What You Can Never Delegate

Delegation. It’s a word tossed around in organizational circles a lot. When we look at delegation, we are looking at who can help us do something. There is a difference between dumping and delegating. Dumping happens when you pass off something you simply don’t want to do to someone else—you probably know how it feels to be on the other end of that. Delegation is respectfully yielding, in trust, to someone who can do the job better than you.

We tend to glorify delegation as the key to successful organizations. While it’s healthy and needed, there are certain leadership responsibilities you simply cannot delegate. For instance, the senior pastor of a church can’t delegate vision-casting, or his/her own health. Right? He’s responsible for those things because of his role.

The list of what you can delegate is long. But you must make a list of those critical responsibilities that you can’t delegate. Take ownership of those things. Commit to seeing them through. Make that list right now: what is it that you can never delegate in your leadership role?