Leader's Toolbox Part 1: The Art of Delegation

del·e·gate: to assign responsibility or authority

As I'm experiencing ministry and serving in "real time," I am learning and seeing different skills that are essential for leaders to develop. The first skill that my Pastor/mentor(Pastor Brandon) was able to stretch me in was Delegation.

In the beginning, this was very uncomfortable and difficult for me. Hearing and receiving orders to do something from a higher authority? Easy for me. But receiving orders and delegating those to your peers and others to do them? Okay....

One example was this past Wednesday at the FUSE setup. Everything-the puzzles, the pieces, and the building blocks were all waiting in the foyer of the humble abode of New Hope Leeward (NHL).

They just needed to be assembled, like a LEGO project screaming for the satisfaction of being built.

Soooo.....Pastor Brandon told me certain responsibilities that needed to be done and asked me to delegate that to some of my peers. It was a new feeling, a new sense of perspective. For once, I was not just receiving orders to do myself: instead, I delegated and in turn gave out responsibilities for my peers to do.

At first my mind was racing...

What am I going to do?! How do I assign these tasks to people? Calm down, Zachary, calm down...what needs to be done? There, that person over there. Assign me that task...Wait, don't forget about that task also. Is this a good decision? Where should this be placed?

All these questions were racing in my mind in a split second. I was moving and running all over the place! But then, I had to just buckle down and take charge. I started thinking of the tasks that needed to be done and assigned them to people. People would come up to me and ask,

"Zach, where does this go?" or "Zach, is there anything else that needs to be setup?"

I enjoyed the rush and thrill of processing in my mind what tasks were done and assigning the ones that still needed to be done.

Now, I am not advocating a sense of individualism or superiority in leadership. However, I learned that as a leader, I need to be able to delegate or assign responsibilities to others to start on or finish. Because as a leader,

I can't do EVERYTHING on my own.

I must avoid gravitating towards that mentality,

"Ugh, it'll be faster and more efficient if I do it all by myself." or

"No, I want it done my way! I can handle everything--everything is okay! Leave me ALONE!"

But that is dangerous, as I can easily tire myself and burnout. Efficiency will not be at the maximum capacity, because there is no collective teamwork involved. A self-centralization (where one person is a dictator and does everything) is not as efficient as delegation of tasks (where a leader is assigning responsibilities to others and working together as a team).

Delegation is skill that I am still in the process of developing. But I think it is essential to the skills that a leader should develop in their toolbox.

What's in yours?