Delegation
Never mind, I'll just write this post myself
Some people have no trouble telling other people what to do. This post is not for those people.
If you are a member of the rest of humanity, though, you may have a problem delegating to other people. Usually, delegation hesitation comes from a thought process such as:
“Oh, they aren’t going to want to do that.”
“Between explaining how to do it and correcting it when they bring it back, it’s just quicker for me to do it myself.”
“If they do it wrong, I might have to TELL them they did it wrong, and then they might HATE me!”
“No matter how well I explain it, they won’t do it the right way… which is MY way.”
If you recognize your own internal monologue above, I want you to consider how you could change that monologue. Try to retrain your brain so you can delegate tasks to free up your time for the things only you can do, while at the same time teaching others valuable skills they will need for their careers or their daily lives. If you are concerned they don’t want to do something, ask yourself if it would be GOOD FOR THEM to know how to do it well, and then give them some “tough love” to help them grow. This is good for BOTH of you—they develop a skill that will help them succeed, and you free up more of your own time to do the things only you can do.
If you are concerned that they won’t do it right and/or it’s just faster to do it yourself, focus on how their competence can be grown over time. They might not do it perfectly the first time, so we’ll call that the “first draft.” We can then give them feedback to help them revise that first draft. It might take more time than just doing it yourself that first time. It might even take more time than just doing it yourself that second time. We’re training them for that THIRD TIME, that fourth time, and all the times after that, because once they have developed that competency, you can trust them to do it right. And that frees up more time for you to do other things right.
Start small and work up to larger things. Good luck!