Posted on 3 September 2014

I’m discovering that I’m not very good at delegation.

I’ve just started a new job. One with quite a few new tasks and responsibilities that I didn’t have in my old job. And yet I’ve found that I’m still holding onto the responsibilities from my old job- and the job I had before that, and before that.

This is not good.

I’m working too late, every day. At first, I chalked it up to settling into a new role, catching up on things that would soon become routine. But every day that the clock roles past quitting time and I find myself with a couple hours worth of things to do it’s further proof that I am attempting too much.

I know I’m not alone in this. I’ve had conversations with friends who find themselves in similar situations. And so I’m looking for ways to get better.

So far, I’ve found a couple of good ones (both via Shawn Blanc). The first is the “grid of focus, determination, and elimination:”

The grid of focus, delegation, and elimination: http://t.co/5F1QOYA3Bz
— Shawn Blanc (@shawnblanc) February 6, 2014

The second is this article by Randy Murry on creating a to-do list for others:

“Today’s tip is deceptively simple: review your to-do list and ask yourself, “Am I the right person to do this?”  If the answer is “no,” then you’ll need to ask the right person if they’re willing to do the job. It’s likely that you can trim your list and create lists for other people in your organization or family.”

Already I feel myself resisting the idea of giving some of my jobs to other people. Part of it is I worry they won’t know how to do it. Another, bigger part is I worry they won’t want to do it. And then I feel guilty.

But here’s the thing: there are jobs that I am doing now that I was doing when I was the part-time new guy. And a lot of those jobs seem trivial, but are essential to the running of the office. And the reason I’m qualified to run the office at all is because I know how to do all these tasks. So by not teaching and telling other people how to do these task, I’m preventing them from gaining the same skills and having the opportunity to move into this role. And I don’t want that.

So: I have to learn to delegate.

PS. If you have any tips, I’d love to hear them. Twitter: @akurjata, email andrew@kurjata.ca. I look forward to hearing from you.

Filed under: management, personal