#5 February/March 2023

“If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.”

— John C Maxwell

How many times in your life, when thinking about delegating a task or activity have you thought ‘I will just do it myself it will be quicker’.

Well my hand is up here! On countless occasions I have thought this. And on most of those occasions I have completed the activity, ticked it off the to do list, felt a certain level of satisfaction, but then have felt a certain disappointment as I realised it should not have been on the to do list in the first place. It was not the thing that mattered most.

This month we have reached a family milestone, all of our three children are now adults. Raising my children has probably been the greatest learning experience I have had, going on the journey of caring for them, showing them how to do things for themselves, to them doing things on my behalf, to them doing things for me. I am now learning from them. Bringing up my children has both shown me the importance and power of discipleship.

So where am I going with this?, well, being effective in delegating is critical if we are to manage our time & energy well so that we do what matters most. But I would go further than that, we should be thinking about discipleship as we delegate. There is an opportunity for a ‘double win’, you delegate so you spend the majority of your time doing what matters most and also help others develop and flourish too.

Here are a few things that can prevent us from delegating, with discipleship in mind:

It is all about me.

I will just do it myself, it will be quicker. They won’t do it as well as I can.

Particularly when we are under pressure we can fall into these traps & be zoned into ‘just getting it done’. Now while there will be a time & place for ‘just get it done’ it can be easy just to fall into this mindset forever more.

The question we should be asking is not - can they do it as well as me?. We should be thinking can they achieve a result that will take things forward to the next step, or in fact could they do the task better than me?

We don’t have a growth mindset.

Tasks and activities we should be delegating are often those that we will have a good level of competence in. We can do them, we can do them well, we are comfortable in doing them. If we have no vision for growth and to develop ourselves, then we just get stuck doing these things and won’t delegate. But we will not make much progress either.

If we don’t have a vision for growth for ourselves, then we are also unlikely to have the same for others. Our form of delegation is more likely to be passing on things of limited value, that we should simply be deleting, or automating.

Too much ‘tell’ and no ‘show’

When my kids were growing up, there used to be ‘show and tell’ days at school. An opportunity for the kids to share with others what they have done over the weekend or holidays. Now they could have just been ‘tell’ days, a verbal instruction, but it was the ‘show’ element that was powerful, enabling the kids to visualise & put into context the tell.

A mistake we make when delegating is to just tell and not show. Demonstrating is a powerful tool that brings what we say to life. It takes extra time & thought but leads to quicker engagement and understanding, with less room for error, as the person you delegate learns to imitate how you do things.

So what can help us to delegate & disciple better…here are 3 ideas for you to consider.

1. Delegate the right things.

“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.”

— Jessica Jackley

Try to delegate things that you have mastered, but don’t reflect your unique contribution moving forward.

This keeps you learning, developing and focused on what’s ahead, but it also means you are delegating a task that matters, has value, & that you can ‘show’ how to do.

Effective delegation involves playing a longer game.

2. Don’t Shortcut the Discipleship process

The process outlined in the book Building a Discipleship Culture (Mike Been) is my favourite.

I do you watch
I do you help
You do I help.
You do & I Watch & cheer!

Sounds simple doesn’t it . But so often when we get to ‘You Do, I help’, it becomes, ‘You do, and I do something else’. We pass it on and try and make a quick exit. Stay the course until the person you are delegating too reaches a good level of competence. And then after that keep encouraging them!

3. The ‘Do Yourself out of a Job’ Mindset.

“Delegating means letting others become the experts and hence the best.”

— Timothy Firnstahl

Once we reach a level of competence and comfort, we can become protective of our job / position / role. We move into defensive mode and cease to delegate & disciple. We fear those around us, as we perceive them as threats to our current position.

The ‘Do Yourself out of a Job’ mindset, involves having a more ‘abundant’ view and faith that something new will come along that is better than your present situation. You are more open handed with what you have, happy to pass roles and responsibilities on in order to make space for ‘the next thing’

My personal experience over that last 20 years, is just that. As I have delegated/discipled and passed things on, new opportunities to be fruitful in life have opened up.

SO WHAT NEXT?

If you are struggling to delegate tasks well —> then perhaps consider these observations & ideas and see whether any resonate with you. If one does, then commit to simply taking one action that will lead to breakthrough. That could simply be identifying one task on your todo list that you know you should not be doing and look to delegate.

If you want help with this to gain some clarity, simply drop me a message to hello@fruitfulbeing.com.

If you want to remember these observations & ideas —> then an easy way to do this is to share them with someone else in the next few days. This will embed them into your thinking while helping someone else too.

I hope & pray it this ‘Pep Talk’ blesses you and motivates you to be more fruitful. Bye for now.

Every Blessing

James.