Delegation is far more complicated than people realize. It is often painted as the easy solution to accomplishing more and building teamwork. But this is a very incomplete picture.
Delegation almost never removes burdens from the project leader. Delegation often results in more time lost in instruction and oversight than doing it yourself. And this only takes place after you have already spent time searching for the right person to delegate to. Even then you may well start over more than once after realizing you have the wrong person.
Delegation requires some degree of oversight, but too much and too little both create different problems. The two areas of problem—too much oversight and too little oversight—may overlap meaning there is no workable amount of oversight, indicating you delegated to the wrong person,.
Too much oversight means that the person who is doing the work feels oppressed, untrusted, and superfluous. Too little oversight means that they will feel unprepared, worthless, and overburdened. A project leader may want to ignore feelings in favor of accomplishing task, but this also works contrary to God’s purposes for leadership.
Delegating a task often results in it being done differently or incompletely, so that it doesn’t accomplish its portion of the bigger project. If that part of the project is not something that can be repaired last minute, then the entire project may be compromised.
Delegating multiplies the points of necessary communication and therefore amplifies any and all communication problems. These problems will frustrate and test the delegator more than it tests the delegatees. The delegatees will also judge the project leader to be at fault even if they themselves simply were not listening. In these ways, miscommunications will bruise the entire organization.
But don’t think that I am saying you should not delegate. Instead I am stating that delegation should not be painted as an easy solution. Here are some reasons you should delegate.
Delegation will eventually increase the capability of a group. Just don’t expect this to happen too quickly.
Delegation is the primary way in which you build leaders, it is a form of mentoring. Taking people from participants, to workers, to leaders, is an important part of growing a church.
Delegation spreads out capability and therefore stabilizes a group. If only one person knows how to do something, what happens when that person moves on? Having others who understand the tasks being performed means the work doesn’t grind to a halt when change occurs.
Delegation improves communication. But like weightlifting the gains are only made if you can tolerate some soreness along the way.
When delegation is working right it will create strong teams. When delegation is working right it will greatly increase productivity.
And finally, when delegation is working smoothly, and a strong, capable team has been created, it is probably time to change things up and return to the chaos. (Bet you didn’t see that coming.) You simply cannot stand still in an ever-changing world. Stagnation will cause you to fall behind. Furthermore, since God is more interested in people than in tasks, He will likely move your capable team members on to greater challenges.
Charles W. Short 