Delegation Isn’t About Weakness: It’s About Ego

When people ask me how to delegate tasks they’re weak at, I get pretty pissed.

Why?

Well, for one, you shouldn’t give a shit about your weaknesses. Leave them behind.

But most importantly in the context of the question: delegation isn’t about giving away your weaknesses. It’s about being a good leader and knowing when to let go.

If you approach delegation as a vehicle through which to pass on your weaknesses, you’re not getting what it means to run a much bigger organization. You aren’t going to be able to do every little bit of every project. And you should hire with your strengths in mind, because when you do end up delegating, guess who is going to take charge? That’s right: the people you hired.

Betting on strengths might be the most underrated strategy in modern business. I’m serious. We have an obsession with improvement. We spend time trying to correct weaknesses, when we could be just paying attention to the strengths. And I’m talking about a strictly business scenario, because weaknesses in personal and family life should be given attention and care. But in the office, at work, on your team: focus on the strengths.

Now, of course I know a lot of you feel differently. I respect all opinions, and I never want to imply that the way I work is for everyone. But I do hope you find some value in hearing all this.

So when the time does come to delegate, what do you do? How do you make it work?

The thing is, delegating is easy. The number one thing you need to learn to delegate well is this: recognize that 99.9% of things don’t mean shit.

If you can learn to let go and realize that most work is not that important, it becomes a hell of a lot easier to let someone else do it. Recognize that not every task requires your skill level and understanding; some tasks are perfectly doable by the multitude of bright, interesting people you hired. It’s all about humility.

Ego is the number one issue people can run into with delegation. Even though I have a ton of ego, I have a boatload more of humility than you think.

Hope you enjoyed reading this.