
giving them increased responsibility and more demanding work, which may be routine for you is an excellent way of developing them. More over, it also frees you of some valuable time so that you can focus on critical areas.

After all

We all have 24 hours in a day. Time is the scarcest resource. Moreover, delegation is a high performance leadership style that produces long term results - then why not delegate?

Ronen Cohen is the Visionary-in-Chief of First level Leadership Inc. An audio learning hub helps you to learn about leadership development, leadership traits, employee motivation, leadership styles and much more.