Deal With Your Delegation Nightmares By Learning

“You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.” Exodus 18:18 NIV

I will always have deep respect for leaders that manage teams of volunteers. Delegating to volunteers can be a nightmare if you don’t have prior experience.

As someone who has led teams in business as well as church, there’s a big difference in how these teams are handled.

Earlier on, I never understood why the principles that applied to employees never really worked for volunteers. So I would try to delegate the same way, and receive a different reaction from volunteers. My resolution was simple: in business, delegate. In the church, do the work yourself. That was a recipe for disaster.

Not only did this wear me out, but the bitterness I felt was second to none. It took me a while to realise the peculiar differences in their motivations, needs and communication preferences.

Leadership isn’t for the faint-hearted and requires mentorship. Moses did all the work himself until Jethro saw that flaw in his process and showed him how to appoint and divide the work amongst other leaders. For someone who was supposed to be constantly connected to God, solving the problems of the people became his main job description. This is an example of investing major time in minor activities.

While I may now be better at the art of delegation, especially for teams whose activities aren’t tied to monthly remuneration, it’s still a steep learning curve for a workaholic like myself with a thirst for perfection.

Sometimes we’re comfortable doing everything ourselves. After all, it’s the only way to guarantee that the result will be exactly what we want. But I have discovered that it’s possible to get those same results from others. It can just take longer, require more patience and empathy, cause you to teach more often and lead you to acquire more knowledge. Let’s keep learning. No one knows it all.

And if you are experienced in managing both types of teams, show a struggling leader the way. We rise by lifting others.