Delegation Is Not A Dirty Word

Unique Ability as a way of life works only if you have other people around you to do your non-Unique Ability activities, freeing you up to do only what you love and do best. You might not relish the idea of relying on others, but doing everything yourself is no fun at all. Nor is it strategic.

But—and, yes, there are a few buts—many people don’t want to delegate or rely on others. It’s like they see delegation as a dirty word. I can hear the cries now:

“But how can I trust other people? What if they screw up?”
“But nobody can do it as well as I can!”
“But I don’t want to have to manage people!”
“But I don’t have time to show someone else how to do it.”
“But I feel guilty asking others to do such horrible things!”

And the list goes on. As the American novelist Richard Bach says, “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.”

Working at Strategic Coach, I’ve learned to operate in a different mode. We create a vision of what’s possible and then work through the obstacles to make it happen. Boom, it works.

With that in mind, start with a vision of working as much as possible in your Unique Ability. The next step is to find other people who have Unique Ability in areas where yours is lacking. Believe it or not, there are people out there who LOVE filing, paperwork, scheduling, creating processes, doing research, or anything else that might show up on your “icky” list. If you find these special people—and trust me, they’re out there—many of your issues will dissolve in one fell swoop.

People with a Unique Ability in the right areas can be trusted to do the job, they will do it even better than you could, they will find their own way to make it happen so you don’t even have to waste your breath, they’ll manage their own energy and results, and they’ll be driven by passion so there’s no guilt involved on your end. In fact, if you don’t delegate, you’ll actually be depriving them. And you wouldn’t want to deprive others of the opportunity to contribute their talents, would you?

So, what’s your vision for your life? How do you want it to be? What’s on your “icky” list? Find others who are excited by your vision and love to do those other things. And, I promise, you won’t think of delegation as a dirty word ever again.

Share your greatest obstacle to delegation with us in the comments, along with a possible strategy for overcoming it!